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Re: What do you think of the Kindle or electronic readers?
GREAT question!... I have never owned or read a 'paper' book in my life, nor would I!!!
All the books i own and have read r 'e-books'. I have a zune player and m a long time loyal member of Audible. This is the ONLY way I would and/or can read a book. I work 2 jobs and workout, where I m luck that i have the ablity 2 read my books throughout the day. IT IS WONDERFUL!!!
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Re: What do you think of the Kindle or electronic readers?
I have a Kindle app on my ipod and it has really helped me get back to reading. I can fit it easily in my purse and can have a few books on it at a time. I don't have a lot of time to read so when I have a few moments to steal; I like to have it at hand and ready to go. Also, it has helped a little bit with the stacks and stacks of books I can't part with in my house. I can archive my e-books and download them again at any time. I will never stop loving books of paper and awesome binding but right now at this time in my life e-books are better for portability and storage...at least until I can get a place with an extra room to make into a library.
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Re: What do you think of the Kindle or electronic readers?
Interesting thread and a topic I have been thinking about alot recently as an avid reader I love the feel of a book, but I am taken by the seeming ease of use of the Kindle and Sony Readers. As an author I think all forms of media should be utilised, I am typing this using my iPod touch. Best Darren http://www.darrenhumby.com
Last edited by DarrenHumby on Tue Mar 16, 2010 3:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What do you think of the Kindle or electronic readers?
I am sort of against it. I have seen the latest Kindle and it doesn't look bad. The pages are easier to read than on a loptop. However, it would take a lot of books at $10.00 to recover the cost of the Kindle and, like so many others on this boad, i do like the feel of a book in my hands.
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Re: What do you think of the Kindle or electronic readers?
I was a hold-out on the Kindle. I finally broke down and bought one when--horror of all horrors--I ran out of books to read and (probably because it was 2:00 am) no book stores were open. Now I can download books 24-7. The only problem I've experienced is that some books I want to read are not on Kindle.
I've put all my books on Kindle and E-Book in response to reader requests, so I guess usage of the technology is growing.
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Re: What do you think of the Kindle or electronic readers?
I own a Kindle and I love it. All the arguments about the look, feel, and smell of a book are true, and I went through these same arguments. What is true for you is true for you. But let me present that argument in another fashion.
The look: some books have very small print that is getting difficult for my old eyes to read.
The feel: I have a few 1300 page books that feel pretty damn heavy.
The smell: Alright, I surrender on this one, unless you don't like the smell of books.
There is only one physical dilemma with the Kindle, reading for me has turned into a nap interrupted by paragraphs. I am always fearful of dropping it.
One of the things that drove me to the Kindle was storage. Yes, the sight of books on bookshelves is one of life's great satisfactions. However the sight of them stacked in the attic, basement, under my desk, beside my desk, next to the chair, in the hallway, under the bed, on the bookshelf stacked in front of the books already on the bookshelf has become damned oppressive. The only rooms in the house without books stacks are the bathroom and kitchen. Oh I love books and I have plenty of them to trip over, but they are always there for me to refer to something, providing that I can remember which stack the damn book is in. I have found it easier to use Google books or Amazon's "look inside" feature to find a reference.
The economics of a Kindle can be argued. The price structure of e-books right now is in a great deal of flux. Some e-books are now priced higher, in some cases much higher, than the paperback versions. Without getting into who did what and why, I think that there is going to be a period of time where there will be a lot of uncertainty in the world of e-books. Everyone is afraid of losing a buck, but sooner or later that will be sorted out. If one likes classics however, you can save money and space. When showing someone how you buy books on the Kindle, I always go to the classics. I have bought all of Sherlock Holmes books, the complete works of Herman Melville, the complete works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and others and usually spend no more than 99 cents or a couple of dollars at the most.
To me the advantage of the Kindle is the ease of reading...without putting up with the look and feel of book, no storage, ease of purchase, the instant dictionary, free access to the Internet (albeit klunky and limited), search function, and oddly I can now annotate my books. What do I mean by that? I can type in neat footnotes into my books (using my PC--as well as the Kindle keyboard) and be able to instantly access the notes. For me to have to scrawl a note in handwriting was just not worth the effort.
