1
Who the heck reads shit off of a screen?

2 A Kindle is great for traveling, even if it doesn't do maps well. However, I also do a ton of reading on my IPhone using the Kindle app as well - the screen is clear, and since I always have the phone, I can read when I have five minutes free. The instant gratification thing is great too - I read about an interesting book, and I can have it in a minute or two...

3
I like the convenience of having my own personal database (e-library) but I need to actually read the words on paper.



Or...maybe I'm just a shill for Big Toner?

4 Soothsayer, that's what I thought, too - my daughter was getting a Kindle for Christmas last year, and I hadn't even thought that I might like one until I looked at them at BestBuy. I read mine all the time now - I don't find the books any more expensive than the average paperback (of course, I usually read books that have been in print for a while), and I really enjoy not having to keep track of several books at once.

5

Most of these devices allow you to buy books on the spot, from whereever you happen to be, either via 3G or wi-fi connection, and have the book delivered immediately to your device.

That has been the most fun part of the experiennce for me. Local bookstores and the library just don't always have what I want, when I want it.

Other printed matter is available. It's not just books -- e-readers offer subscriptions to magazines, newspapers, blogs, and other kinds of reading material. It's a convenient way to keep up with your "reading life" all in one spot.

I've got a couple games and I bought a periodic table app that actually has decent linking from a list of elements to a page about each one.

6 One thing the Apple iPad does better than any other reader out there: comic books. Marvel's iPad app is very cool, and DC's is almost as good. If you like to read comics, the iPad is the way to go.

7 I love the dictionary feature on my Kindle3. It's wonderful to have instant access to an unfamiliar word without pulling out a dictionary. Also love the ability to share(tweet or facebook) little bits of text while I am reading. I actually do have a few cookbooks on my reader, and, once you get used to the format, they're mighty handy to have on the run, for a quick pop-in to the grocery.

8 Also love the Scrabble game from Kindle. Very addictive, if you are a scrabble buff. I believe they have it on sale currently for .99, along with a few other games.

9

Local bookstores and the library just don't always have what I want, when I want it.

And, I meant to say, going to those places means getting 3 kids out the door and driving at least 15 minutes away. And the bookstores are full of over-priced toys, which annnoys me greatly.

10 Biggest advantage for me is the ability to instantly download books from my local library for 21 days. Read first, buy later if I want to keep it forever. Plus, I can lend and borrow instantly over long distances to other friends and family who own a Nook (4 of us now). Love, love, love this gadget.

11 I'm not sure I'd agree that e-readers are software programs and network services first.  This might be most accurately said about the Kindle, where you buy a book on the Amazon service and then you can read that book anywhere you are running the Amazon software.

But I tend to think of my Sony Reader more as a piece of hardware.  Because I buy ebooks from many different services - not just from Sony's store - but they all end up being read on my Sony Reader.  I think I could read all of the same books on the Nook (using literally, the same files), but I bought a Sony Reader because I liked the Sony hardware.

12 I love the dictionary feature on my Kindle3. It's wonderful to have instant access to an unfamiliar word without pulling out a dictionary. Also love the ability to share(tweet or facebook) little bits of text while I am reading. I actually do have a few cookbooks on my reader, and, once you get used to the format, they're mighty handy to have on the run, for a quick pop-in to the grocery.

Posted by: Lizbth at March 20, 2011 10:37 AM (JZBti)

Hmm. Hadn't even thought of that...

13 My wife wanted one for Christmas and I had been leaning towards the B&N Nook because we have done a lot of business with them.

But I went out on the 'nets and read all the reviews and tests from different sources and the consensus was that the Kindle-3 was the best.  That is what I got my wife.

She has been very happy with it.

And what am I reading today? Still on Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series. Too much time keeping up with the Japan nuke DISASTER and updating.

14

i have a nook so its really the only one that i know much about.

i like it, no complaints.........

15 Anyone want to guess what is Obama's choice of e-reader?

16 'You know what I like to do?  Read books about EVOLUTION!eleventy!11!! on an e-Reader!

 

Morning morons. 

17 I bought a Kindle about a month and a half ago, and I consider it to be one of the most useful items I've ever owned. 

Believe me, I fought and fought against it ever since Amazon seemed to be pushing it down my throat for months on end.  My response was, "I like to read books.  If I want a book, I'll buy the damn book!"  I never saw the utility of an e-reader.

But then my niece got one for Christmas and I started playing with it, and thought "hey, this is pretty cool", so in early February, I coughed up the $180 for the one with the wi-fi included. 

And damn, do I ever read a lot more books  nowadays.   First of all, there are tons of out-of-copyright freebies out there, but the 99-centers are the ones I've been filling up on lately.   

I've found that I'll still buy hard-bound traditional books, especially if they are heavy on pictures and/or graphics.  (I have tons of sailing, history, and poker books on the shelves at Casa de Mikey), but for paperback fiction and general biography-type stuff, the Kindle can't be beat. 

On the other hand, books by my favorite authors can sometimes be not-so-cheap, ranging from 6.99 to 12.99, especially for some paperbacks.  (I'm lookin' at YOU, Deutermann!).  And with a few of the impulse-buy cheapies, you'll discover that a lot of stuff ain't even worth a buck.

Overall, I love it, and I use it ALL the time.  I take it everywhere I go, and now I still find time to read 2-3 books a week, even working full-time.

18

Biggest advantage for me is the ability to instantly download books from my local library for 21 days.

My library doesn't speak Kindle, but I can read what they have on the computer.

19 For those of you checking out books from libraries - we do that too with our Sony Reader.  And once, when we had a book checked out, we needed to replace the battery in our Reader, with the result that the date got reset.  We then found that we had thousands of days until the book "got returned" = stopped working.  Is it really that easy?  Apparently, yes, at least right now.

