eBook Readers
Do many of you have an e-book reader? (eg. Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Sony PRS) iPad/iPod/iPhone only counts if you intend on reading books with it.
What are your thoughts about these devices or what impact it might mean for paper books? What has your experience been with them? Do you have any gripes with things you wish they would change/improve?
I know we've had random or off-topic discussions about e-books and readers, but I thought I'd start an official thread about it.
What are your thoughts about these devices or what impact it might mean for paper books? What has your experience been with them? Do you have any gripes with things you wish they would change/improve?
I know we've had random or off-topic discussions about e-books and readers, but I thought I'd start an official thread about it.
Sign in to comment in this discussion.
Comments
True. Nothing beats paper books. I still prefer them.
I think what I'd really like is the ability to have a virtual bookshelf. Each book showing only the spine and if I select one it would show the cover or open it, depending on what I select. Going through lists isn't that effective.
My second choice would be being able to have folders on top of the sorting by author/title, etc. Also, when sorting by author, I'd like to only have the author's name and the number of books, not have to go through all of them before I can see who the next author is.
Also, the ability to add more than one author.
About paper books... I think they're nice and a different feeling and I don't see them disappearing. However borrowing library books using my reader has been really nice, I can do it from home, don't have to worry about damaging it or returning it (it just expires), and so on.
Otherwise, I only use it for free domain stuff and I set them myself. If I don't there is always something "wrong" with them. That's why I don't buy any ebooks, I don't think they're of high quality enough at this stage, and we're not allowed to modify them to fix the mistakes, so that's a bit annoying.
Oh, and I would like a reader that's two pages. It's not super high on my list of priorities, but it would be nice, as double pages are important in sequential art, and I also use my reader for webcomics. And to clarify, I mean one that would actually open, like the DS for instance, not a big screen showing two pages at once, which would be much bigger as a result. I do want it to stay small enough to carry around.
I also think, this time from a writer's point of view, that they're good for authors. Kinda like the Internet allows for webcomics from people who wouldn't have been able to publish traditionally. Still, that's not really blooming. I guess people are more likely to start reading a comic to give it a try than a novel or short story.
You can do things like mark pages with old movie tickets and stuff. Tis fun!
Did you just say "'tis"? I think... I think I love you.
I know there are bookmarks, tables of contents and depending on the reader, the ability to search for keywords, so it probably sounds redundant... But I use that function all the time with word processors and I miss it on my reader.
To say more about Amazon's Kindle support than the Kindle itself, I might tell a little story. The weekend before last, our Kindle started making a small popping noise when I pressed on it in a certain spot. It didn't affect the performance of the Kindle, but nonetheless, it was bothering me. After a few days, I called Amazon's Kindle support line to ask them how much it would cost in shipping to get it replaced/fixed. After explaining what it was doing, I demonstrated the popping sound to the guy on the phone. He told me they would overnight another Kindle 2 to us, and to send the original one back in the replacement's box with the included return label.
Okay, sure it was under warranty, but they really did overnight us a new Kindle 2 and it cost us nothing at all. I was quite impressed.
Side note: I pretty much always read several books at once. I don't know why. I usually need a break every so often to "process" things, I guess, and so I stop reading that specific book (fiction or not). But reading another one isn't a problem at all. Before, I ended up with lots of books around my bed, and sometimes I'd lose my pages and stuff.
Now, I don't even need to put a bookmark (although I can put several if I want) each book will remember where I was last. And I can read ten at once, potentially, without it taking any more room. It's much more practical.
If I leave an eReader on the bus I've lost £200+
Not that I'd be that careless mind.
Anyway, my partner works in a bookshop, so I'd rather old-fashioned paper books kept on selling!
Some bookshops sell ebooks too! You can even read samples if you bring your reader along.
Yeah they do sell the Sony eReader, much to her disappointment.
Indeed, I did. And the best bit is, I say "tis" in real life too!:D
My biggest gripe though is not being able to read on the plane during take-off and landing. I assure you FAA, my book is not going to cause your plane to crash! No really!
I like highlighting phrases in books - is that weird?
According to barnesandnoble.com, the Nook is $149 with Wi-Fi only, and $199 with 3G + Wi-Fi
Borders.com says the Sony Reader is $179 for the Sony Reader Pocket and $199 for the Sony Reader Touch.
They all seem to include free shipping.
An e-book reader is no more difficult to read in low light than a standard book. The Kindle and the Nook do not have a backlight, but you can easily enough buy a regular book light for it. The Sony Reader does have a backlight, but I've read that extensive reading using it can cause eyestrain.
I recommend the Kindle. I can personally confirm that the contrast of the text is excellent, the battery lasts for ages (with Whispernet turned off when yur not using it), and have been told by more than one source that Amazon's e-book library is the largest.
Also this:
Hmmm. That gives me an idea for Sam and Max themed kindle accessory...or maybe Monkey Island... What are the dimensions of a kindle?
Also, for any e-book reader owners that care, if you want to personalize your e-book reader or give it that slight amount more of protection from getting scratches on the case (or any other electronic device it seems,) I highly recommend visiting DecalGirl.com for skins. E-book reader skins there are categorized by device under Other Devices. Getting a matte finish costs $5 more than glossy, but if you use the coupon code "gomatte", they waive the upgrade expense.