Disadvantages, you can't lend* your books, (advantage you don't lose your books that you have lent) and Kindles don't like to be dropped. There is loss or theft (you don't lose the books only the Kindle), and of course your library is floating on the fortunes of Amazon. Oh yes, when a book is not available on the Kindle, and you are forced once again to read a DTB (dead tree book), it is a real PIA.
* The Nook allows you to lend a book once (per book) for two weeks--providing the borrower also has a Nook or a Nook application. Not all publishers allow lending. The details on this may have changed, I have not paid any attention to the market since I bought my Kindle in December.
_________________ “Being Irish he had an abiding sense of tragedy which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.” W. B. Yeats
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." Bertrand Russell
"In answer to the question of why it happened, I offer the modest proposal that our Universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time." Edward P. Tryon
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Re: What do you think of the Kindle or electronic readers?
I'm kind of bringing up an old topic, but now it seems that Nintendo is breaking into the "electronic reader" business.
They have the DS, and the DSi, and now they have a "game" called "100 Classic Books." I'm probably getting it to read in the car, because reading a book in the car makes me nauseous. It has some pretty good titles, but it has a TON of Shakespeare and Dickens and Austen. No Steinbeck though. -sigh-
I'll post when I get it, but apparently you can adjust the font, and it'll recommend books to you based on a quiz or something. I don't know if it has any other features.
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Re: What do you think of the Kindle or electronic readers?
I thought an EReader might be a good thing to have for trips, inasmuch as I was once stuck in an airport for many hours with a lousy book. But recently, I was on a flight from New York to Dallas, and as the plane prepared for takeoff, the flight attendant said, "Please turn off all electronic devices, including EReaders" I never thought about that when I was considering buying one. I don't have a whole lot of luck with air travel, (Once I was stuck on the tarmac for three hours, just taxiing around the airport, waiting for takeoff ), so if such a situation happened to me again, and I had an EReader, I would be without any book at all for a long time. Even a lousy book is better than none, so I guess I won't be getting one of these things.
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Re: What do you think of the Kindle or electronic readers?
I've thought about this question, and I have always wanted to give a better answer than, "I just like real books better". I do actually. But, when I read a tend to write in the margins, and underline passages of interest for future refference. Can you do this with one of these electronic devises?
rainbells wrote:
Even a lousy book is better than none, so I guess I won't be getting one of these things.
Hours without a book? I'd go nuts.
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Re: What do you think of the Kindle or electronic readers?
Suzanne wrote:
But, when I read a tend to write in the margins, and underline passages of interest for future refference. Can you do this with one of these electronic devises?
Yes, but the experience is a little different. On the e-book reader I own (a Sony Reader Touch Edition) there are no margins to write in. Instead, to add a note to a passage you highlight the passage with a stylus and select "Add note". Once added, the note can be viewed by tapping on the highlighted passage with the stylus. It's a bit cumbersome. Simply highlighting passages for future reference is very straightforward, though.
_________________ "... there is no folly of the beasts of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men." — Ishmael
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Re: What do you think of the Kindle or electronic readers?
Suzanne wrote:
I've thought about this question, and I have always wanted to give a better answer than, "I just like real books better". I do actually. But, when I read a tend to write in the margins, and underline passages of interest for future refference. Can you do this with one of these electronic devises?
rainbells wrote:
Even a lousy book is better than none, so I guess I won't be getting one of these things.
Hours without a book? I'd go nuts.
With the Kindle you can add notes, underline passages, and add bookmarks. The notes are treated like footnotes. As superscript number will appear at the note's location. When you click on the superscript, it takes you to the note. Underlined passages, called highlighting, leaves a faint underline for the text that is underlined. Being a monochrome device, the Kindle only has one shade of highlighting. Bookmarking is the equivalent of turning the corner of a page down. A nice feature with the notes, highlighting, and bookmarks, you can look at them listed all together with links to the book passage. You don't have to page through the book looking for a note, bookmark, or highlighted passage, you just look at the list of your notes and marks and pick the one you want to look at.