20 I have an iPad that I use as an e-reader, and I love it. In addition to the iBooks app, I also use the Kindle and Nook apps for downloading and reading books. Two gripes - Barnes & Noble wasn't prepared for the online traffic it experienced when Nooks were the popular Christmas present, so downloading books was a nightmare in the beginning. The folks in charge of their web services should have been put against a wall and shot for not planning for the spike in web traffic. Second gripe - iBooks is a ripoff. The service is seamless, but they charge more than Amazon and B&N. If you have an iPad and want to use it as a reader, download the Kindle and B&N apps and do some shopping. You'll save money by avoiding iBooks.

21 Another pro is the ability to download samples of books to your e-reader.  In seconds I can have samples of works mentioned here available to peruse on my Kindle, it's very easy now to discover new interesting writers.

22 Monty,

Since we're all boned in the end (see what I did there?), I'd think survival-related books would stay on paper, with a Kindle useful for entertainment before we enter the wasteland. True?

Also, since I'm an ignorant old guy, does this connect to the cloud through your ISP? Is there a separate bill to pay each month for access, like a cell phone data charge?

Inquiring minds want to know ...

23 I love my kindles.  Love love love them.  Yes, I have two, the smaller one and the larger one.  The larger one was a gift that then can back to me via testamentary distribution.  The smaller one fits perfectly in my bag and the larger one is great for in bed.  Also the larger one is fantastic for the games that are being developed.  I especially like mah jong.

The drawbacks are as Monty noted and I would add that browsing online just isn't the same as going into a bookstore and wandering around.  It's just not. 

As far as which to get, I compare it to computers and cell phones.  Go to a store, play with them and pick the one you like.  Then stop looking at the prices before you notice that what you just bought is now half the price. 

24 Many  public libraries now allow downloading of books to a reader.  Just make sure you check with your local library because they don't support all formats.

25 In considering what I might want to have in a reader, I've come to the conclusion that I want it as open-source as possible, I'd only carry it if it could replace other devices (MP3 player, primarily), I'm not too fond of the whole 'connectivity' issue if it's automated and out of my hands ('revoke' a book I paid for, my ass), the 'cloud' business is just a little to hive-mind for me, and I'm not interested in an Apple product (again, I resist the Borg).

So, basically I'm waiting for a non-Apple tablet computer, preferably as open-source friendly as possible.  Since I'm not zinged with most of the options/prices yet, I don't think I'll be buying soon.

26

I need some book recommendations. My 10 year son is bored with what we have. Has stopped reading H. Potter and Rick Riordan because he doesn't want gory stuff before bed. Looking for funny, silly stuff...like Captain Underpants...

(He was reading one of the Warrior Cat books on my Kindle last night!)

I read another Brad Thor book. I'm going to run out soon. I was thinking about how comfortable I feel in his books and then I read the acknowledgements in the back and I laughed at his thanks to Robert Spencer and Dr. Rusty Shackleford.

27 One con not mentioned here - with ebooks you can't walk into someone's library and see what kind of books they read, and they can't walk into yours.  Really is a bit of a letdown.  I'm glad a few of my friends keep track of what they are reading on Goodreads (including ebooks) so I can still, sort of, do this.

28 Also, since I'm an ignorant old guy, does this connect to the cloud through your ISP? Is there a separate bill to pay each month for access, like a cell phone data charge?

Amazon's Kindle uses the cellphone standard 3G, but they cover the cost themselves (include it in the base price of the gear in other words). There's no additional cost to you -- no plan to buy, etc. I think the 3G provider is Sprint, but like I said, you never have to deal with it on your end. And a many people are buying the WiFi-only model that uses your own network to communicate, so it's not an additional ISP charge or anything.

You can do web-surfing and email on the Kindle, but it's painful.

29 8.  Citations for academic writing can be a pain in the butt.

30 I'll probably get one eventually, but I'm still not eager. My wife's an early adopter for new gadgets; I'm more the kicking-and-screaming type. (Except word processing. I jumped into computer word processing like Charlie Sheen into a dumpster full of cocaine and hookers.)

Haven't done much new reading this week; instead I've been doing a fair amount of rereading. I've got a ton (literally) of old science fiction on my shelves and I've been going through some books I haven't cracked in ages.

Discoveries:  William Gibson dates really fast. Neuromancer and its sequels and orbiters are set sometime in the late 21st century and most of the tech is already here or even obsolete. Plus his oh-so-hip attitude now seems like an old episode of Miami Vice.

Another writer who got old fast is John Varley; at least his "Titan" series. They're set in the mid-21st century and later, yet everyone spends all their time in 1970s feminist bitch-sessions.

Writer who hasn't got old at all:  Samuel R. Delany. He was writing better cyberpunk than Gibson back when Gibson was still in high school. His Hugo-winning stories from the 60s and 70s are just as fresh and well-written as anything just published.
 

31 I bought a Nook color just this week and I love it.
Is it going to replace my copious books in my apartment?  No, of course not.  But it's a fun way to have many books at my fingertips....

32 Thanks, Monty.

A tornado came through here a few years ago, leaving us without power for a few days. I like the idea of the Kindle with 3G. I could have hunkered down and read for three days. It would have been a much more pleasant catastrophe.

33 You can have my kindle when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers. It is so vastly superior to a book for reading text that I simply cannot live without one. 

One disadvantage you do NOT list however is random access of a given page.  Books are still much better for that.

34 Another writer who got old fast is John Varley

I still like Steel Beach. His other stuff...yeah, it hasn't aged well. Ben Bova's stuff is the same way.

One interesting tie-in to the Kindle: Jerry Pournelle was being interviewed by Instapundit recently, and mentioned how well Lucifer's Hammer was doing in the Kindle edition.

35 i can say this for the Nook. i was sitting in a Staples parking lot one day waiting for a friend in the store and my Nook picked up their wi-fi and i downloaded a book right their.

