Reading on a Kindle

Eoin

There are buttons on both sides of mine.

seamus

I would be interested to know the proportion of people who claim that they couldn't ever switch from paper print, have actually used a Kindle device and not an iPad.

I haven't, for the record. But anyone I've spoken that's used it has raved about it's readability.

I would probably be more able than most to read long-term on a computer screen, but I too do prefer to read print than screen. I can also appreciate the nostalgia behind a book - particularly an old copy of something, wondering who has read it before, uncovering cryptic messages and scrawls in margins and inside covers; it connects you with history.
Particularly if it's a book that's been in your family, finding a message to a grandparent on an inside cover, along with a date 50 years before you were born, for example, conjurs up a feeling - almost like you've time-travelled - that's difficult to get otherwise.

But for me, these are feelings separate to the content. I'm a serial consumer. I read a book and it goes to the back of the bookshelf. I don't care if I've bought a modern reprint or I'm reading a 60-year-old copy, when I'm reading a book I'm consuming the content and the presentation medium is (mostly) irrelevant to me. This is why when I get around to getting a kindle (or similar), I'll probably never buy a paper book again.
I'm not a collector either - if I got my hands on an original Gutenberg Bible, I'd probably bask in the history of it, look at it with a big smile on my face, take a few pictures for the grandkids and then sell it onto the highest bidder. Likewise for any "important" old print of a book.

That said, I've held an iPad. It's too heavy for reading long-term and the proportions are all wrong. A Kindle is half (?) the size and less than half the weight. So in that respect, presentation medium is important to me.

Glowing

I don't doubt the Kindle's readibility, I think it's quite a nifty little device.

But the enjoyment I get from collecting, lending, borrowing and displaying my books will never be replaced by convenience!!

I love nothing more than to go on a book splurge on www.play.com!

Permabear

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blue_steel

I am no luddite, never without my ipod touch, always needlessly upgrading my phone, spend half of most evenings on the laptop. But I will never never never switch to a kindle Half the joy of reading is browsing in the book shop and handling the physical object that is a novel. And I always get a childish thrill when I pop another finished book onto the already crowded shelf.

radiofoot

I am going to London this week and with the Kindle costing £109 there, I am very tempted to buy one. A friend of mine has the Sony and has found it very difficult to find a good selection of books.

Can you get full access to the Amazon eBooks in Ireland and what does an Amazon eBook typically cost?

Permabear

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seamus

donegalfella wrote: »

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Although it does appear as though Amazon are creaming it on ebooks by charging the same price without a physical product, I imagine they are paying not insignificant flat fees to network operators for 3G access, so this can be considered the "shipping cost", I suppose.

The Sparrow

seamus wrote: »

Although it does appear as though Amazon are creaming it on ebooks by charging the same price without a physical product, I imagine they are paying not insignificant flat fees to network operators for 3G access, so this can be considered the "shipping cost", I suppose.

Also, Amazon claim that when ebooks are almost as expensive as hardback or paperback it is in part because the publisher sets the price and refuses to lower it in line with their other prices. Not sure how true that is, but that would explain why some ebooks are cheaper than others.

Dyr

Worth bearing in mind that digital formats for text were available a long time before video and audio and still never replaced books, for whatever reasons

What is availability like on the kindle nowdays? I usually check for kindle versions when I'm looking for books online and they're rarely available. Maybe I just have odd tastes.

OwaynOTT

cyning wrote: »

I'm a bit odd: of like the last ten books I downloaded I bought 5 of them: I read the e version while in work (on my phone :rolleyes:) and the "real" version for at home and the bookshelf. I'm mad for a Kindle at the moment: think I'll succumb before much longer! I would never want to go entirely electronic: nothing beats a book You cant replicate taking out that dog eared copy of your favourite book and re reading it. Or reading it so much the binding falls apart as with some of my favourites! Or that new book smell that you get.

E books though are convenient: if I want to go on holiday most of my luggage was taken up with books: now I'll have more space for shoes

I do that as well. Its getting redonkcolous!

metrovelvet

If people convert to this that will be the end of bookshelves and nosily snooping other people's reading history.

Valmont

metrovelvet wrote: »

If people convert to this that will be the end of bookshelves and nosily snooping other people's reading history.

Ah no, those who still read will have their reading logs on facebook or something so don't worry!

Eliot Rosewater

Valmont wrote: »

Ah no, those who still read will have their reading logs on facebook or something so don't worry!

Facebook is the only future for books?! :eek:

I'm even more worried now.

Jumpy

I have both a Sony PRS-600 and an MReader, I am definitely an ereader convert.
The MReader is extremely clear, but so sloooooooow, the PRS-600 is instant and you can mimic page turning with the touch screen, but its a tad reflective.

OwaynOTT

metrovelvet wrote: »

If people convert to this that will be the end of bookshelves and nosily snooping other people's reading history.