Pre-Kindle era, I never would mark up my paper books for several reasons. One, I always lent my books to other people and I did not want to share my pathetic observations, and two, I am quite sloppy and the book would end up looking like hell. Handwriting is very difficult for me so notes in a book was just something I avoided. With my Kindle, the notes are neat, legible, and easily accessed. Using the tiny keyboard on the Kindle is rather painful for writing notes other than a word or two. However the latest version of Kindle for PC (free download for anyone from Amazon) allows you to type the notes in the book on your PC and then you can download them (through the wireless cellular to Amazon) into your Kindle. I really like the feature and am now happily writing notes in my books.
_________________ “Being Irish he had an abiding sense of tragedy which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.” W. B. Yeats
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." Bertrand Russell
"In answer to the question of why it happened, I offer the modest proposal that our Universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time." Edward P. Tryon
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Re: What do you think of the Kindle or electronic readers?
I edited the post above. I was a bit out of sorts when I wrote it last night and had forgotten to mention book marks. Also it occurred to me, how are publisher's footnotes differentiated from the reader's notes?
The publisher's footnote appears in the text in a normal superscript font that is underlined. Reader's notes are in reverse superscript, that is the superscript is a white numeral printed inside a black box. To view your note while reading the text, simply move the cursor over the superscript, the note will appear at the bottom of the page in a separate window. The note can be edited or deleted at any time.
When you view the list of your notes, highlights, and bookmarks each item is displayed in the order that it appears within the book with the location and two lines of text. You can view the note without going to the actual location by moving the cursor over the notes reference. It is very handy.
Your notes and book marks are kept in a separate file called My Clippings, which I admittedly do not know much about. It can be transferred to your PC and edited. The notes & marks file is backed up on Amazon's cloud, so if you lose or damage your Kindle, your annotations are preserved.
I don't know, if you can add notes and marks to non-Amazon content.
_________________ “Being Irish he had an abiding sense of tragedy which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.” W. B. Yeats
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." Bertrand Russell
"In answer to the question of why it happened, I offer the modest proposal that our Universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time." Edward P. Tryon
_________________ “Being Irish he had an abiding sense of tragedy which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.” W. B. Yeats
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." Bertrand Russell
"In answer to the question of why it happened, I offer the modest proposal that our Universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time." Edward P. Tryon
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Re: What do you think of the Kindle or electronic readers?
Excellent question! Much debated, and one that I really don't give a damn about, providing that the Kindle survives. I have no interest in who is number 1 and what the greatest device is. The iPad is, without a doubt, the more sophisticated handy device that does all the stuff that the connected generation wants to do. I want read books on my device and that is all. I have no interest in looking at art, photos, twittering, emailing, posting, facebook, listening to music, looking at my picture collection, or navigating to the best restaurant in Manhatten. I want it for reading books and for that it does a remarkably good job, to the point that if I have to now read a printed book I feel abused. (You know that feeling you get when you have forgotten your cell phone, and you are digging in your pocket for change to use a payphone that has some undefined smotch smeared all over it, and has the wiff of something between a locker room and a bordello about it.)
I can access Google and Wikipedia for free with the Kindle which is nice when I am away from home (at home it is simply easier and quicker to use the PC). That is all the connectivity that I need.
My big fear is that Amazon will cease to offer the basic Kindle, and go to some iPad look alike, which would probably not be a smart thing for Amazon because taking on Apple on their home turf may prove difficult. The Kindle and iPad are profoundly different devices. One of the things you can do with an iPad is read books. If all you are going to do is to read books, I think the iPad is a poor choice. My own feeling on it is that the iPad will far out sell Kindles, but far more books will be read on Kindles than iPads.
Steve Jobs said not long ago, that nobody reads in America any longer. That gives you a feel for where the man's literary heart is. But, God (oh dear forgive me) bless him, the man does have a keen nose for making a buck, but then again so does Jeff Bezos. I just hope that when all the smoke clears that there is still a simple inexpensive electronic reader that uses e-ink technology.
_________________ “Being Irish he had an abiding sense of tragedy which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.” W. B. Yeats
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." Bertrand Russell
"In answer to the question of why it happened, I offer the modest proposal that our Universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time." Edward P. Tryon
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), so if such a situation happened to me again, and I had an EReader, I would be without any book at all for a long time. Even a lousy book is better than none, so I guess I won't be getting one of these things.