36 I started reading e-books from Baen years ago on my Dell Axim PDA. Loved them for all the reasons Monty mentioned.

My wife and I tried both the Kindle and the Nook e-readers on our laptops. The Nook locked itself so that none of the books we bought could be read. The Kindle reader, OTOH, worked flawlessly out of the box and has continued to do so. There's a reason why B&N is in trouble. We really wanted to like the Nook because of it's supposed ability to lend books back and forth, but B&N didn't give a rat's about the e-reader from what I could see.

So my wife bought a basic Kindle a couple months ago, and loves it. She can read books in other formats by downloading them, plus all her Kindle books bought through the e-reader.

Incidentally, Baen, which has been a huge early adopter, has put all their e-books on Kindle format, and as long as we bought the book in an earlier format, we can download it to the Kindle for free. In my opinion, Baen is the only publisher who really "gets" the e-book market.

37 Can I get my speeches downloaded to a Kindle?  I may need to give a few gifts to some foreign leaders after this deal with Libya.

38 Also, since I'm an ignorant old guy, does this connect to the cloud through your ISP? Is there a separate bill to pay each month for access, like a cell phone data charge?

We already had a wi-fi setup in the house so connectivity for the wi-fi Kindell was easy. They make two versions, one that is wi-fi and one that is 3G and wi-fi that is more expensive. If you have an internet connection already (I assume you do or you wouldn't be here) going wi-fi is easy and cheap. It is also more reliable since 3G is not assessible everywhere in "small town" America.

Also, wifey has found that is a lot easier to log onto Amazon using the computer and order her books from there and then download them to the Kendell afterwards. But to answer your question, no charge for 3G or wi-fi service at all.

39 Just an FYI,

I just bought a Nook Color and rooted it so it is a full Android tablet. Only thing is it does not have a camera. Easy to do too. Just check google. I like reading on it, just swipe your finger to turn the page. No eye strain either. I have read on it for hours straight too. The battery life is not a problem so far. I am usually not away from a plug eight hours straight and I have an A/C adapter for my car. You can get pretty much any Android App for it. For $250 and an microSD card I now have a Android Tablet and am playing Angry Birds. Once you root it you can play AVI movies so no converting formats. Plus if you want you can even put the new Android Honeycomb on it. I just did the basic root though so I can still use the native Barnes and Noble software so I can get my full color magazines.

Just wanted to let you know, since I thought is was one of my best buys in a long while. Also I read about a book every two days or so and I like the thought of not having to drag a bag of books around.

40 @28 That can be a 'pro' for some folks. I had one high very 'progressive' woman report to me that she and many of her chums have, for the first time, discovered bodice-ripper romance novels as a pleasurable read.

These gals can get their modest thrills while sitting wherever. No one knows what they are reading, due to the lack of the bodice-ripping cover. They'd never buy and carry such a book in hard-copy, but e-readers take away all the social-stigma.

41

You can do web-surfing and email on the Kindle, but it's painful.

I've managed to read this blog a few times. I posted one comment once, but last time I tried, the IP address was blocked.  There's a button to go to the top of the page, but I haven't found one to get to the bottom, which makes it almost impossible to get to the bottom of a long comment thread.

I like to play a Kindle game called "Every Word". If I can't make any more words from the letters I have, I can go online and use an anagram solver.

The minimal web access has really whetted my appetite for more web access from the couch, the playground, etc. I'm resisting getting a new and improved cell phone because I'm grossed out at how much we are already paying in monthly fees for this, that and the other thing.

42 My main corcern is the formatting. If I spend 12.99 for an ebook, will I be able to read it in 10 years when I'm on the version 7, 10 what have you? Most book I buy are new fantasy, which means the highest priced ebooks.

I know I can't run programs from 1990 on my computer, would I end up buying the same books over and over and over for each version?

43 I use the Kindle app on my iMac. Not bad, but you have to go to the book, you can't bring the book with you. The lack of graphics and pics is annoying, but that will change. Time for an iPad so I can read in bed.

44 Bought a Kindle two months ago and absolutely love it. My briefcase's load has lightened noticeably, and it's especially useful when you're travelling as now you don't have to pack a dozen books with you. What's more I've downloaded 30+ books so far, and have spent in total about $11, and $10 of that was on just one new book. Basically anything over 50 years old is likely free or can be had for nothing, and it's much cheaper to buy new e-books than even getting discounts on Amazon for hardcovers. Considering my reading habits I'll easily recoup my investment in savings that way. Yeah, the 3G isn't super fast, but honestly that's not the primary purpose of the thing. But that's been my only mild complaint thus far.

45 I have the Viewsonic G-Tablet.
Its an android based tablet with a 10 inch screen.
Pretty bugy when you first get it but after the automatic updates I have been pretty happy with it.
You can load all the readers on it, kindle, B&N and others.
I especially like the free books, and there are allot of them.
It does web and email really well, paid $379.00 at Office Depot.
The viewing angle is not real good but that really only affects others trying to look at it while not in their hands.

46

A tornado came through here a few years ago, leaving us without power for a few days. I like the idea of the Kindle with 3G. I could have hunkered down and read for three days. It would have been a much more pleasant catastrophe.

See important note from comment #40!

The battery life is not a problem so far. I am usually not away from a plug eight hours straight and I have an A/C adapter for my car.

47 "one high very 'progressive' woman"

Well, she wasn't high. This is what happens when I type while making a peach pie and tending a roast beef in the oven.

48 I'd like to borrow somebody's and read a book just to see if I'd like it ot not. Libraries don't lend them, do they?

49 My main corcern is the formatting.

Most ebooks are formatted in a variant of XML/HTML (Mobi), so they should be easily portable to any future devices. My concern is more with the "rich" ereader apps like Marvel and DC's comic books. Those formats are more complicated and device-specific. And ereaders as a class have navigational issues -- you can't really use "pages" because the font size can change, so they all adopt more generic "locations". But there is no standard -- in "Tom Sawyer" I might point you to location 2141 in the Kindle edition, but that might be location 3000 on the Nook or location 2875 on the iPad. This kind of thing needs to get ironed out fast because if we start to cite ebooks in scholarly papers or books, it's going to make that kind of thing needlessly difficult -- and will fracture the marketplace for readers, which is a very Bad Thing.

