eBook Readers

[Phantom]

Hey guys!

 

I was wondering if any of you have an eBook reader (like the kindle, Sony one, etc.). Reason why i'm asking is beacause I was thinking of getting one and seeing if anyone had experience with one or knew of one.

 

Thanks!!!

 

Eric

[Rilbur]

I use Mobipocket with my Palm SmartPhone, and love it. Please note that my choice was influenced by readily available books off of Baen CD's (they have a habit of throwing CD's full of e-books in their hardcover editions), and my previous ownership of a Palm Tungsten (PDA, not phone).

 

You'll want to check which reader has access to the books you want to read (different publishers have different policies on which E-books they support, leading to tragedy in book selection), but personally I love my Mobipocket e-reader, and my mother loves her Sony e-reader. It's quick, it's easy, it's convenient.

[Lugh]

I too have been looking to make this leap.... I read a ton of ebooks, mostly purchased from fictionwise.com they have a reader or three they suggest, which is neither the sony nor the kindle model btw. the autodownload feature of the kindle is nice, but the books all seem to be $7 - $10. I can get a paperback for that, ebooks should be cheaper, they are paperless and cost much less to produce. I like the way the sony touch looks and handles (saw one at bestbuy) I have yet to see a kindle up close and personal, not so sure of all those buttons at the bottom, but some people just love them, so I don't know. for me it's a huge decision sorta like mac or pc, and it should be easier than this!

[Mark Arbour]

I read some reviews recently and Kindle seemed to score better than Sony (It may have been in Consumer Reports). One of the things that bothers me about these things is the way the company (I'm thinking Amazon with Kindle) can go into your Kindle and remove books. They've done this a few times when they discovered a copyright problem on their end. I guess for me, my books are personal and MINE, and the thought that some monolithic corporation could come breezing in and remove one is enough to make me sit on the sidelines, at least for now.

[Phantom]

Thanks guys!

 

I know about the Kindle/1984/DRM fiasco that happend, which is why I figured I'd ask. I'll do some more research and hopefully come across one (or a decent program for my netbook)

 

Eric

[Mark Arbour]

Eric,

 

Once you finish your research or make a decision, let us know what you came up with.

[JamesSavik]

I have gigabytes of text in pdf files.

 

Amazing what you can find out there for free.

[Phantom]

Well, I found my eBook applications for the PC (Amazon, in an effort to get you to buy a Kindle only lets you download books to the kindle and not let you read them on PC )

 

Barnes and Noble eBook reader - I love this program because it can allow you to read books on your computer and that they are coming out with an eBook reader to compete with the Kindle. They have a ton of book selections for a decent price, and I love the fact that they offer online backup storage and storage on your computer. SO that's the one I'm gonna be using Another good thing about it is that it provides access to google books as well.

 

James, There's also a eBook reader that Adobe makes to read eBooks in acrobat format called Adobe Digital Editions. I tried it and liked it, though I didn't like the pricing on some of the books (Regular price for digital versions). Here's the link.

[Rilbur]

James, There's also a eBook reader that Adobe makes to read eBooks in acrobat format called Adobe Digital Editions. I tried it and liked it, though I didn't like the pricing on some of the books (Regular price for digital versions). Here's the link.

 

 

That's pretty much SOP, and it boils down to brick and mortar stores needing the 'help' to survive competition.

[Lugh]

so has anyone looked at the new nook, by B&N?

[Rilbur]

Looks good, but I like my own e-reader... if nothing else, I've sunk too much cash into books for it to change quickly and easily

[Phantom]

I looked into it (the nook) and it's now on my to get after I have a car/insurance/etc list. I like it, but for now I'll settle on using my netbook as a ebook reader.

 

I also did some more searching and came across a program that I like better (lately I've been an all in one type guy... switching my services from Windows Live (cept for msm) to Google services) cus it reads all of my books. It's called Stanza and I'll lat you guys know how it is

 

Eric

[thatboyChase]

Actually had a discussion recently in my media journalism class about e-books. We concluded that they might become the future of reading. I like the idea, haven't experienced one yet. But the sleek design, easy to manage and small make it prime for students/and readers alike. Cause honestly, everything is turning virtual/digital. Newspapers, magazines, books, text-books, etc.

 

I believe The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown's new paper child was sold on Amazon via e-book and sold a helluva lot of copies.

[Guest babybird71974]

About a year ago, I got a Sony PRS505 and it was love at first sight. There are some drawbacks, including it freezing when it gets a dead battery. Then earlier this month I got a nook and I'm still getting used to it but I love it. I carry it everywhere with me. I don't mind waiting in line at the bank or at the DMV because I've always got a book to read.

[Hoskins]

I've got the Kindle app and Stanza on my iphone and they're great. Stanza is the big winner because I can invert the ink color and go black text on white or white text on black for reading at night.

 

The Baen Free Library is my best friend. Also, you can get Baen CD's here

[TetRefine]

My Dad just got one. At first I thought it was stupid, but now I realize how great it is to be able to carry around multiple books on one little device. And I find it easier to read from than normal print books.

[writeincode]

I hear that the iPhone has an ebook app. I haven't personally experienced it because I'm too clumsy to own an iPhone but it sounds convenient enough to look into.

