E Readers

Enterprise_1701C

I have had a Sony Ereader since about May last year. I have not paid for a book, neither do I intend to. I am a member of 4 elibraries and am also currently downloading the free Dr Who books. There is enough free books out there to last anyone a lifetime, and it is so much easier to hold an ereader in bed than a book, and to pop it in my bag on my way out of the house.

I still have paper books - you can't get signed versions of ebooks and I still collect signed books, and we have books in every room of the house, but the ereader replaces my trips to the library, and was a godsend in the snow as I no longer have to go to the library to return books.

kerri_gt

...my OH is close to telling me off for not taking to him - had my nose in my Kindle (so to speak) virtually since I got it. Just this week I was stuck at an airport - 2hrs there before take off time, 3hrs sat on the plane due to technical faults, 4hrs at a hotel due to the flight being cancelled, 2hrs back at the airport to get a diff flight, and a 8hr journey home (over 2 flights) If I'd had one book with me I'd have finished it in that time, and if I'd been reading on the laptop I had with me, the battery wouldn't have lasted. My Kindle didn't need charging, was much lighter than a book and I could download more if/when I needed to - although I already had some on there to read.

I get the point about paying for an electronic file, some eBooks are actually more expensive than the paperback by a small amount - but wasn't there a similar argument about MP3 files and CDs ....

MsHoarder

23n1th wrote: »

I use it all the time though its better by far that carrying a book about. I would recommend Calibre http://calibre-ebook.com/ over any other elibrary management software, its free open-source and converts practically anything. And if you're buying books there are plugins avaliable that will strip the DRM making your books yours!

@MsHoarder

You seem a little confused. Amazon can't delete your books, just the ones you've bought through them and only if you're kindle is connected to the internet and you haven't backed them up somewhere else ie with calibre. And its not tied to Amazon books, none of the 500 books I have are from Amazon.

They can delete books from your Kindle account, which will follow through when you next connect it up. And having your books backed up with Calibre is all very well if you have a spare ereader.

If using Calibre rather than the Amazon store, then you may as well use a more open ereader, rather than using one which is not standards compliant, as you're missing the advantage of downloading books straight from the device which is the whole point of a Kindle.

Edited to add that Calibre is a very good piece of software, and anyone reading this who has an ereader should try it out!

KiwiCrazy

I will give you some proper advice.

Dont just jump on the Kindle Band-Wagon, I would suggest you go for an Android Tablet. Why? because not only can you read ebooks, you can browse the web, watch videos, play games/apps and generally have a more user friendly device which can do more and is either the same price or a little higher.

If you want more info then feel free to PM me.

WhiteChristmas

23n1th wrote: »

I'm not paying nearly the same price or sometimes more for a 3-8mb file (which only requires formatting) as I would for an actual printed paperback, it ridiculous!

The cost of the physical book; the paper and ink; of a mass-market paperback is less than 50p per copy. All the other costs - proofreading, artwork, promotion etc apply equally to ebooks as to paperbacks THEN you've got the VAT slapped on top.

The publishing world is about to join the record industry in finding themselves all at sea with technology. If they don't sort out their strategy quickly (within the next 24 months at a maximum) then piracy will become more of a problem for them than it has for the record companies.

Dreamnine

KiwiCrazy wrote: »

I will give you some proper advice.

Dont just jump on the Kindle Band-Wagon, I would suggest you go for an Android Tablet. Why? because not only can you read ebooks, you can browse the web, watch videos, play games/apps and generally have a more user friendly device which can do more and is either the same price or a little higher.

If you want more info then feel free to PM me.

Why bother with a tablet?

Just get a cheap Orange SF and put the Kindle app and Aldiko on it.

fitshase

Just thought I would add - the Kindle is now being sold in Currys and PC World. You can try them out before buying along with the other ereaders on sale. Best thing is that you can get cashback through topcashback.co.uk on reserve and collect at those stores which makes it cheaper than buying from Amazon.

WhiteChristmas

You might find this of interest, 23;

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/05/cmap-9-ebooks.html

mr_fishbulb

Every Thursday Calibre downloads the free articles from the previous Saturday's print edition of The Economist. It converts them into a navigable mobi file and emails it to my Kindle. My Kindle syncs with the wireless and downloads it. Friday morning, I'm reading it on the tube.

All for free.

You can do this for any RSS feed.

Can't do that with a book.

BackOnTrack

I have a sony 650 and I think it is great. I don't have to lug books around with me anymore and it means I always have my technical books and software manuals with me. I prefer it to the kindle purely because I can use any book format that kindle uses, I just remove the DRM from the titles I buy from amazon, and other formats uch as epub as well. My ebook reader is my favourite purchase from the last few years.