50 I got a nook (classic, not color) on a Black Friday deal last year for $100 at Best Buy.  It was an impulse purchase, but I've ended up really enjoying it.  The battery life is not terrible -- I find I can go about a week between charges.  Not as good as Kindle, but it isn't a big deal for a stay at home mom, such as myself.  I can see if you traveled a lot that this would be a pain.  I expect some future nook classic model will have improved battery life. 

I read books that I don't expect to need or want to read again (I rarely read books more than once), or classics.  I've actually read more classics in the last few months than I have since I was forced to in high school in college.  I can just explore them so easily, due to the ease of downloading e-versions from all over.

51

remember, i only know Nook's but they have a wire to hook to your PC. you can send files (books) either way. i put all of them on both in case i do something Moron like and drop the Nook in a lake or spill a beer in my laptop.

52 One other huge benefit of e-books: they obviate the need for the sight-impaired and older folks to find "large print" editions of books (which many times are not available). You can simply make the font-size as big as you need. This opens up a vast wealth of printed matter to the seeing-impaired that was not there before. Many ereaders also have a "text to speech" function. This is a major quality-of-life thing to seeing-impaired people, and it's one of the best things about the ereader technology.

53

Favorite Kindle accessory?

My husband got a case that zips and has a built in book light.

The only thing I don't like about the Kindle is trying to read it while it's charging, since the cord plugs into the bottom. I see on Amazon that there is a docking cradle that would take care of that nicely.

I'm also taking a look at the car etc. chargers since I damaged my connector cable.

54

I'm also taking a look at the car etc. chargers since I damaged my connector cable.

Posted by: Mama AJ at March 20, 2011 11:36 AM (XdlcF)

I have a car charger for my laptop, so I'm sure I'd want one for a Kindle. Seems like a must-have accessory. And thanks for the reminder about battery life. During the tornado, I could have used my pickemup to charge an e-reader's battery, while driving out to get necessities, like pizza.

55
Picked up the Nook over the summer, I'm convinced that an E-reader is a must-have, especially if you do a lot of travel. I'm reading a LOT more now, and it's a Godsend when flying.

The "serious" writers probably don't like e-books that much, I suspect. Half the appeal of "serious" writing is to put the book on display in the bookshelf or coffee table, so that all of your friends can see that you are literate and erudite. Me, I'm an antisocial, insensitive curmudgeon. It's no one else's damned business what I'm reading.

56 @50. I an reading comic books using the cbr/cbz format,, which is pretty much stand right now for comic books, on my Nook Color. I am using ACV that I downloaded free from the Android Marketplace. So far I like reading them. The screen on the Nook Color is great for reading comics. Start full page then pinch zoom to get close up if I need the extra detail.

57 I read shit off a screen, sooth. Love my iPhone with the free Kindle app. Much easier to read in bed and I can turn screen brightness way down to make it easier to go to sleep. Also means I always have a library with me when I'm stuck somewhere.

58

During the tornado, I could have used my pickemup to charge an e-reader's battery, while driving out to get necessities, like pizza.

It was tornado, McDonalds, Nintendo DS car charger (and therefore sanity) for us!

 

59 Thanks, Monty for the thoughtful review, and the comments are helpful also.

60 Been a fan of e-books for about 8-9 years now. Love the new apps. Much better than MS Reader.

61 43 My main corcern is the formatting. If I spend 12.99 for an ebook, will I be able to read it in 10 years when I'm on the version 7, 10 what have you? Most book I buy are new fantasy, which means the highest priced ebooks
________

I had two concerns about the Kindle: DRM and the format issue. I've solved both using calibre and a bunch of plug-ins.

With the appropriate plug-ins, calibre can decrypt an Amazon book, giving you an unencrypted .mobi file. Since I can now decrypt them, I feel comfortable buying them, so I have been.

Calibre can also translate between the .mobi format and other formats, so you can convert the files if the old format goes away. I haven't managed to get anything useful out of its PDF conversion, but I can extract to Open Office format and make a PDF from it. I can't take my Kindle to work, but I *can* smuggle PDF files in on a CD once in a while.

62

Didn't someone project that if Amazon reduces the Kindle price at a constant rate, it'd be free by next November?   And that it's apparently a conscious strategy?   I assume the rate of price decrease will itself decrease and then stop before then, but still.  Tech always drops in price for a while.

I'm cheap, I have hundreds of unread books (thanks to garage sales and flea markets)-- I can wait.

That being said-- I do actually want one.  While I like reading a physical book, and having said book on the shelf with all the others, the idea of having a portable library sounds fantastic.  I don't travel much, but it's the principle of the thing.

Also, the amount of free books (thank you Project Gutenberg and Baen!) does mean that as soon as I get an e-reader or iPad or whatever, I'll load it up with tons of stuff.  I can easily see myself dividing my time/money between hardcopies for recent stuff and then using the gizmo for public domain mostly but also for vacations/travel.

In short, I don't see these things as replacements for books, but another option or delivery system.  (Just like, say, video.  I love watching movies in the theater, but that's rarely basically never practical.  Second choice is DVD/tape/whatever on the TV, but it's not like I burn YouTube videos to disc or anything.)

63 47 See important note from comment #40!
________

Battery life is not a problem on the Kindle. Mine lasts *weeks* on a charge, even with the lighted bookcover (which I highly recommend, by the way).

64

Mine lasts *weeks* on a charge,

Really? Not mine. But I'm lazy about turning it off when I think I'll be back in a minute or few, leave wi-fi on, etc.

65 When these things first came out, wasn't there some flap about downloaded books and articles being erased or altered (shades of "1984") remotely over some issue?

