As it turns out, eBook readers aren’t big fans of wringers, bags, pockets or buses.

Before I delve into my tale, I’d like to preface it with a couple of caveats. The first is that the eBook reader I chose was a production sample of a Cool-er. This means that my experiences were fairly specific to the device I was using. The second caveat has to do with the testing grounds. I took it backpacking with me around Cuba, which is hardly common usage. Given that I barely survived the trip – think caves, climbs, storms, humidity and blood – I’m not particularly surprised the Cool-er didn’t. Erm… I’ve rather given away the ending there.

To be fair, it all started fine. I’d begun using the eBook reader in earnest about a week before I flew out and it had become a standard part of my daily commute from work. It was slipped in the coat pocket that normally held my paperback, and was causing me absolutely no distress whatsoever – except when children on the bus started laughing at me because it was neon pink.

Reading was fine, the battery was fine, and not having to cart a paperback version of War and Peace around with me was a daily blessing. As the day of my holiday approached I was brimming with so much confidence that even used-car salesmen thought I was a bit smug. I’d loaded a dozen books onto the Cool-er in anticipation of a miserable long-haul flight and left it charging for a day – given that these things promise 8,000 page turns I wasn’t too worried about having to do it again.

It took about five hours for things to go wrong. Twenty minutes into my connecting flight from London to Paris I turned on my eBook reader and it crashed. I hit the reset button and … nothing.  This was not good news, especially given my three-hour layover in the airport. After prying the back off, I disconnected and reconnected the battery – cue nervous glances from flight attendants – and managed to spur it back into life.

It survived the rigours of my daypack for another few days, picking up scuffs and stains, but not falling into the ten million pieces I’d expected. Then one day, it just stopped. There wasn’t any direct cause that I could see – I wasn’t caught in a thunderstorm or hit by a lorry driven by Castro. I tried my battery trick, I took it to a church and had it exorcised but the poor thing was dead and all my tears couldn’t bring it back.

Thankfully, I had a paperbackup. It wasn’t War and Peace, which I’m about halfway through and not enjoying, but it did tide me over. My feelings on this experiment are mixed. I enjoyed my experience with my eBook reader, but have never been so infuriated with a gadget in my entire life.

I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt, though. I’m still convinced eBook readers are the future, we’ll just have to wait a little longer for it.

I know some people are sceptical about this technology, but while I love paperbacks, eBook readers perfectly suit my reading habits. Just to establish those habits, I read two-to-three books a week and probably buy six or seven every fortnight. About half of those books I’ll give away, lose, or destroy while the other half slowly take over whatever house I happen to be living in. The ability to stick 850 books on a device smaller than a single paperback means that when I finally do buy a house I won’t need to worry about hiring the Royal Navy to ship my entire library for me.

An unfortunate consequence of reviewing something is that you don’t spend a lot of time with it. We have deadlines, other commitments and looming production staff. I’ve decided to rectify that and put an eBook reader through the wringer. Accompanying me on this journey will be the Cool-er which I’ve recently finished reviewing. Basically, we’re going to best buddies for the next month. It’s going to be flung in my bag, dropped in my pocket and keeping me company on the bus. Wherever my paperback normally goes, the Cool-er will follow.

And believe me, we’re going to be spending a lot of time together, because the book I’ll be reading is War and Peace, all 560,000 words of it. I’ve enjoyed reading shorter books on eBook readers, but it’s time to see if that E Ink screen holds up to really extended sessions. I’ll be recording the ups and downs as I go along, but hopefully in a month’s time I’ll be able to report back whether an eBook reader really can replace a trusty paperback.

If there’s anything you particularly want to know about any of these models feel free to give me a yell.