I’m new here, so I don’t know if anyone’s posted this link:
http://www.manybooks.net

ManyBooks offers free eBooks formatted for the electronic device of your choice, including the Kindle and Sony readers. Anything that’s out-of-copyright should be available here.

-+-

ManyBooks, the Sony eBookstore and my local library all helped to stem the tide of physical books flooding my bookshelves. However, I still buy physical books if I cannot find them in electronic format or at the library. For example, the Vampire Hunter D series, most graphic novels and “how-to” books on animation are not available in electronic format or at my library.

So, despite electronic reading and my library, I’m still drowning in physical books. I need to purge more physical books from my out-of-control collection. :^(

Jen :^)

I received my Kindle 2 weeks ago (it’s my Christmas present) and I absolutely love this thing!

I have read 2 long novels on it so far and am almost finished with another. I have lots of content on it already, but paid almost nothing (or nothing) for most of it.

I do not get eyestrain with it (it’s not back-lit like a PC screen). I can adjust the text size. I read faster with the Kindle (not sure why). I also purchased a small book light, but haven’t needed it so far. I have no camplaint with the speed the pages change.

* If I find a book in another format, I can email the file to my kindle email address and they will convert it. There is a free address that can be used, although the Kindle Boards say they are not charging anyone 10 cents per conversion, even through the other address. They will convert several file types. You can send documents to yourself, or store them on an SD card. Or, I can download to my PC and import into the Kindle anything in several formats (most notably .mobi).

* It will hold about 200 books, and an SD card can be installed so you can add as much as 8 GB+ more space.

* It will play mp3 files and audio books. It has speakers or a head-phone jack. You can listen to background music while you read.

* You can put pictures on it.

* The screensavers are really nice. You can change them if you want to add new ones.

* You can use it for email, and receive email using gMail or receive email from anyone you add to your allowed address list.

* I can search online through Google.

* It has a basic web browser.

* You can receive sample chapters to read to decide if you might want to buy the book later.

* It has a built-in dictionary I can use at any time to get a definition.

* It saves my place in the book when I put it on ’sleep’ or turn it off.

* My purchased books are saved on Amazon’s web site, so I can erase them from my Kindle after I read them, and go back and get them again later if I want to.

* I can make bookmarks of important pages, highlights of parts of pages, notes, etc. You can put important papers on it, if you want.

* If you have one and want to share books with a spouse or relative, etc. just add them to the same account… like the iPod, you can 5 (or six) Kindles registered to the same account.

* I have had almost no trouble with the page-turning keys that many complain about (although they should be smaller).

I live in the country and have to go a few miles to use the Whispernet, but I bought the Kindle for reading and to reduce my book clutter. I go to an area with the Whispernet reception almost daily, anyway. If I want a book immediately, I can download it to my PC, hook in with the USB, and copy it to the Kindle.

We aren’t the type of people that go out and bring home tons of books on purpose, but they really do pile up over the years, and I hate to throw them away (I know that makes no sense at all). Most of my web browsing, news reading, email, etc. I would rather do on my PC, so that wasn’t much of a factor in my purchase.

I still have books and will keep buying ‘Dead Tree’ copies of books that I really care about, but most of the books I read I do not really want to keep forever (I just had no good outlet for getting rid of them without tossing them). That being said, I have 4 large shelves of books I will keep most of the rest of my life.

We do not have a very good library in our small TX county (it’s mostly religious and kids’ books), and it is a long drive from where I live (30 mins. each way). Books collect a lot of dust here. They are difficult to get rid of (emotionally and IRL). My daughter had a moving sale and had to try to give her books away for free, and even then she was stuck with most of them. There is now a Friends of the Library group where I can give my previously-read books to a good cause (finally!).

I am a little bit irked that a new version might be coming out ’soon’, but from what I have read about it, there won’t be anything about it that would make me regret not waiting to buy this.

I think that spending this much money is an individual decision, and I have wanted one of these readers since they first came out. I understand the expense, since Amazon has to pay Verizon for the Whispernet connectivity. I am a fairly active Amazon shopper, anyway. The DRM issue isn’t very important to me, personally… I will leave that to others.

For anyone that might be interested in the Kindle, there is an independent and very active, helpful, and friendly message board I found at:
http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php

Now and then they have listings for used Kindles for sale.