Was there anything at all to that?
Or, am I raising a non-existent issue?
-

66 My sister has an ereader and she loves it. This is something I wish I had years ago when I drove over the road.You were always getting stuck somewhere and there wasn't a bookstore for miles around. The same with a laptop computer. The last twenty years has been local and shorthaul work, (actually the last year unemployed) so I wouldn't had the real need for one.  But this would have been something I would have gotten back in the 70s and 80s, before they had them. Otherwise, I'm just an old paper in hand kind of guy.

67

It was "shades of 1984" and it was actually about 1984 and other Orwell titles. Amazon thought they did not have permission to sell the books and therefore pulled them off of Kindles. They have said they wouldn't do that again in a similar situation.

 

68 They have said they wouldn't do that again in a similar situation.

The fact that they can do it still bugs me, though. It's one of the innate hazards of the current vendor-driven ebook model. Still, I've been buying from Amazon since they first started up, and they've always done right by me, so....

But like I said: if it's a book you want to keep long-term, buy it in paper.

69 They have said they wouldn't do that again in a similar situation.

I've not purchased yet mostly because I think I want more of a 10 inch Android tablet than a strict ereader.  But the DRM thing bugs me too.  Doesn't Nook kind of alleviate this concern by allowing you do download onto a storage card - so you aren't completely in the cloud? 

70 65 Mine lasts *weeks* on a charge,
Really? Not mine. But I'm lazy about turning it off when I think I'll be back in a minute or few, leave wi-fi on, etc.
__________

I leave the wifi off unless I'm specifically using it.

71

65, so you let you car idle in he driveway all day because you "might" need to go to the store later?

Just funnin' wit ya.

72 I have a color Nook.   I've had the battery run out when I've been stuck at work waiting for a ride and the screen sensitivity sometimes goes nuts when it's plugged in to the charger while I read.   I'm not overly fond of touch screens anyway.   (I wish my Iphone had buttons.

My husband has a color Nook and rooted it so it's an Android tablet.

I play Angry Birds on his Nook.   Because Angry Birds is awesome.

73 The "serious" writers probably don't like e-books that much, I suspect. Half the appeal of "serious" writing is to put the book on display in the bookshelf or coffee table, so that all of your friends can see that you are literate and erudite.

I don't think of myself as a "serious" writer, at all (more like "a cross between Planes, Trains & Automobiles meets The Muppets Take Manhattan"), but I've been encouraging my publishers to dive into the e-pub formats for a while now, with little success. A lot of the larger publishing houses are the most steadfast, deeply conservative places you can imagine, when it comes to anything concerning changing how they do their business. Even the contracts never change much, e-publishing wasn't mentioned at all until that latest contract I received, just last summer. This might have something to do with why so relatively few older, non-public domain books are hitting the e-pub market, come to think of it.

Some of my books are historic travel-related, which I think would be prime territory for a highly portable format such as the Kindle, with the sole exception of the non-linear access normally used in those genre of books. That and the fact that they tend to have a lot of maps and pictures, which the Kindle does not handle very well,

74 I do need to note one thing as a dedicated Kindle user - that you really shouldn't think of the kindle as an ipad competitor but almost as an accessory to the ipad. I can't read on an ipad, the screen bothers my eyes no matter the brightness (its a computer screen) and it doesn't have the long battery life to compete with the kindle. Kindles are the best pure ereader in the business BUT I can't watch a movie or surf the web or play on the internet, the ipad is what is best for that.

I am seeing more and more people buying and using both a kindle and an ipad; the former for reading documents and whatnot, the latter for doing some work on them as well as watching movies playing games etc. I can tell you that I travel to NYC once a month at least for over a week and a kindle is a godsend for a reader. I can put any books, any documents I want on it and go from there. I can read for hours on end no problem with charge (though you should turn off the 3g connection to save some battery). I forgot my charger this past time for my kindle while in nyc for a week. Turned off the 3g and didn't have to charge it. But now I'm looking at buying an ipad to provide some much needed work capacity as well as better video viewing (my ipod classic is a bit irritating to watch on) on long flights.

I think a kindle is essential, i've had one for two years now I take it everywhere I can. An Ipad I'm starting to debate about buying now

75 I have the lower-end version of the Nook, and while I am perfectly happy with the way it works, I was never a new book buyer, so its value to me is not so great.  I think if you are accustomed to buying new books in hard- or paperback, the prices charged for Nook or Kindle versions would be no big deal, but it's so hard for me to buy a $12 book that I can check out at my local library.

For me, the real value in this market will come when publishing companies decide they can't charge the same amount for a virtual book that they do for a paper one.

Until then, I'll use the Nook to read the free classics and that's about it.  My library does have a program available to check out books for the Nook, but the process is unbelievably cumbersome and the selections limited.

At the university where I work, our bookstore is a Barnes and Nobles, so the bookstore manager and I are trying to convince Barnes and Nobles to kick in free Nooks for our incoming Honors students--with the books for their two semester "Great Books" classes already on each.  Because the Nook reads .pdf files, we could even put notes, calendars, etc. on each.

76 Oh, and I really love the little bendable light with a clip on one end and a small, but powerful bulb on the other end.  I even read real books with it and sometimes clip it on my laptop when I'm"working" at night (cough, ONT, cough) so as not to disturb Mrs. Cowboy.

77 The fact that they can do it still bugs me, though. It's one of the innate hazards of the current vendor-driven ebook model. Still, I've been buying from Amazon since they first started up, and they've always done right by me, so....

But like I said: if it's a book you want to keep long-term, buy it in paper.

I can't get worked up about it. As long as someone has a paper copy and a scanner, it will be findable on teh Intertubes even if some seller or publisher tries to get rid of any book.

78

I bought a Sony Reader a few months ago, and love it. Battery life is superb; IIRC, approximately a month if all you're doing is reading, and it's easy to read.

I bought the Sony because it's the only one (that I know of, anyway) that allows you to upload your own documents in PDF or RTF formats. I got it for work originally, so that was a crucial factor for me, but I now use it for other reading too.

I'm now re-reading many of the classics (Tocqueville, Machiavelli, etc.), all of which are available ... free!

