OT Talk to me of Ebook readers

I feel dirty, ashamed and as though I've been unfaithful to books.
I've been playing with a friend's Kindle and I want one.

I know a couple of UKRMers have got Ereaders - which ones and what do
you think of them?

I could take loads of stuff away on holiday with an ebook. I could
shove the journal articles I've downloaded onto it and work on them,
marking relevant sections with the note feature. I can get a 2 week
trial subscription to the newspaper of the city I'm in and subscribe
to magazines on it. It's not really the new book side of it that
appeals, but all the old out of copyright stuff I could fill it with.

My understanding is Kindle is the best one as you can read it in
bright light. Playing with the one earlier it seems easy to link to
amazon for shopping - what happens with other readers? Is there a
market for cracked ebooks yet? Any other questions I haven't thought
of?

As a salve to my conscience I've registered for this

http://www.campaignforrealbooks.org/

 

Sony PRS-300 IIRC.

I totally and utterly *LOVE* it.

I *thought* that I'd still want books in real form, but SMWBO bought me
some for my birthday, and I find them really annoying. Not least as I am
trying to read a fat paperback in bed, and it's just not bloody comfortable.

I've got used to the electronics now.

Not on a Sony, but I never really need to annotate, so specifically went
for a smaller device sans keyboard.

An e-ink screen does that.

Indeed. The new version is much praised for making it easy to spend your
money
- what happens with other readers?

Sony provide an application (which is pretty poor) which links to a
number of on line stores.

Not so much cracked, but there are loads and loads available either
cheap on CD or on torrent. Mostly they seem to be scanned and run
through OCR software. Some might are a bit difficult to read, but mostly
it's fine.

Check that the documents you want to read re-flow properly when you
re-size text, and also that you *can* re-size text. The reflow is mostly
a minor irritation. In-ability to resize makes it impossible. It's only
happened with a few of my cracked books, though.

<snipped cos I learned well>


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#2 bought one for her birthday it does look good & as I am currently
packing to go away also useful.

#1 has a.n other than the kindle for reasons of maximum compatibility
with other formats. I don't know if this is strictly true or not
having not done the research my self. I see my local libraries are now
doing electronic downloads again not sure which formats. Chap at work
has commented that stripping the DRM is trivial if a bit fiddly, ie
takes a couple of steps.

 

iPad.

One of the most astonishingly good gadgets money can buy.

 

Not that great as a reader IMNSHO.

Does shed loads of other stuff much better though.

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Catman escribió:

I was thinking of getting something. I've been reading over the last few
days a ebook on a laptop, but every time I go back to it, I have to try and
find where I'd got to. Is there a bookmark on the proper things?

 

My software of choice on OS X.

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Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
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We each have a Sony PRS-505 and wouldn't want to be without them. Easy
to read and use and the size is a good compromise between 'big enough
to read' and 'small enough to stuff in the panniers'.

We first got an eReader when we went for a wander round Europe in 2008
as we are both avid readers and there's not enough space in the
panniers to take enough books. They were Irex Iliads which were
supposed to be the Rolls Royce of eReaders at the time. Battery life,
legibility in sunlight and support were all poor but they did enable
us to read lots of books while we were on the road so they fulfilled
their purpose.

Not long after coming back we sold them on eBay (their reputation
being such that we didn't lose much on the sale) and replaced them
with the Sonys which we believe are much better - smaller but still
very usable, legible in sunlight, charges from USB rather than having
to carry a separate charger; we've had no cause to try the support.

The 505 is quite an old model now and, from the reviews I've read, the
penultimate model Sony released had a few issues which have been
resolved in the latest models.

I don't know a lot about the Kindle but from earlier reading they are
somewhat limited in the formats they can use and there's no way to get
your book collection back on to the PC for back-up (that may be
complete nonsense but worth checking). OTOH it's very easy to purchase
and download new books.

There is a vast amount of books out there which are legitimately free.
There are others which are pirated, some of which are reasonable
quality, others are poor.