It doesn't have a backlight... or do the new models have that? I specifically got a 505 second hand because I wanted one that wasn't touch screen and that could read SD cards, and the new models lack one option or the other.
Some have a light inside the cover (sold separately), some had lights along the border of the screen, but still not backlit since it's closer to you than the screen.
I just use my headlamp.
The reason e-readers are comfortable to read is that they're not backlit like a computer. With the e-ink it really feels the same as reading a book. So yeah, you need a source of light. On the other hand you can read it in bright sun, which you can't do easily with backlit screens.
Alcoremortis, wow, I had never met someone who actually uses bookmarks before
Oh, and the screen on the Kindle is the exact same screen used on the Kindle. Same company and size and all. You can check out the screens in Barnes & Noble stores and Best Buys. You can check out Kindles in Target stores(or will be able to soon, I haven't seen them yet).
But yeah, both devices are extremely solid and are pretty much equal.
Being able to read whilst in low light/the dark, where i can't read normally is a key selling point for me. Does the frontlit screen help in this respect? I mean, the GBA SP was frontlit (i think) and i can play that in the dark.
I don't mind about eyestrain: I only really read for a couple of hours at a time. I just want a decent battery life (at least a days reading, prefferably more), and a lit screen. And Touchscreen would be nice. And storage for around 100+ books.
Also, whereabouts do you get e-books? Can they be bought from Amazon? Or do i have to go to bookstore sites?
100+ books is insanely easy. The nook has 2GB of internal storage, and that amounts to 1,500 books. And that's expandable with a miniSD.
eBook readers generally aren't backlit. They use e-ink screens, which look a lot more like ink on a page than regular screens do. Experiments with touch and backlit e-ink screens have been...less than successful.
A "frontlit" screen means essentially using a booklight. Some Sony readers have a booklight built in, others have lights you can buy, and the dimensions of ebook readers are generally receptive to normal booklights made for real books.
There are a lot of stores for ebooks, but the biggest ones(I think) are Google(for public domain stuff, soon paid ebooks), Amazon(only on Kindle), B&N Nook, and Fictionwise, as well as a lot of public domain stuff on Project Gutenberg.
I think the closest to what you're asking for is the upcoming Novel. I wouldn't buy one personally, and I don't know how the battery is going to be on it, but it seems closest to what you're asking for(unless you want an iPad).
http://www.pandigital.net/pandigitalnovel
They're about 10-12 ounces. generally.
I don't understand people having issues with file type support. Calibre converts ebook formats easily which I would think ought to make the problem moot.
Also, although Kindle does natively support PDF now, PDF sucks for ebook readers in general because it's designed specifically to display text and images on a page exactly how it would appear when printed on paper. ebook readers have the capacity for changing font size, which means fewer word per page. PDF is inherently not made for this. I read the conversion help files for Calibre, and it says that .pdf is the hardest format to convert because of the way it handles code for paragraphs and stuff.
Side note: if you want to read in the bath or on the beach or something where a book (and a piece of electronics) could get damaged (due to water, dirt, sand, etc), you can easily put the reader in a ziplock and use it through it. They even sell some special bags for reading underwater. I never read in the bath so I don't really care about it, but it does mean that an e-reader is potentially more waterproof/water resistant than a paper book.
For finding ebooks, Amazon typically only sells the Kindle format, other stores tend to sell epub which is read by pretty much everything that isn't Kindle. (I strongly dislike epub though due to its lack of justification).
I personally got most of my books from this website for anything French (they have a good selection of formats and add more books regularly), and Gutenberg for the English ones.
I also type up some from the paper version I own, but that's just me being crazy.
EDIT: I haven't tried the Sony one that had a built-in front light, but from what I hear it wasn't that great. Getting a reading lamp of a cover with a lamp seem better. I'd go for the reading lamp though because you can also use it for paper books.
I might do that. I think i need to try various readers out before i commit to anything. Anyway, thanks for the info everyone, it's been very helpful! I know whats out there now.
You still haven't. I usually put the bookmark in a book that I've already read just for decoration and then use a scrap of paper with the book's name on it to actually mark the pages. I do have friends who use bookmarks regularly, though, and so I give them all the ones that I make.
Haha ok. Well then you can still put one in your reader, between the cover and the reader... Depending on which kind you have.
Wouldn't be able to do that for every book though, that's true.
Plus, it's much more expensive than a book. In my case, it was cheaper considering the amount of free books I got at the same time, but considering ebooks are at this time mostly more expensive than pocket books (the version they "replace" for me, as the ones I would have cared enough to buy in hardcover, I'll still want to buy them as a physical copy, not an ebook), it doesn't really pay for itself much.
And even for those that are slightly cheaper, it's by what, one dollar? You'd need to buy 200 before that pays for your device, and that could very well take a year or two.
So... Yeah, in a lot of cases you can't really justify getting one I guess. As far as I'm concerned, what really decided me was having to leave my books behind when I left France. If they had been digital versions that wouldn't have happened.