eBooks & Readers

**Seak** · October 13th, 2012, 11:45 PM

I ended up going with the Kindle Touch for the e-ink screen. I do enough on computers and didn't want another backlit screen to read on too.

I DO like that with tablets, your library looks much more flashy than on an e-ink device, but otherwise not worth it on my eyes.

One of the big advantages with the Kindle, and I don't know about other devices, but they have a great system to borrow books from your local library.

bossfan2000, a forum member and blogger, has a lot of these devices. I would recommend asking him. He pretty much buys anything that comes out and reviews them on his blog too. Here's a link to his newest one, the Kindle Paperwhite.

**Lurker8** · October 14th, 2012, 10:09 AM

Thank you - I did read through his review. This convinced me not to try jump through hoops to get one (I cannot buy the Paperwhite if I live in Canada). Still trying to decide between Amazon Touch or a Nook.... I see that he posted link to the Kobo as well, but it doesn't seem to be as popular as the other two.

**JimF** · October 14th, 2012, 11:20 AM

I have a Kobo touch, had it for almost a year and I love it. I really like the eInk screen. I have not used a Kindel, but I imagine I would also like it based in the screen. If you can get to a Chapters or Indigo store you can test drive a Kobo for yourself.

Jim

**Erfael** · October 14th, 2012, 03:24 PM

I picked a Nook when I was looking for eReaders a year ago for the simple fact that B&N still has B&M stores, so I'd rather support them than throw more money to Amazon, where it disappears from my community completely.

**Lurker8** · October 15th, 2012, 10:06 PM

The Chapters in my area have Kobos on display but they always seem to be broken - the buttons and screens are really unresponsive. Granted, people are pretty careless with floor models, but it made me doubt their durability!

B&N isn't in Canada so Amazon or B&N, so either way, money disappears from my community

Going to try the Kindle, partly because I have been buying physical books through Amazon.ca for a long time and love the Amazon customer service.

**Window Bar** · October 28th, 2012, 09:54 PM

What a quandary-- Yup, Amazon has great service, and their tech is good. When I bought my Nook a couple of years ago, Kindle didn't function for our library because it wouldn't take ePub files, so the Nook was the obvious choice. The choice ain't so obvious anymore -- it's just that I've always been reluctant to feed any monopoly or near-monopoly.

**Erfael** · October 28th, 2012, 10:03 PM

As I mentioned previously, I'm perfectly happy with my Nook. The only appreciable difference I see at this point is that Amazon will still occasionally undercut B&N on the price of some eBooks...which to me feels like the big guy throwing his weight around in order to get more weight. So I'm happy enough to pay a little extra for the same reasons I mentioned above...I'm still in some way supporting a company that has a storefront somewhere.

**Eventine** · December 30th, 2012, 06:11 PM

Well, in the end I surprised myself and got a Kindle. I was confident enough in using Calibre to overcome my DRM concerns, and the library seemed to be the most extensive. I'll give the device itself a workout as I'm travelling/holidaying over the next few weeks.
The main issue I have so far is a purely mental one - I balk at paying "full" price for eBooks. I've happily purchased a few cheap/discounted books, but as soon as the price is over $10 I can't make myself buy yet. There's some mental adjustment required here if I'm going to move away from dead tree books!

**greymouse** · December 30th, 2012, 06:40 PM

In my opinion, there's no good reason why electronic books should cost as much as print books. Electronic production and distribution costs are certainly far lower; with electronic books, the financial risk of bringing out new titles by new authors is far less. My own take on this is that the corporate publishing industry is deliberately handicapping the competition between the two media. The rise of the electronic book threatens their dominance in the marketplace.

**greymouse** · December 30th, 2012, 07:09 PM

BTW, could anyone tell me where those living in Australia normally buy Kindle books? If there's a specific Amazon outlet, I haven't been able to find it. I'm curious if there are additional fees involved.

**Eventine** · December 30th, 2012, 07:16 PM

My account is through amazon.co.uk, but my purchases seem to coming through amazom.com.
No additional fees (apart from currency conversion) and fortunately the Aussie dollar is still very strong.

**inschskye** · January 8th, 2013, 04:35 PM

I got bought a Kindle just over a year ago and though I thought I'd never take to it, I haven't looked back. I love it, my house was getting crowded out a bit in storage of all the paper copies. The only pain was replacing all my favourites.

**Rexington** · January 13th, 2013, 03:47 AM

my gf bought me a kindle fire hd for the holidays. it came with a pdf reader on it and i have already made a $5 donation to an unnamed author whose book i am reading. that is more money an author can make from any individual purchase of his/her work through conventional means.

**Loerwyn** · January 13th, 2013, 04:22 AM

Originally Posted by Rexington

my gf bought me a kindle fire hd for the holidays. it came with a pdf reader on it and i have already made a $5 donation to an unnamed author whose book i am reading. that is more money an author can make from any individual purchase of his/her work through conventional means.

Maybe from that purchase, but if their sales figures stay low a publisher may decide to pass on further books/reprints, which can and will happen. So it's important to buy books through conventional means.

**psikeyhackr** · January 16th, 2013, 02:49 PM

I ordered a Nexus 7 shortly after it was announced. I have installed the Kindle software and downloaded a few books though I don't use it all that much. It works fine as a reader though I don't like e-readers simulating book pages to be turned. I think they should have a variable automatic scroll speed and bring up the lines automatically.

There is actually quite a bit of free stuff that is good on the net.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/402371/chapters/663226

That is a decent story. Not quite as witty as Bujold but I have bought and read plenty not as good.

I have not tried e-ink. I would not buy a tablet unless it was multifunctional. I use my computer to do text to speech and then listen to MP3s on the Nexus.

Smart AudioBook Player works really well. The computer voice was somewhat annoying when I first started but now I just hear the story and ignore the computer voice. My current complaint is that the Nexus 7 does not have a microSD slot. If I start hear good things about some no-name brand with a microSD slot I will buy it.

psik