My wife who's bought enough books in her lifetime to re float the Costa Concordia con-sidered buying one of these ere Kindles but eventually knocked the idea on the head.
She's just ordered a book from Amazon for £4.49 inc. pp whereas the Kindle version is £6.99.
I'm reading The Great Outsider (Lloyd George) by Roy Madhattersley at the mo which is £12.99 via Kindle,
but I gits it from the Library for 50p :)
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Theres something rather delightful about printed books that technology cant replicate.
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But when you're travelling - you can't beat the e-books - lot lighter than half a dozen books - and free web access as well.
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Mrs B got one for Xmas and it never leaves her side. New print books seem prohibitivley expensive (though do some 'bundle' the print and e-reader versions). There's an anomaly as well 'cos e-books are subject to full VAT while real ones are zero rated.
SWMBO is reading either free stuff or what I'd describe as trashy lit at under a fiver. No space in house for more rubbish paperboks.
I'd quite like on to read on my train commute . In reality though the paper pretty much fills the hour. A 40yr addiction to the Grauniad would be hardto break and the Stannad's free these days.
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>>No space in house for more rubbish paperbooks<<
Tell me about it :(
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>>>Theres something rather delightful about printed books that technology cant replicate.
There is nothing quite like:
Giving a much enjoyed book to a friend to enjoy.
Browsing through the book shelves for something to read. I know it is there some where!
Diving in to a page, just to remind yourself.
Giving a volume to the charity book shop.
Browsing in a book shop and finding a gem.
Looking in a book shop for a particular book and coming out with five!
Not having to pay VAT
Not having the book automatically deleted from your library because the seller didn't have the rights to sell it to you when you are half way through.
Not having your university notes deleted along with the book.
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Try taking a suitcase full of books on holiday, Thats when an eReader comes in handy. We use ours for convenience not as a book replacement.
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I've just ordered a "cheap" Kindle, (£89) which should be arriving today. I have no need to use the device for anything but reading.
From eBay I have a case, with light, for £10.98 plus a charger for £3.98.
I already have literally hundreds of books on my PC ready to load into the Kindle!
I managed to persuade myself that an e-reader would be ideal for my upcoming stay in hospital!
I will not be spending much, if anything, with Amazon for e-books ;-) .
I just have one author on whose works I am prepared to spend money (Julian Stockwin) and I will continue to buy the "dead tree" editions as they become available.
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>>I already have literally hundreds of books on my PC ready to load into the Kindle!
You do know, Roger, that if they are in epub format the Kindle won't handle them?
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I did mention this lower down. You can copy files to the Kindle if they are non DRM MOBI format or PDF. I am assuming these are not but might be.
If the files do not have DRM then it is easy to convert from ePub to MOBI format using Calibre.
I originally had a Sony eReader but often bought books on Amazon and converted them to ePub (DRM needs removing). I now also have a Kindle as it makes reading easier when I also use my phone to sync location etc.
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>> >>I already have literally hundreds of books on my PC ready to load into the
>> Kindle!
>>
>> You do know, Roger, that if they are in epub format the Kindle won't handle
>> them?
Yes - they are all .mobi format. I've dragged & dropped one and have been reading it while waiting for SWMBO in the dentist's.
I do have Calibre if I need it, but there's plenty of OK content out there.
With - ahem- non-standard books, it seems that as one can only fast forward in chapter leaps, there may be a problem if the book does not have standard chapters.
Am I correct?
Last edited by: Roger on Thu 19 Jan 12 at 15:57
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I bought myself a KIndle last month. My wife has had one for 6 months. I bought it for her because she has limited vision and the ability to change the font at the touch of a button has made a huge difference to her enjoyment of reading.
Having tried her Kindle myself I was enormously impressed with the sheer readability of text on these machines and bought one for myself justifying the purchase with the idea that it would be ideal for travel. I normally take 5 books with me for a fortnight's holiday.
Having had the thing for just over 3 weeks now I have read 4 books on it and you know what: I prefer reading on a Kindle to a paper book. I find myself picking up the Kindle rather that the half-read paperback. I have a house full of books, I read all the time but it has taken me only a few weeks to be completely one over by the new technology. I can't say that I will never buy a paper book again of course. Anything with pictures or illustrations is obviously going to be better on paper as is anything where you tend to browse like a book of poetry but for straight novels and the like I think I will buy the ebook version.
Anyone who writes them off without trying is making a big mistake. Splash out the £89. You will be pleasantly surprised.