Ah no books still have a life I think. EBooks aren't always cheaper than print so....

cynder

I dont go to the library, i buy all my books (36 so far this year and thats only on my ereader purchased 12 other books).


i like keeping my favorite books but my books were starting to take over the house so i got an ereader last xmas and i love it. i wil buy a paper book but i will look first to see if i can get it on waterstones ebooks first (or whsmith but their site is soooo slowwwwww)

before getting the ereader i was worried that i wouldnt like the look or feel of it, but when i got to pafe 12 of my first book i loved it, still do, best xmas pressie ever

OwaynOTT

Cutting down on books spreading into every room is main reason why I would like a kindle and also cuts down on paper being used.

kylith

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Cutting down on books spreading into every room is main reason why I would like a kindle and also cuts down on paper being used.

I'm not really not really convinced that much deforestation is caused by printing, because if they want to maintain supplies of paper then they have to maintain the levels of trees. Indeed, the more books that are printed, the more paper they need, and the more trees they'd have to plant to keep up with demand.

There are other ways to supply paper too; I seem to remember hearing that you can get more paper out of an acre of hemp in one year than you get out of ten acres of trees in ten years. (I may be wrong about the exact details)

I'm much more concerned about the amount of forests being destroyed to turn into farmland.

Denerick

Valmont wrote: »

I hear the kids in fifty years: "We saw some old guy today and he was reading a book!"

Unless the paper and printing unions can block the uptake of e-readers for school children or something like that.

I'll probably be that strange old man with a distinct urine smell, insisting on harking back to a 'simpler time', screaming at the kids for 'defiling all that was good in the world', hugging and kissing the last remaining copy of J.G. Farrells Troubles, having completely forgotten the irony and humour in that book but holding it desperately nonetheless...

Denerick

To get back to the point: I will never ever use a kindle, mainly for ideological reasons. Everything is too easy, too accessible nowadays. We know the price of everything but the value of nothing. In 5 years time your version of the Kindle will be obsolete, a new version will come out and you'll have to buy that. Buy a book and it'll sit on your shelf for centuries, it'll be your legacy on this world, for what its worth.

Plowman

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Denerick

Plowman wrote: »

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If someone buys me an e-reader I'll throw it on the ground before their eyes, stamp on it, and scream wild and highly uncalled for insults at them.

metrovelvet

Denerick wrote: »

If someone buys me an e-reader I'll throw it on the ground before their eyes, stamp on it, and scream wild and highly uncalled for insults at them.

Mine will go on top of the digital photo frame which has been sitting in a corner since last Christmas.

Aren't people tactile anymore?

galwayguy85

A link to one method (written by myself, for the Gadgets section) I have found to work on Kindle PC/Mac Reader that allows you as an irish customer to get Kindle ebooks at the vastly reduced UK price. This methods should be extendable to the actual Kindle device itself, but I have not tested it. Hope to get the Kindle soon enough though.

Also make sure to read the update, posted after the method description.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056044467

de Faoite_girl

Hubby got me a Sony e-reader 2 years ago for Christmas.

Knowing my endless love for books, he thought this would be the perfect present and that I would be grateful for ever.

In fairness, I think he bought it because he was fed up of seeing piles of books thrown everywhere in the house.

Anyway, needless to say that I was not too impressed, I "played" with it for a couple to days, pretending to like it and that it was indeed the best present ever.

However, it soon ended up at the very bottom of a dusty drawer. Like most people who are against e-readers, I feel that nothing can replace the smell of an old book and the feeling of the pages beneath one's fingers.

However, the worst was that I felt totally GUILTY for owning such a device. It felt like I had an aldulterous relationship with the machine and that I was cheating on my books, that I was betraying them in a way...

Maybe I should swap my dusty Sony e-reader for a huge pile of books with someone out there

DFG

Permabear

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Valmont

For me, the one distinct advantage of an e-reader would be its ability to display PDF files. I'm doing a research postgrad and I'm sick of printing off 20+ page articles on A4 paper and then lugging them around losing bits here and there. If I could write notes on it, now that would be brilliant!

Denerick

Valmont wrote: »

For me, the one distinct advantage of an e-reader would be its ability to display PDF files. I'm doing a research postgrad and I'm sick of printing off 20+ page articles on A4 paper and then lugging them around losing bits here and there. If I could write notes on it, now that would be brilliant!

Never thought about that before. The e-reader would be perfect for journal articles... You'd cut down on so much shít.

The Sparrow

Eventually somebody will devise a really good ereader that can display textbooks and then it will start being used by school children and then it is game over for books as we know it except amongst old relics like some of the people on this thread :pac:;)

Books will go the way of vinyl and only be read by people for nostalgic reasons.

I've had a Kindle for the past week and it is one of the best gadgets that I have ever owned. Even if you were to never read a book on it, the ability to download as many newspapers as you like each morning is brilliant.