I’ll take my iPhone with itunes and stanza over it any day of the week.

With electronic distribution, the costs to “make” and distribute books almost completely disappear. The cost of making a copy of an ebook and sending it to someone is effectively *zero*. But the entire publishing industry is built on the premise that making and distributing copies costs real money. So their entire business model has evaporated. Like most industries that have become irrelevant dinosaurs, the publishing industry refuses to acknowledge that their reason for being has mostly disappeared, and is trying legal and technological means to preserve their existence rather than adapting to the new reality. Thus DRM and DMCA, which create artificial scarcity and outlaw things we take for granted, like selling or giving books away.

Some authors, like Cory Doctorow, Radiohead, and many, many independent artists are embracing the new reality and distributing their creations online, finding different ways to get paid for their creations. Meanwhile the dinosaurs try to make it illegal to read a book when and where you want!

Hopefully, ebooks in open, non-DRM-infected formats will become more common that paper books. Lending libraries will be online, with millions of volumes available instantly anywhere in the World. Much like you can retrieve now, in an instant, the great works of Homer, Shakespeare, and Mark Twain from the Gutenburg project. Adults and children will be able to learn wherever they are, at the touch of a button.

In that positive scenario, brick-and-mortar libraries will become fewer and fewer because we don’t need them anymore to assure that everyone can read a book. Some will adapt, others will close.

In a darker future, where the Kindle and it’s DRM-laden ilk rule the world, ALL public libraries will be CLOSED! It will be illegal to share a book with a friend, or sell it, or even give it away. It is /already/ illegal to do any of those things with books you buy from Amazon for the Kindle. Imagine, illegal to share a book!

A prophetic short story predicting just such a future:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html

Libraries, too, have storage issues — and if they can get rid of less read titles (to Kindle) to make room for more popular books, then it would seem like a win-win situation.

A drawback would be that the poor book that gets demoted to Kindle-only version doesn’t have a chance with people who might select it while browsing.

As my daughter’s 8th grade science teacher told his students of the first day of school:

“Technology giveth and technology taketh away.”

So true.

The great thing about the ScanSnap is that it converts the files to searchable PDF. I wonder if anyone has considered going co-op with these things. Can you install the software on on more than one computer? Erin? I was going to try that on my laptop but have not yet done it.

If you are scanning with your Dell,Malena, the upside is that you will reconsider scanning the less important things because you will weed them out and just toss them. Presto, less computer clutter!

I even scan student projects and the scoresheets I sent back with them so I could document what I saw and said.

Next week I plan to get everything out of the safety deposit box, scan it all and return it.

Now general paper – that’s a killer. I’ve burned up two shredders so far. I shred a lot. I’d love a Fujitsu ScanSnap for my files, but right now our household economical climate denies me that pleasure. In the mean time -

Do you think it’s worth trying to scan as much as possible with my little Dell printer/scanner? I understand that multi-page docs will pose a challenge. But between that and the cool FreedomeFiler system that I’m pondering, surely I could get a semi-grip on the paper. I have a two drawer filing cabinet that is full, and enough paper to fill another one. Do we really need that much paper? Is anyone else in the same boat? What have you tried that worked/didn’t work?

Help – I’m drowning…

There are also a few other companies making e-readers with e-ink. Before purchasing any, it might be worthwhile to do a little research to find the one that truly meets your needs. Otherwise, you’ll just end up with another tech-gadget cluttering your home.

I have Kindle and plan on buying 2.0 if it offers a faster screen refresh speed. Mind you, I budget for my gadgets because I greatly enjoy them. Wi-fi would be nice, too.

Regarding the DRM, I bought my kindle as a gift for myself and was aware of the limitations. However, I’m willing to “rent” the ebooks since I’m the one footing my own bill and saving my own physical bookshelf space. There’s good free and legal sources like Project Gutenberg or Baen Free library. I bought the kindle because it has access to new content that I’d like to read. Treasured keeper books are purchased in physical format.

Gifts that require “more”- I don’t like to give gifts that cost the recipient to spend more like mp3 players, game consoles, and things which require subscriptions. Far from uncluttering someone’s life, it needs more (expensive) stuff just to use the device. If you give such a gift, then also give certificates or time to convert files to the right format for the recipient.