79 I wouldn't worry too much about Amazon deleting books. If you are not reading one you can always transfer it to your computer where Amazon can't get to it.

80 I bought the Sony because it's the only one (that I know of, anyway) that allows you to upload your own documents in PDF or RTF formats. I got it for work originally, so that was a crucial factor for me, but I now use it for other reading too.

The Kindle-3 will do pdf documents.

81 not interested in devices. But I do need some recommendations for 'popcorn' books. Just finished the Crowner John series -- some were good, others phoned in. odd, that. Other loves: Pratchett, Lee Child. Looking for something historical. Or anything fun and enjoyable.

82 But I do need some recommendations for 'popcorn' books...Looking for something historical.

The best two I can think of in that category are Gates of Fire by Teven Pressfield (the "300 Sparatans" [+ 6,000 others] at Thermopylae), The Ten Thousand by Michael Curtis Ford (novelization of Xenophon's Persian Expedition), and Jeff Shaara's WWII novels; The Steel Wave, The Rising Tide, and No Less Than Victory.

83 Make that "the best two I can think of.." Geez, I need more coffee.

84 My wife bought me the Sony Reader two Christmases ago, and I bought her the Nook Color last year. I'm jealous of the color screen and built-in web browser, but I find the nook Color to be a bit more confusing to manage it's library - it's more cloud-based, whereas the Sony works more like an iPod - you synchronize with your library on your computer. The software could be a bit less buggy for the Sony - if you delete the file on the library outside the Sony application, it will hang up the synchronization if you don't remove it in the app too.

85 I recently got myself a Nook Color, and after rooting it, I love it. I primarily use it to read books with, but it's handy to have at work when called to an imprompto meeting so I can takes notes or play Angry Birds when bored!  I have found the battery life to be a slight problem, as I have to recharge every 2-3 days.  Will it replace my buying "real" books or my several thousand book library? Not a chance. I find this very convenient, but the feel of a book in hand is hard to replace. Our local library now loans the basic Nook, so we can also download the books for a limited time as well. I feel like this is a resource that will grow over time, and look forward to see how it evolves. My only real complaint about my Nook is that the accessories, like additional chargers and cables, are kind of expensive. Overall, a great tool.

86 I've been thinking about getting an e-reader for some time.  Your article was extremely helpful!  Thanks!

87 82 I bought the Sony because it's the only one (that I know of, anyway) that allows you to upload your own documents in PDF or RTF formats. I got it for work originally, so that was a crucial factor for me, but I now use it for other reading too.

The Kindle-3 will do pdf documents.

Posted by: Vic at March 20, 2011 01:28 PM (M9Ie6)

All Kindle devices get their own email address.  According to Amazon:

"You can send unprotected Microsoft Word, PDF, HTML, TXT, RTF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PRC and MOBI files to your Kindle e-mail address."

88 I bought the original Nook for my trip to Europe last fall, and I'm quite glad I had it with me. My only real complaint was battery life, but I was also making fairly heavy use of the (very basic) web browser to keep in touch with the outside world. The reason I decided on that over the Kindle was versatility: the Nook accepts more eBook formats, and I can check out (though I haven't yet) eBooks from the library for it. But like Candy mentioned above, this will never actually replace real books for me.

89 "You can send unprotected Microsoft Word, PDF, HTML, TXT, RTF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PRC and MOBI files to your Kindle e-mail address."

You can also send them directly from the computer via the interface cable.

90

All Kindle devices get their own email address.  According to Amazon:

"You can send unprotected Microsoft Word, PDF, HTML, TXT, RTF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PRC and MOBI files to your Kindle e-mail address."

Posted by: Walter Sobchak at March 20, 2011 02:29 PM (Rk+mU)

I didn't know this.  I just tried it successfully.  I was, however, charge .15 for a 20M PDF file.  But still, it's good to know.

91 I own the Kindle DX, the Nook Color, and the Sony PRS-505 Reader. Everyone should download Calibre and the DRM plug-ins that are written for it. I find it best to buy from Amazon, and then use Calibre to convert from MOBI to ePub. (I wonder why the GOP hasn't tried to repeal the DMCA or dial back its anti-circumvention provisions? It's not like Hollywood gives them any money. Why hurt voters to protect Democrat donors?)

Never buy any ebook in a format and/or platform that has no jailbreak.

Mobi is the name of the eBook format native to Kindles. ePub works for Sony, Nook, and (i think) iPad. I use Calibre to convert everything to ePub and Mobi if I don't already have it in that format. Check out Baen's free library. All SF titles from Baen that you can't buy for the Kindle from Amazon, are available DRM-free from Baen directly.

PDF is marginally useful, but only if the document was laid out for a page-size matching your reader. (This almost never happens.) The Kindle DX can display 8.5"x11" PDFs, but you'll need reading glasses. You can produce your own PDFs from Word files that don't suck, only if you tweak the page size and font sizes to match. SONY has good instructions for their reader and you could extrapolate to the dimensions of your own reader. But the better thing to do is save your Word doc as RTF, then use Calibre to convert to ePub and/or Mobi.

After you've downloaded your DRM-free ebooks to your laptop with Calibre, you should burn your ebooks directory tree to DVD-ROM. That should keep your purchases safe for posterity.

eBooks should be designed differently than conventional books. Many paper books have a block of pictures bound together at some random point in the middle of the volume. (E.g. Amity Shlaes' "The Forgotten Man".) These are a royal pain if translated (stupidly) to eBook, buy such in paper, not electronic. Impractical things for normal books, like illuminated texts, are trivial with eBooks.

My daughter tells me that she would pad her Amazon order to some figure to get free shipping. This is the perfect point at which to buy enough $0.99 self-published short-stories or novels for your Kindle to reach that threshold.

92 I got the free Kindle app for PC for my netbook last November, and haven't looked back- everything I've read or gotten since is in ebook format.

It's not quite like a book- but it's close enough. One beef is the price- I simply will not pay more that $10 for a bleeding file of bytes, and I've told Amazon all about the $0.99 phenomenon causing volume of sale to explode. We'll see.

