Amazon Kindle (ebook thingy)

i've been almost shocked at how quickly i transitioned from a diehard paper purist to preferring e-books. the only time i feel bad about it is when i'm talking about something i read and a friend says, "oh, can i borrow it?" :/

that'll work itself out over time tho

hopefully

that's weird, couldn't you read it and give it back to them when u were done?

I would if I could but I have trouble reading paper books. Hurts my eyes and I can't concentrate. I find myself always distracted by the type size, shadows on the page, etc. I went several years without reading much at all, until I started reading on my phone and iPad.

that'll work itself out over time tho

not if my friends never get e-readers

I would if I could but I have trouble reading paper books. Hurts my eyes and I can't concentrate. I find myself always distracted by the type size, shadows on the page, etc. I went several years without reading much at all, until I started reading on my phone and iPad.

― Jeff, Thursday, January 12, 2012 2:14 PM (4 minutes ago)

I really like the night time reading mode on the kindle iPad app. I put it on a larger text size and can read easily for an hour or two before bed. Rarely read during the day.

That's a v v important point. There's a load of people for whom reading is ridiculously limited without an ereader. You can't increase text size in a book.

Just saw this. Been waiting for this for a while...

So the emailing thing has been around a good while, but what is new here is that you don't even have to bother with that, a few steps are eiiminated?

er, eliminated

And a print-to-Kindle printer driver...

Oh yeah, the driver..

i d'ld a firefox app that does pretty much this only a few nights ago, it's brilliant

how would this work for an ilx thread i wonder

The Kobo ereader came out top in wired's recent roundup

http://www.wired.com/reviews/2011/12/roundup-e-ink-readers/?pid=2074&viewall=true

(english wired not so keen though, 3/10)

(oh, wired uk review is of new kobo vox, not the touch that's in the US roundup)

the lack of page turn buttons is what made me choose the nook over the kobo. Otherwise I liked the kobo a little bit more.

Someone in my evening class last night had a Sony e-reader which looked like the one pictured (may not be the exact same model though). It had a stylus interface and came free with a whole bundle of dictionaries including several foreign-to-English dictionaries (French, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch, iirc). If you were reading a foreign e-book you could double-tap on a word and it would bring up the English in a little window at the bottom of the page.

Which seemed really neat, but it also had a tiny screen and costs £200, so that didn't seem so neat.

I'm thinking of getting my mother an e-reader for her birthday and don't really know where to start with the new generation (I have an oldschool Kindle), so any other opinions or roundups gladly accepted.

(Though iirc the Nook is unavailable in the UK, and isn't the Kobo rebadged by WHSmith over here? That in itself is offputting.)

I've got a current-gen Kindle. They're cheap and an absolute breeze to set up, use, and purchase content. It has it's faults (annotation is terrible, and typing is a PITA with the shitty on-screen keyboard) but if it's just gonna be used for reading ebooks, I can't see much past it.

kobo in every large whsmiths, yes (not re-branded, just exclusive to them, i think).

i don't think i buy £80's worth of books in a year* so spending that on a platform for books (at extra cost) is a bit odd to me.

* and i did read 42 last year so i'm no slouch - a lot were re-reads and half a dozen were £1.99 or less, second hand or those wordsworth editions of things that are out of copyright**

** yes, these would be entirely free on a kindle but...

for instance, new Alastair Reynolds turned up this morning. £11.39 from amazon in hardback. £10 for digital edition so i'd've saved 1.39 towards the cost of the ereader...

I read library books on mine. Rather handy.

and kindle for pc works under wine, which is handy for searching through freebie ebooks looking for when Guppy had previously spoke to Estelle.

Esther, sorry.

One of the biggest advantages I find with my Nook over real books is that I can read 1100-page books like the new Murakami without breaking my wrists or having to lug those giant paper bricks around with me. I get through them much faster because I always have them with me! Also, as noted upthread, I like having like 600 books on my person at all times so I can always find something I want to read.

do you find yourself in the middle of a dozen books at the same time?

yeah, but that was pretty much always the case. my apartment just looks tidier now.

ha, that is perhaps the other thing, the bookshelf space

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7144/6404480489_da21f31a49.jpg

^ last year's pile. 80cm tall...

i googled karmic bent and found your flickr account

Now I've actually looked at the Amazon site, I didn't realise the Kindle Touch wasn't available in the UK. In fact, there are only two options, with a keyboard and 3G, or no keyboard/touchscreen/3G. Thinking keyboard + 3G is not really worth doubling the price for, at least, not for my mother, who would probably barely use either.

Seems weird that Amazon wouldn't want to sell the Touch in any market with the Sony/Kobo touchscreen models available, but hey...

£10 off kindle today at tescos if that helps - http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.213-6852.aspx (see voucher in the banner there)

http://live.theverge.com/Event/Live_from_Apples_education_event_in_NYC

do you find yourself in the middle of a dozen books at the same time?

― koogs, Thursday, January 19, 2012 2:56 PM (55 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah, but that was pretty much always the case. my apartment just looks tidier now.

― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Thursday, January 19, 2012 2:59 PM (52 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this, plus i actually get through them. that little status indicator at the bottom--73%! 92%! you can do it!--is very encouraging.

Hoos, I just love you :)

there are people who aren't doing that in their heads all the time anyway? those people are weird

i am 12% through 'culture and value'

I've found myself checking how many pages a book has in order to work out what page I would be at if I was reading the paper version. I have no idea why.

I am 11% through 'Perdido Street Station', which would be around p97 of the 880 page paperback.

^^^ditto all the way. i also find myself mentally calculating page counts based off of how many page turns it takes to get it to move a percentage point.

my ereader tells me how many pages are in the book and which on i'm on. it's kind of strange turning pages three or four times without seeing your page number change. i kinda wish i had %s

which e-reader is that? i would like that way better, even if it is a little regressive to keep comparing to the paper version.

The newest Kindles give page numbers.

! didn't know that -- interesting move

% is very useful. When reading a paper book I would generally check the page number for the last page so I'd know if I was one quarter of the way through or two thirds or whatever.

What's up, Kindle thread? I am a new Kindle Touch owner/convert, having received one for christmas. I was always a big reader and was never into the idea of one of these things, but am totally hooked and now read 3-4 hours each day, minimum. Shocking how quickly I was turned.

Anyway, no doubt this has been covered upthread but are there any smart solutions to reducing one's physical library and opting for Kindle versions where available? Suppose it wouldn't be in the publisher's interests to let you "exchange" books you already own for a digital version. Also mad because I just renewed my New Yorker and Nation subscriptions and would much rather have those as files. I still love paper and will definitely keep reading hard copies of art books and magazines, which take up about 50% of my reading, but as someone that has moved large distances a few times over the last 5-10 years, I would happily reduce my library as it exists. Can't really be bothered to sell on Marketplace and replace with digital versions, though I did think about it.

Sony reader says 'Page 43 of 218' or whatever

I recently obtained my Kindle too, and loaded it up with lots of good things. However, it's reminded me of how many unread physical books I still need to read, so I haven't used it much yet!

Seems that you can now check out books directly from the NYPL catalog without going through the overdrive etc.

> for instance, new Alastair Reynolds turned up this morning. £11.39 from amazon in hardback. £10 for digital edition so i'd've saved 1.39 towards the cost of the ereader...

just got a £2.85 refund on this with their price guarantee thing so actual price was £8.54, so the *hardback* was actually cheaper than the digital download...

Hardbacks should come with free downloads, imo.

yes, but that doesn't alter the fact that downloads are, in themselves, a stinking ripoff either