Last edited by: R.P. on Thu 19 Jan 12 at 11:20
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font size
size of the print
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 19 Jan 12 at 13:01
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Has anyone else noticed the decline in quality of the bindings of "real" hardbacks now?
A proper book used to consist of many bound sections, each stitched to the main flexible spine. A real book would lie open at any page.
Modern hardbacks are just lots of separate pages glued along their inner edge. They won't lie open, and if you bend it back to try to make it stay open the pages fall out.
I used to love eating breakfast etc with a good thick book open on the table. Now I have to prop it open with the crockery, marmalade jar etc and if it slips out it springs shut and I lose the place.
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I read lots of books in my iPad. But I rarely buy anything. Many of books I'm am interested are available in internet for free as PDF or ePub.
I find it bit funny to spend time in reading books while on holidays. When on holiday, I prefer to explore the places rather than reading books :-)
Publishers should offer digital version of the books free or charge if one buys physical version.
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"I find it bit funny to spend time in reading books while on holidays. When on holiday, I prefer to explore the places rather than reading books :-)"
Well I spend most of my holidays exploring too. Mostly walking. In the evening I do like to read though. Exploring and reading aren't incompatible!
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Interesting replies - my wife will read this thread at work, and who knows, she may well splash the cash yet!
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Hard to imagine life without my Kindle. With a subscription to the Telegraph and over a hundred books on it now, it's an essential companion.
Have bought a fair number of books - a lot through the Kindle Daily Deal - others obtained from more dubious sources where I already own the paper copy and resent the idea of paying twice.
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>> lot lighter than half a dozen books - and free web access as well.
When I got on holiday for two weeks I can get through at least two or three books of decent size. One reason for an eReader with a luggage allowance of say 15kg without paying for more.
>> I already have literally hundreds of books on my PC ready to load into the Kindle!
What format are your books in? They need to be in non DRM MOBI format to just copy on to the Kindle. The Kindle does not support ePub files. To do that you'd need to convert them to MOBI format.
Kindle files with DRM are essentially MOBI format.
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From the missus ~
"I love books and can afford to buy them – BUT – Kindles are expensive and not everyone would be able to afford one, also not everyone can afford the price of new books.
The Library is the lifeline for learning and pleasure for all of us, especially people who cannot afford Kindles and new books.
My big thing is that everyone should support their local library – use it or lose it - and if that happens lots of peops will lose out big time.
Councils waste money on stupid PC stuff and forget the important building blocks and see libraries as an easy target to cut back on and close. End of lecture!!!!!".
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Kindles and libraries are not mutually exclusive. I use both a lot. E-reading is just another form of reading and it is reading that needs to be encouraged however possible.
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Our libraries have a lending service for eBooks. Initially it excluded Kindle because they chose a company that used ePub files for DRM. I believe they are changing this to include Kindle.
Not cheap to lend eBooks - they can only be lent so many times before they need buying again. They therefore 'wear out' like real books as far as publishers are concerned.
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You are out of luck with Kindle if types of book you read contain images and layout are important. Kindle is very good for text based (and few small images) books where text can reflow on screen. Also Kindle is monochrome!
iPad (or any big screen tablet) is bit better on this context as it has a bigger screen suitable for reading color PDFs.
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With a Kindle app you can cross read onto iPhone/pad/pod.
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>> My big thing is that everyone should support their local library – use it or lose it - and if that
>> happens lots of peops will lose out big time.
Well said - our local library is well used. Also popular is the free Internet access on the dozen or so PCs. I would imagine the council would find it hard to justify cutting back the library at some point because of the Internet access alone.
Talking of Internet access, RP mentioned free access on a Kindle. The only Kindle currently sold in the UK with Internet access via 3G mobile networks is the Kindle Keyboard 3G (you might still find the non 3G version somewhere). The new cheaper Kindle 4 (without keyboard) only has WiFi. But without a keyboard it is not pleasant to type on.
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To be honest browsing the internet on a Kindle is not a good experience. I wouldn't spend another £60 on a Kindle with 3G. You are never far from a WiFi connection these days and it only takes a few seconds to download a book, something you are are not likely to want to do very frequently
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The 3G connection on Kindle's with keyboard are handy if you want to quickly check emails for free.
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We have a Kindle on extended loan. I used it for about a week before the novelty wore off, but surprisingly didn't take to it at all and now don't use it. I struggled with it a bit as well, and never did work out how to make fonts bigger.
