The Navy is issuing five Navy e-Reader Devices, or NeRDs, each preloaded with 300 books to each of the submarines in the fleet, and if all goes well plans to send NeRDs to all Navy vessels. The e-Readers are pretty basic. They have no wi-fi connectivity and no ports or card readers. They will be loaded with current best-sellers and public domain classics as well as titles from the Navy reading list and professional development texts.
As reported by CNN: “I know the paperbacks (on Navy ships) get passed back and forth until they fall apart,” said Nilya Carrato, program assistant for the Navy General Library Program. “We’re hoping the NeRD holds up a little better.”
Each NeRD will offer a mix of fiction, nonfiction, best-sellers, classics and historical books selected by the Navy. Popular titles will include the “Game of Thrones” series, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “Ender’s Game,” “The Lord of the Rings,” Stephen King’s “The Stand” and “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.”
More literary-minded sailors will be able to read digital versions of classics by Shakespeare, Jane Austen, James Joyce, Walt Whitman and even Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whose “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” would make a fitting read.
Contrary to some news reports, Carrato said the devices won’t contain any Tom Clancy novels, however. So if sailors want their “Hunt for Red October” fix, they’ll have to watch the movie adaptation on DVD.
The e-readers were developed for the Navy through a partnership with Findaway World, which provides digital devices and audiobook technology to the Pentagon. Publishing partners for the NeRD include Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette and Random House.
As one of the guys who used to read those paperbacks (and hardcovers) to shreds, this sounds like an outstanding idea for shipboard. I recall when Tom Clancy’s “Red Storm Rising” came out, and my hardback copy is still around here someplace with rubberbands holding what’s left of the cover together. I think half of the Air Department of USS Eisenhower left their fingerprints all over the pages…I think that’s why I keep it….
Good news this, anything to help MWR onboard ship is welcome, and as a former avid rack reader I’d be willing to give one of these a try.
I suppose if a sailor doesn’t want to be told what he/she should read they can bring their own reading material with them.
I have just published my book Steady as She Goes in Kindle on Amazon. I would like to know if I could have any information on who to approach to have this EBook included on the new U.S.Navy NeRd.
Thank you John Molloy
One wonders if the ship’s systems IOM’s are going to be on the computer, if they aren’t already
A selection of Joseph Conrad~”The Mirror of the sea”.”Chance”.”The Rescue” & others.