Unfortunately I like reading motorcycle travel books and they're not
being released in eBook format at the moment so I'm currently using
paper but I'd prefer to have them on the reader as it's just so much
easier to use and cart around than a load of books.

I use Caliber (http://calibre-ebook.com/) for book management which is
donate-ware. I think it's excellent.

Kevin

 

Yes if you are reading a proper e-book.
Not so much if you are reading a pdf copy that you downloaded via bittorrent

 

Me too. Sign up to www.andotherstories.org to make yourself feel better.

Not bad for a one trick pony.

What he said. The screen isn't e-ink, but I've now read several books
(fiction and non) in varying conditions and, well, like you, feel
dirty. The iBooks app now copes with .odfs as well as .epubs so you can
get just about any content you want into it. Failing that, both Stanza
and Kindle (yes, Kindle) have apps for it, so you have their technology
too.

The bonus is, of course, that it does a whole heap of other stuff as well.

 

I have the Kindle app on my phone and on the laptop (Santa's bringing a
couple but they're not opened yet). What I really like is that it
synchronises your bookmarks between devices, so you can read a bit on
your laptop and be at the same spot on the phone and vice versa.

 

Erm, I find that it very much not the case.

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Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

That *is* a clever idea. Might even sway me. OTOH I don't read on my
laptop, so....

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Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
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Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

I have a Kindle 2 that I got for Xmas last year.

After a shaky start, I now dont use anything else.

--
Gavin.

Moto Guzzi California Aquila Nera
Suzuki GSXR600K1
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gavin_wilby
Blog: http://www.eekafreek.com

 

Too big and heavy to use as a reader when compared to a Kindle IMO. And
I write as someone with one currently holding one.

I'll be getting a Kindle purely for reading.

 

Get one with a colour screen.

 

[iPad]

you certainly do.

 

Yes I spotted that as soon as I hit "send".

 

I had the same feelings, and considered the financial side of things. Many
of the books I read aren't in ebook format. Those that are invariably
cost more than than the paperback version. You can't[1] buy them second
hand, nor can you sell them on. I buy and sell a lot of books, or if
they're not worth selling, I'll give them to the local library. Which I
also use to take out the odd small book.

I'd rather spend the £100 on something else.


[1] Not that I know of.

 

TBC has grassed me up to our favourite book shop so now I'm feeling
really guilty. Maybe I'll wait until someone asks what I want for the
midwinter festival of shopping to save the economy.

Not sure if mine are - I read so widely and love the unexpected
discovery in libraries, bookshops or charity shops.

I don't think I'd get new titles in kindle form, I'd rather have the
book but there are lots of old ones I'd fill it with.

I was looking at the price of the new Iain M Banks and also the
Stephen Fry autobiography and was surprised. I'd want a thing I could
hold for that.

I buy a lot and keep them, despite running out of room. Every time I
try and do a charity shop run I'll take one or two and come back with
three or four [1]

Still have my library card, haven't been for ages.

More books! Local charity shop has just put the price up from 50p a
book to 75p - I was scandalised.

Can you share ebooks, like loaning a friend something you've enjoyed?
I have books from at least 4 UKRMers on my 'borrowed' shelf atm and
know that I have books out there.

[1] This week, took a duplicate Tony Parsons, came back with

Diana Athill Somewhere Towards The End

Time of death (history/anecdotes of forensic pathology, picked up
because it has some Anciet Greek stuff in it)

Roger Penrose Shadows of the mind - conciousness studies, 1994, have a
feeling I've read it already, plus it will be out of date.

Philip Reeve Mortal engines - because I'm sure someone on here
mentioned it but it appears to be a children's book, however unlike
some I've got no problem with that, as long as the story is good I
don't care.

I'm working my way through all the M Banks Culture novels atm so it
will be a while until I get to that lot, they've gone on the 'to be
read' bookcase - when I sorted the library all the to be read piles
combined filled a six foot bookcase.

I love books, a kindle isn't the same but may be a useful addition.