Mrs C is reading a particular book that is on it, and is reasonably happy doing that, but has already said she has no interest in reading anything else on it, nor will she be sad to see it go when she's finished that book.
As I write I am surrounded by books - we are book people big time. Perhaps that's why we don't like the ereader thing much.
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" and never did work out how to make fonts bigger"
Press menu button
Select "change font size"
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 19 Jan 12 at 21:23
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No such option on this one when you press menu. Did look quite hard before giving up in disgust, going through each option in turn, including "settings". Perhaps it's an old one that can't do it.
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You have to be in a book to get the option to change font size
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 19 Jan 12 at 21:22
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Thought I was, but no mind. Abandoned it now and gone back to paper. Thanks anyway though, CG.
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>>Abandoned it now and gone back to paper.
Us Luddites should stick together!
;>)
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Missus is an avid bookreader and a luddite when it comes to technology.
Took a gamble and got her a Kindle for Christmas, the cheap £89 one. Used about £50 of Tesco clubcard vouchers against it to take away some of the pain if she decided she didn't like it.
However after an issue with the first one, Amazon exchanged it and she rarely puts it down now. Thankfully!
Havent bothered with the wee light attachment - I assume this is for reading in bed??
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>> Havent bothered with the wee light attachment - I assume this is for reading in bed??
Or reading in low light conditions. I've converted my Sony eBook cover and works well for the Kindle 4. It is a case with a light and the Kindle one was not available before Christmas but also cost £50!
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The major Kindle fan in our house is my six year old daughter. :-) She loves hers, and uses it for an hour or so every single evening without fail.
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>> Try taking a suitcase full of books on holiday,
Especially if you're travelling by motorbike. Mrs H reads a lot, and asked for a Kindle for Christmas. I duly obliged, and she's delighted with it. Looking forward to being able to pack extra kit in the bike's saddlebags on this year's rallies, in the space vacated by half a dozen paperbacks.
Doesn't appeal to me but in fairness I haven't tried it yet... not that I'll be likely to get the chance unless I buy one meself!
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One thing I hadn't thought of when getting an eReader was how much more comfortable you can get when using it. I'm thinking light weight vs maybe a hardback.
I got the Kindle because the eInk displays available now are much better than my 2 year old Sony one. Much better reflectivity to 'brighter' and clearer. But there is a lot more to prefer with the Kindle over the Sony one:
- Lighter again
- Bigger screen
- More options for resizing text and how many lines, border size, etc
- Syncs so I can pick up with my phone where I was reading in the gym and then go back to the reader
- Easier to turn pages with the control on the side instead of the 4 way controller on the Sony
Downside if books ought to be cheaper being digital but they aren't. Sometimes no cheaper or a little more than a paperback. I could get books for holidays from the library for free. Or hand on bought books to a charity shop.
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Books are great, Kindles are great. However, it's not a question of "one or the other". It's a bit like Satnav v Road atlas or GPS thingy v OS maps. Would you give up the maps completely in favour of the satnav or GPS?? I thought not!
Kindles are not good for books with lots of pictures/maps footnotes because they don't reproduce well and its not easy to flip forwards or back to reference them. (And you can't stick a thumb in the "map page" to refer to it!) However, they are really convenient to carry with you, many ebooks are cheaper than the printed version and, of course, you could have several books "on the go" without lugging them around. Also much easier to have a kindle in rucksack to read on buses/trains etc - I always seem to end up with battered books when carrying them.
By the way, Tesco were selling a clip on "Kindle light" for £1.27 at Christmas, thought it might be rubbish but it works well! Good when sitting in a dark lorry cab in some truckstop!! Or for reading in bed without disturbing the other half!
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Very handy if, say, you watched the TV "Mystery of Edwin Drood" and could download a free copy to Kindle from Project Gutenburg in less half a minute without a computer, as I did. Amazon too has loads of free books (as well as those, crazily, priced higher for Kindle than for a delivered hard copy) and Many Books has a million more. The drawback of free books is that most (but not 100%) are out of copyright and old but this is fine for someone wanting to catch up on "War and Peace" and also wanting to read all 91 books in Balzac's "Human Comedy" series.
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Well, I have nearly finished my second book since I received my Kindle yesterday morning!
First was a "Bolitho" sea story from Alexander Kent and my current one is, believe it or not, a "light" novel about an American ex-NFL player playing for an amateur team in Italy, by of all people, John Grisham.
So far I love the Kindle.(Upwards of 900 books on it now!!!!)