93 I agree with Anachondra and steve poling that DRM isn't an issue anymore. Decrypting rights-protected ebooks is easy with the right freeware. I was amazed at how simple it is. You still run into people who say they have no interest in ebooks, but eventually even they will have to give in. Printed books are dying out. Borders is bankrupt. Barnes & Noble is circling the drain. Mass-market paperbacks are becoming extinct; some publishers have already closed down their mass-market imprints. Hardcovers are prohibitively expensive for most people. Ebooks are the future; they'll supersede printed books just as digital downloads are superseding CDs and DVDs. When e-reader devices are as cheap as disposable cameras, they'll become ubiquitous. Ebook prices will fall to a range of 99 cents - $2.99, with many free titles available. Give it five years at the outside.

94 Ebook prices will fall to a range of 99 cents - $2.99, with many free titles available. Give it five years at the outside.

You missed the thread where we discussed book prices. Most of the cost of a book is not in the printing. The price of a first run book will probably never get down to 2.99 even electronic. The authors get more than that in royalties. That is why the older book with expired copyrights are so cheap or free.

95 I have a Nook. It is first and foremost a hardware item for me. Any e-Ink (or someday Qualcomm's Mirasol full-color reflective display tech, perhaps) coupled with decent software will do. The important part is that I have full control of the local storage. The Nook gives you this in a way the Kindle does not. The first thing I did when I got the Kindle home was put a 16 GB MicroSD card ($20) in the slot under the back cover, by the battery. This isn't an option on the Kindle. On the Nook, when I plug it into a USB port on a PC, it appears simply as two drives. One for the built-in flash memory and another for the added 16 GB. Adding and removing files is just like any other drive. No fuss, no DRM, no hassle. The second thing thing I did after getting the latest firmware was turn off the WiFi, aka Airplane Mode. I've never turned it back on. I don't buy online and have no need for any of the wireless functionality thus far. Frankly, if they'd offered a significant cost savings for a version that worked via USB only, that would have been my choice. I look upon it primarily as a display device and am perfectly happy to defer all of the other issues to a PC. So far, I have a few hundred books loaded and haven't used more than 2% of the combined storage. This would change quickly if I needed to carry around more PDFs as those tend to be measured in megabytes where the typical e-book in MOBI or EPUB formats is only a few hundred kilobytes. Still, I like that I'm not subject to a service provider's whim on storage capacity or access. How do I get books? Mainly through torrents. Most authors understand that they are now on a direct relationship with their readers and offer ways to send them money directly. The old publishing paradigm has changed because the definition of the word book is no specifically a physical object. That is but one way to deliver a block of information. British SF author Peter Hamilton has a pretty good subplot about this in his novella 'Misspent Youth' (this is the earliest story in the Commonwealth Universe for those interested) in which the world has seen a great restructuring of how creative works are produced and their creators rewarded due to changes imposed by new technologies. Oddly, Hamilton doesn't have any sort of tip jar on his site. I'd like to send him a few quid but I've no room for more of his doorstops around the house. I have to give away the old ones as it is. Since moving to a much smaller house in 2004 I've spent a ridiculous amount of capital on storing my library but have finally begun liquidating it after getting the Nook. Volumes that are no more than pure text with no special value to me are first to go. Selling them is more trouble than it's worth and used book stores only give credit for more books, so I have to give them away and pass the receipt to more well to do siblings to apply to their taxes. Now that reality is sinking in and more authors are choosing the 99 cent price point, I may make some online purchases but only if no DRM is involved. I cannot abide being told what I can do with my purchase on my hardware. So, IMHO, the tip jar, albeit one capable of holding millions of $$$, is the future of publishing.

96 Here's a pretty good one for Kindle.  Killer, by Stephen Carpenter.  ebook only, not out in paper.

I think it was $2.99.

If you've read a few Michael Connolly novels where the detective is after the serial killer and the serial killer is after the detective, you'll enjoy this one, a first novel by a guy who has knocked out some awesome screenplays.

I've a Kindle and my wife has an iPad, and I've read books on both.  Sort of prefer the Kindle.  The upside for the iPad is that you can read it in the dark.

97 "e-readers" are software programs and network services first and foremost.

I'd put displays 1st, e-ink is really that much better than everything else.
Calibre is great and keeps backups for you on the PC.  You can skip the Amazon small delivery & translate charges with it.

98 #96

Vic, this is simply wrong. Right now, today, there are numerous authors pricing their new works in the $.99 to $2.99 range. And guess what? They're making big money at it. One of the most widely reported success stories is Amanda Hocking: http://tinyurl.com/4fdd9wz

Genre writers often don't earn enough per book to qualify as a livable full time job but low prices change the game considerably. This 26 year old has netted more from her works in the last year than some fairly well know writers have earned in their whole careers. Cheap e-book publishing is the most beneficial innovation for authors in decades.

Very few people make the megabucks of a Grisham or Clancy. For every one of them there is a hundred struggling to keep a middle-class existence. Making their works available at prices that allow readers to try them at a whim with very little wallet resistance is a huge boon.

The change is happening now. At her current rate of sales Hocking will be a millionaire late this year and she isn't alone. In a decade we'll have a substantial base of wealthy authors who launched their careers in cheap e-books and never needed anything else.

99 I got the Kindle App for my Samsung Moment Android Phone back in July and loved reading on it. I considered buying a Kindle when they dropped the price last fall but figured it was just something else to carry around.

My son got me one in September and I love it for all the reasons you mention. I don't find the other stuff to be much of a drawback. It is a poor web browser and music player. But, you can browse in a pinch. I had not thought of the audio as a form of reading audio books but I guess it would work well for that. I have several CDs of soft classical music loaded and use it as background on a plane when I am reading.

My Kindle has completely spoiled me for reading paper books. I am writing a book and in the past month have read 5-6 paper books for research. It was a real pain in the ass. This is from someone who reads 50-75 books a year.