[David McLeod]

A friend who had the B&N version returned it after I reminded him that after civilization collapses, there won't be electricity to charge any of the electronic readers, and he would be wise to invest in books (as well as soap and liquor, two things that will be in demand). Oh...consider Robert Heinlein's "Farnham's Freehold" if you're into apocalyptic fiction. It's old, but contains a number of very current themes.

[Mark Arbour]

A friend who had the B&N version returned it after I reminded him that after civilization collapses, there won't be electricity to charge any of the electronic readers, and he would be wise to invest in books (as well as soap and liquor, two things that will be in demand). Oh...consider Robert Heinlein's "Farnham's Freehold" if you're into apocalyptic fiction. It's old, but contains a number of very current themes.

 

Luddite.

[Adam Phillips]

I want one so bad I can taste it. I'm just waiting for the dust to settle and a winner (for me) to emerge. The IPad's not in the running for me. Don't want all that other capability, and anyway it's backlit. And bigger than I'd like for an e-book reader. I like the idea of e-ink technology, where you can read it outside at the beach.

 

I plan on getting one within the year. Right now I'm leaning toward the Kindle. The idea of being able to haul multiple books along with me in such a small space is enormously appealing. If civilization were to collapse I'd just go back to real books, and I guess I'd lose all those books I had in my e-book reader. Somehow that's not sufficiently disconcerting to cause me to factor that into my considerations, LOL.

[KJames]

I'd probably lose the damned thing...I prefer the feel of a book's pages in my hand.

[Hoskins]

I did it. I jumped in with both feet. I have a Nook, and I really like it. I've got a lot of digital files, and I've been downloading/buying them as I go along.

 

I didn't think I'd like the form factor, I like to hold a book when I read. But there's a lot to be said for changing the type size on the fly, storing a whole wad of books on it for traveling, and the screen quality is great. E-ink is pretty amazing. Because the screen doesn't take a lot of battery life, the thing goes a long way without needing to charge. I got the thing three or four weeks ago and it was crashing pretty regularly there for a while, but they just did a software upgrade and its much better.

 

The Nook has a nice little touchscreen for interacting with it. I wish it turned pages faster, it's got to paint the screen every time, but that's just e-ink for you. I like the Nook better than the Kindle because of the epub support (not proprietary), the touchscreen rather than buttons, and I can add a micro SD card to it to add capacity if I want. Plus you can sit in a Barnes and Noble bookstore and read ebooks for free. It uses the same 3G network as the Kindle so it can get online pretty much anywhere.

 

On the whole, I'd say the Kindle and the Nook are about equal, one just does things a little differently than the other and it came down to personal preference re: the ebook support and the touchscreen.

 

I use Calibre (it's free, and open source) to manage ebooks and syncing to the Nook, because it has the ability to automatically convert (and reset page and line breaks as it goes) from one format to another. The Nook does best with books in epub format, and lots of books are out there as PDF (it can read those too), but they all get converted to epub. Calibre is really nice because it can take an ISBN number from an ebook and look it up in Google Books or isbndb.com, meaning all the data about the book can be associated with it (although the nook doesn't import a lot of it).

 

Ebook availability HAS to improve. The Baen free library is pretty cool for scifi, but there are a lot of partial trilogies, etc. so digging around to complete a collection isn't simple. The BN ebook selection is okay, but not great. Amazon's is better, I think. Buying on line is easy enough from Barnes and Noble, you can buy right from the device, or you can go on the website and buy it and it will be delivered to the device automatically. Buying a book on the website is definitely better than on the device because the search on the Nook is pretty weak.

 

There is some, but not a lot, of queer-oriented ebook publishing out there. There's lulu.com and a couple of other publishing houses like loose ID and some of the pornier ones. One of the authors here (Rigby/Clovis!) is offering one of his books as a free download from lulu. Thanks Clovis! And the quality of the writing in those gay ebooks is not exactly high. There are very definitely better writers here. The ebook industry is definitely low-end in quality and price, and it shows. Harlequin-esque and porny cheap romance novels are everywhere.

 

I'd love to see GA develop some kind of resource for gay fiction ebooks, but I think the current quality of the writers here would give the ebook writers a bad name

 

Anyway, my 2 cents.

 

 

TL;DR: I love the nook, I like Calibre to manage ebooks, ebook availability has to improve, and there isn't a lot of high quality gay stuff out there.

[Rilbur]

Ebook availability HAS to improve. The Baen free library is pretty cool for scifi, but there are a lot of partial trilogies, etc. so digging around to complete a collection isn't simple.

 

Probably because they want you to go ahead and buy the actual ebook at webscriptions.

[Hoskins]

Probably because they want you to go ahead and buy the actual ebook at webscriptions.

 

Oh sure, absolutely. And I have bought a couple that way, so it's a smart tactic.

[Rilbur]

I mostly used the free books to pick up all the hardcover books I'd bought back before I had an e-reading device (an old palm handheld, second hand from my dad... then I 'graduated' to buying a Tungsten E2, then a Palm Treo, and now I'm on a Samsung moment with a e-reader app).