SWMBO is already complaining I have my nose in a "book" all the time!
Still, the second lot of marmalade making beckons, with which I am expected to assist!
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SWMBO's book arrived this morning, probably 'another' Maeve Binchy or Jane Ann Krentz,
(carp!)
I reckon she'll stick with parchment for the time being, but we can both see the benefit of eReaders in certain situations,
How anyone can read a book in one day beats me!
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it's nowt to do with anything intelligence related, but something you can do, or can't do.
I can "speed read" - my wife cannot and refuses to believe that I can!
A three hundred page novel, in which I am really interested, is no problem in a day.
Last edited by: Roger on Fri 20 Jan 12 at 17:41
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I say wow!
Wifey says ~ yes, easy peasey if you are really enjoying the novel, as you say,
Me, I can spend all day on the ww researching something I'm really interested in.
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>> I can spend all day on the ww researching something I'm really interested in.
You can spend all day and still not find what you are looking for. I give it ten minutes these days. If no luck, give up. But maybe try again later. That has worked once or twice.
If one were seventeen again, with computer skills acquired along with mother's milk and a natural tendency to believe anything one read, it would be different.
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>>You can spend all day and still not find what you are looking for. I give it ten minutes these days. If no luck, give up. But maybe try again later. That has worked once or twice.
If one were seventeen again, with computer skills acquired along with mother's milk and a natural tendency to believe anything one read, it would be different<<
I am seventeen, mentally speaking :)
On the world wide, one can research anything and everything from toasters to Tolstoy, Geoffrey of Monmouth to Jeffrey Dahmer.
Of course, as the noted polymath said ~ ''Believe none of what you hear, and half of what you see''
www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1YwVrxC7Hc
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Kindle's are peculiarly addictive. Not sure quite what it is but very hard to resist the temptation to read just one more chapter. Very easy to start where you left off too. I always forget to put a bookmark in a conventional book and when I pick it up again forget where I was,
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Say I had a Kindle and spent £13 on the eBook that I'm reading now (HB) which I got from the Library for 50p,
What does one do with the eBook when one has finished reading it?
You cant (I imagine) pass it on, give it away, or send it to Auntie Matilda downunder.
Or can you?
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I can't see the point of ebooks personally. Most of my reading is done on holiday on a beach. I'm sure ebooks don't get on well with sand/sea water, nor would it be there after I took a dip in the sea. My books (well, the ones I read anyway) would.
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Well, I'm still not convinced that I need either an Iphone or a Kindle despite family thinking otherwise.
I love reading but in recent years anything heavier that Amateur Gardening has proved impossible for me to hold for any length of time.
This week I discovered a solution to my hand problems:)
There was an A5 sized paperback that I bought on holiday last year called 'More Tales form a Cornish Lugger' and I'd made a few attempts to start it only to find I couldn't hold it open or stop the pages closing when it was laid down.
Then I had a flash of inspiration....hold a big bulldog clip down on the desk with the heel of my hand and put the open book in it, perfect.
When I got to the pictures in the middle and saw all the familiar faces I knew I wanted to keep that book forever in my book case, and a Kindle wouldn't have made me feel that way.
Anyone got a bigger bulldog clip so I can set about my bigger books?
Pat
Last edited by: pda on Fri 20 Jan 12 at 16:22
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>>>> Anyone got a bigger bulldog clip so I can set about my bigger books?
>>
>> Pat
>>
These any better/bigger?
www.viking-direct.co.uk/a/pc/Office-Depot-Letter-Clips-Black-125mm-6-Per-Box/pr=H21&id=979350/
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"anything heavier that Amateur Gardening has proved impossible for me to hold for any length of time."
That is one of the reason I bought a Kindle for my wife. She has Rheumatoid arthritis and had difficulty holding things for a long period as well as turning the page. She reads the Kindle with it lying on a cushion on her lap. Turning the page is a light press on a button. That combined with the ability to change the print size has been a major improvement for her .
Incidentally the latest Kindle weights less than a modest paperback.
You should certainly try one if you can. You may well fall in love with it!
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I didn't know they came that big Duncan;)
CG, you sound like my family now and I resisted all that at Christmas time!
I want to be able to treasure my books, look at them lovingly in my bookcase and be proud that MY shelves are all non fiction!
Pat
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>> I want to be able to treasure my books, look at them lovingly in my
>> bookcase and be proud that MY shelves are all non fiction!