The Kindle is a tool for reading. It has been optimized for that purpose and the other stuff is secondary. That is as it should be.

My only complaint is that I wish the dictionary held more words. I have been reading my way through Trollope and there are a number of words I have tried to look up and they did not have.

I also agree that it is not suitable for certain types of books. Pictures, maps, diagrams etc don't do real well. They are OK, but marginal in most cases.

I love my Kindle, you will have to pry it from my cold dead fingers.

One other comment: Get a good case. I have the case that folds open like a book and has a built in light. It is excellent. I find the Kindle alone a bit awkward to hold.

John Henry 

100 One thing Amazon should do with the Kindle is make it easier to put name and address on the home screen. This would make it possible to return if lost.

It is not hard to do using the semi-authorized jailbreak app. It took me about 20-30 minutes. Now I show a fixed image with my name and contact info in a box when the screen is off.

Still, it is more than most non-geeks would care to do nor should they have to.

John Henry

101 John Henry, as in 'The Lost Fleet?'

Pretty snazzy readership you're getting here, Ace.

102 Authors that are marketing their own stuff can charge low prices.  However the publishers lose money on 9 out of 10 books they publish. They make money on the big name authors but they have to pay them more.

The profit on the books that do sell makes up for the losses on the others.

103 When you recommended "The Mucker" series from Edgar Rice Burroughs a few months ago I was able to download a copy and be reading it in 2-3 minutes.

Good recommendation, I really enjoyed it.

I seem to recall that it was free or very cheap.

John Henry

104 One last comment (really)

Be sure to check out the Australian Gutenberg. Australian copyright laws are different than US and they have some books from the 30's and 40's not available on US Gutenberg.

Sinclair Lewis' "It can't happen here" for one. Very contemporary about a socialist/fascist takeover of the US.

Must reading for all morons.

John Henry

105 I got my Kindle 2 month ago. Love it. I loaded more then 100 books already(most free of charge).
I am using Colibre application to convert different e-book formats to Kindle and keep my e-library in check on my computer.

106 The role of publishers is changing. The big houses are no longer the gate keepers. Anybody who figures they can tell a decent story has access to the market for a very low cost of entry: their time and effort away from other things, like a plain old job that pays the bills. The material cost is almost non-existent compared to vanity press.

The role of a publishing house is quickly changing focus to editorial. A good editor is still a thing of value. People with talent for this will still be able to make a living.

107 Have any improvements been made in e-readers' ability to allow users to jot down notes in the margins?

Marking my own books restrains the urge to skim, and it helps me retain material from difficult texts.

Tapping the irritating on-screen keyboards or typing with my thumbs increases impatience and reminds me how much I dislike texting.

108

 I own a first generation Kobo (no wifi), and the biggest complaint I have about it is in the transcription of irregular text- that is, if a book has an italicised passage or a block of text in another font, these sections simply don't appear on the ereader. I know that these machines can display more than one font type per screen, so maybe it's the fault of the ebook provider.

 

109 #110

If the file was formatted properly, it's the fault of the device. I'd check for firmware updates. The software should default to displaying stuff it doesn't understand as plain text if there is ASCII there to be used. The formatting may be lost but the text should be preserved.

You might want to check the file against other readers freely available for your computer to see if the problem is consistent.

110 I've been hearing various bits and rumors on the net that, before the end of this year, Amazon will be offering a free Kindle to their Prime subscribers. 

That being said, both the wife and I have Nook1's (the black and white e-ink version) which we love.  They have 3G service and both get free access to AT&T wi-fi hotspots for web-browsing and such (but, granted, using the Nook1's internal browser is akin to pulling teeth).

You can transfer e-books bought from B&N from one Nook to another.  All you need is the account name and the credit card # of the account which bought the book.  Plug that into the other Nook and it will decrypt the e-book, no problems.

111 I love my Nook, though the web browser sucks - I simply ignore it - and the dictionary has odd lapses (such as, "truck" is not listed at all). The battery lasts about 2.5 days of solid reading; the "lasts weeks" thing is, as far as I can tell, only applicable to the sleep mode. Readability is awesome: e-ink won't wash out in bright light, and you can increase type size to suit your eyesight. Best of all, you can buy a new book in bed in a matter of seconds without your wife knowing you just blew $16! :8

112 My daughter decided it was time to go without credit cards, and even got away from a debit card.  So, B&N decided that they would deny her access to her 200+ books.  It took over an hour on the phone with 4 different people before they would give her a code to enter that would allow her to access her books.  It also took the threat of a complaint to the BBB and the CA attorney general.  Personally, if someone posts a useable DRM removal on the web, I will use it without qualms, since I paid for the books, and I consider them to be mine, and anyway, the B&N nook is not my favorite app.

113 The big publishing houses need to charge obscene markups to subsidize the many titles that make no money through the few titles that make big money. Those multi-million-dollar advances to Bill/Hillary Clinton have to come from somewhere.

114 what is this 'reading' you speak of? sounds somewhat interesting.

115

92 I didn't know this.  I just tried it successfully.  I was, however, charge .15 for a 20M PDF file.  But still, it's good to know.

Posted by: Tami at March 20, 2011 02:59 PM (VuLos)

That only occurs when they are sent over the 3G connection.  WIFI transfer is free.  You can set spending limits (mine's set at at $0.00), or send things to username@free.kindle.com to guarantee a free transfer via WIFI only.

116 One other point regarding price:  text books.  I'm an incoming law student, and I did a little checking around online.  While I don't know what my first year book requirements will be, on a random walk around the law texts available, the average savings tended to be $30-$50 PER BOOK on an e-reader.  In some cases even more, compared to the paper version.

117 "5. Not appropriate for all kinds of books."

I read a lot of technical books.  Often, a diagram is referenced across several pages of text.  It would be nice to "freeze" one page with the diagram on it while continuing to advance pages.  In other words, a two-page display where one page can be "frozen" and you can advance through the book using the other "page".