First Look: TreeBookMan Reading Device

By Citizen 555-N975B (aka J. Knight)

When I first received word of the new TreeBookMan on my trusty old WristReader2050, it sounded too good to be true. Here was a reading device that cost a mere $29.95, required no batteries and sported the biggest display screen to date, a whopping 400x600 standard pixels! Naturally, I ordered one.

Delivery was slow, taking nearly an hour to reach me from across country, during which time my anticipation grew almost uncontrollably.

I opened the box eagerly, withdrew the TreeBookMan and searched among the packing peanuts for the accessories. At first I thought there had been a packing error since I could find nothing more in the box except a thin piece of plastic approximately 75x225 standard pixels in size. I later learned that this was the only accessory that ships with the basic model TreeBookMan. I will describe its function shortly.

The TreeBookMan weighs about a pound. I say "about" because the weight varies from model to model. (More on this later, also.) The resolution of the display screens is razor sharp. In fact, so are the edges. If you slide one of these things under a fingernail, expect excruciating pain and copious bleeding.

BTW, that's right, I said "display screens," plural. The TreeBookMan sports not just one but literally hundreds of displays! Again, the exact number varies from model to model. Mine came with 368 individual displays.

Why so many? Here's the kicker and the reason for the TreeBookMan's low cost: The displays are non-changeable! Yes, incredible as it sounds, the displays on the TreeBookMan never, ever change. The words on each display are there for good. To read the book, you progress in a linear fashion from the first display through to the last.

What happens if you have to interrupt your reading session? That's where the 75x225 pixel piece of plastic comes in. You slip it between the last display you read and the next one to mark your place in the TreeBookMan! Here's a tip: I lost my plastic strip and ended up folding down the corner of the display I wanted to mark.

The non-changing display has other drawbacks. Older readers will be disappointed to learn that the font size of any particular TreeBookMan is fixed. It is what it is. If you want a larger virtual size, you need to use a magnifying device, adjusting your sight to the text rather than adjusting the text to your sight as with a normal reading device.

There is no "search" function in a TreeBookMan. To search the TreeBookMan you have to manually flip through the displays, scanning the text visually looking for the text string you want. An "index" in the back display screens helps by listing words and their display screen numbers, but it's still a tedious, manual operation.

To annotate a passage in a TreeBookMan, you need a special stylus capable of depositing graphite on the display screen. If you want to highlight a passage, you can underline it with this stylus or purchase another stylus with a broad felt tip that delivers a layer of transparent colored ink. Warning: Once you mark a display screen with either of these devices, the marking is there forever! It cannot be cleanly deleted! (I found the "erasing" device on the end of the graphite stylus to be woefully inadequate.)

What if you encounter an unknown word? TreeBookMan offers no "look-up" function. You must purchase another TreeBookMan which lists a large number of words and their definitions and locate the word manually. If you want a synonym, a third TreeBookMan is required.

So now you're carrying six items: the initial TreeBookMan, two styli, a magnifier, a dictionary TreeBookMan and a thesaurus TreeBookMan. But it gets worse, and here's the most important drawback to the non-changing screens: For every book you want to read, you need a totally separate TreeBookMan!

You can well imagine the weight of carrying around, say, a normal semester's worth of college textbooks! If you want to collect a large number of books, you will need hundreds of feet of shelf space, a separate room or plenty of boxes and a storage locker. (Good luck finding the TreeBookMan you want once you start packing them up!)

Oh, and you'll want to carry a table lamp, too. The TreeBookMan has no built-in lighting, a feature that would have required batteries or an external power source. Thus, you can only read the TreeBookMan outdoors during the day, indoors near a window or under a separate lighting source. Do not plan to read in bed without disturbing your spouse!

An attachable TreeBookLight is available for the TreeBookMan, but I found it awkward to use and, of course, it required batteries or another power source, obviating the TreeBookMan's non-powered "advantage."

By the time I had thoroughly evaluated the TreeBookMan, I understood why it cost so little, given its lack of functionality. And your savings disappear with every book you purchase. A small library of only a hundred titles would cost $2995 as separate TreeBookMen!

I also have to question the TreeBookMan environmentally. The display screens are made of a material derived from trees (hence, the name). As there are only forty or fifty trees left in the world, this use of them strikes me as a little insane. I know that they serve no purpose but they are kind of nice to look at. Besides, they can't last forever, and then what will the company do?

They claim to have anticipated this latter problem with their next-generation device, the SoylentBookMan, which I will review when it is released.

Product Rating: * for novelty (out of *****)

Citizen 555-N975B is a direct descendent of J. Knight, an obscure fiction writer of the early 21st century. Remnants of his only surviving work, a thriller titled Risen, can be found on the website www.atombrain.com.

(c) 2001 Jan Strnad


About J. Knight
J. Knight is the author of the e-chiller Risen, published by AOL Time Warner Book Group. Risen may be sampled on Knight's website at www.atombrain.com.