Nothing wrong with fiction Pat, some of the greatest strings of words placed on paper have been in the pursuit of providing fictional tales.
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I use fiction as a sort of relief from my usual diet of history, also an usual source of historical perspective sometimes - Bernard Cornwall's excellent books is a classic example.
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But it's not real, so there's no point.
It's the same with films, and musicals...total rubbish.
I'll take anyone's biography and thoroughly enjoy it.
Pat
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So Shakespeare is condemned to oblivion as "pointless".
I will point you towards Pat Barker's excellent Ghost Road trilogy - an absolutely stunning set of novels - I bet you a tenner towards your charity that you'd find them spellbinding....!
+ the price of the books back !
Last edited by: R.P. on Fri 20 Jan 12 at 18:02
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>> But it's not real, so there's no point.
Of course there is point - some of the greatest books of all time are fiction, some of the most absorbing characters of all time are fictional, its easy to write facts, but fiction requires imagination on behalf of the writer and the reader.
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>> You cant (I imagine) pass it on
If Auntie Matilda can be trusted with a Kindle that shares your Kindle account then she can read your books.
I don't say in public how to convert them into other formats for reading on other devices. I know this is illegal but if you bought a paperback you could give it to someone else. So why not an eBook?
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in the digital age of 2012, E-readers for publications make prefect and logical sense. I don't like them because I like the feel and look of books, of perusing bookshops, the sense of permanence they have, and I like the idea of of public libraries.
But one can not remain a woolly mammoth all ones life, like it or not, they are perfectly logical and sensible and will kill the paper and hard covered popular book market. One can not fight the logical and inevitable.
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>>One can not fight the logical and inevitable<<
Of course we can.
Nothing is inevitable.
If everyone had refused to buy First Class stamps we'd still have just one excellent service.
Pat
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>> >>One can not fight the logical and inevitable<<
>>
>> Of course we can.
>> Nothing is inevitable.
>> If everyone had refused to buy First Class stamps we'd still have just one excellent
>> service.
They didn't, we don't. All you would have ended up with is an expensive useless mail service, rather than an expensive useless service with two price structures.,
I will remind you of this when the bookshops have gone, and Amazon does not supply physical books on line.
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Fahrenheit 451 has become available as an e-book recently, how ironic is that (kindling for a Kindle ?)
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Of course we can.
Nothing is inevitable.
Dying is
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SWMBO and I are both big readers and I love all books and bookshops. When we moved to our current house I had a 10 foot long floor to ceiling bookcase built along one wall which I estimate has between 1 &2000 books in it and is full to overflowing.
I too bought SWMBO a Kindle for Christmas and forked out the extra for the 3G and cover with the light for reading in bed.I did start a thread on here a while back when I was considering purchasing it last year
She is pleased with it especially when she loaded one book that she could not find in the shops .
The whole point about it is to use on holiday when the luggage allowance restricts the choice of holiday reading.Try getting a wifi connection half way up a mountain in Crete where we holiday.
Both of us find it impossible to get rid of books so this was just a simple solution to a storeage problem as well .
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Well put - in the middle of a procurement process for a new bookshelf for the bedroom here - the three I had made for my other place were removed and installed here, floor to ceiling they were built by a proper joiner....they are pieces of art, and my book collection overflows :(
This last move saw the dumping of most of my fiction books apart from my beloved SF collection from the 70s and 80s - they languish in plastic air-tight boxes in the garage..
When I say dumped they went to charity shops...
Last edited by: R.P. on Sat 21 Jan 12 at 16:22
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Did anyone by chance happen to spot my lost Kindle in Aylsham railway station before lunch on September 22nd last? The case and the machine both had my contact details on them. Return greatly appreciated - high sentimental value.
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A bit of thread drift here but book related.
I'm currently reading "God is not great; how religion poisons everything" by Christoper Hitchens.
He has some compelling and to me, unanswerable arguments regarding the effect of religion on the development of civilisation and its effect on the recent world.
I guess he is now in a position to know for sure if his arguments are correct!
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In the book, Hitchens contends that organised religion is "violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children" and sectarian, and that accordingly it "ought to have a great deal on its conscience."
Sounds like a 'must read' en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Is_Not_Great
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If you substitute the word "men are " for "religion is" in Mr Hitchens' statement it is still broadly true.
I think that tells you where the fundamental problem is.
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His opening argument seems to be that all religion is man made, so I think that the substitution to which you refer is perfectly valid!
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What's with these blimmin eReaders then? - Stuu
