I was looking at the Nook last week. Tempting as it was to get one, I didn't feel it was worth the price. Looks like it won't be long before it's priced to really sell.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/21/technology/nook_price_cut/index.htm?section=money_latest
Looks like the new prices are in effect now. Now how to let everyone know I have a birthday coming up... ;)
Start off by talking about how fast this year went, then casually mention the birthday ;)
Because I'm drowning in books (still), I am starting to think heavily about an e-reader, but I'm really nervous about having to commit to a single format. It's especially troubling because I'm not sure how to judge the important stuff - the content.
Before I commit, I want to know more about how quickly books are e-published, and how many books are e-published. I don't want to buy a reader and find out that the books available contain all the latest horror and the "high heeled shoe on the cover" books, but no Colette, no anthologies, no nature writers? A huge Christian religion section but almost no Buddhism?
Has anyone seen an evaluation/comparison of the readers on the basis of catalog available?
All the readers will be able to read the thousands of free, public-domain ebooks available. Some will be available as human-reviewed files in various text formats (most of them the work of Project Gutenberg and Distributed Proofreaders) and many will be available only as scanned PDFs.
Most of these books are pre-1923. After that date, availability is spotty. The copyrights of some books weren't renewed, so they're public domain and in some cases, processed by humans as text files in various formats. (DP has done quite a few old science fiction mags; proofers just LOVE to work on them.) There are some books available from Gutenberg sites in countries like Australia and Canada, where copyright laws are less absurd. (%$!@#$@ you, Walt Disney!) You can also find many books as pirated ebooks, often of abysmal quality.
Commercially published, recent books are hit or miss as far as availability in e. I think Amazon might have the biggest selection, as Kindle ebooks, but they are far from offering everything in e. Some publisher seem to feel that if they close their eyes, all that ebook nonsense will just go away!
The problem with the Kindle is that it locks you into the Amazon system. Ditto for the iPad; locks you into Apple. Some people feel that the Sony reader is the least restrictive of the currently available major brands. Some people predict a tablet (like the iPad) running Android (which is open source), which in my eyes would be the best thing yet: a fully open-source solution.
Things are changing fast right now; I imagine that more and more will be available in e in the next few years. Don't wait to get an e-reader. It's like waiting to get a new computer; there will always be a new and better one in a few months. Don't deny yourself NOW for an ever-tantalizing future.
First, I have an eReader (Nook) and I love it. As far as getting locked into a format, there is freeware available to manage your ebook library as well as convert formats (http://calibre-ebook.com/) to work with whichever eReader you choose. i.e. Kindle to Nook formats. I have it and it works wonderfully. Also, a lot of the older books are available free on the public domain (back to those copyright laws that Zora mentioned). In fact, I got three books with my Nook (Jane Eyre, Dracula, and Pride and Prejudice). Also, I can buy eBooks the same day that the Hardcovers are released and for about half the cost. Plus, I don't have to leave the comfort of my favorite reading chair to do it either. BUT, there are some authors who do not publish their works as eBooks (JK Rowling is the first that comes to mind).
My Nook has allowed me to purge two bookshelves of books. I kept some of my favorites in Hardback and the current pile that my DH is reading. He doesn't read enough to justify an eReader, whereas I have read 5 books in the last week. And I did check that some of my favorite paperbacks were available in eBook format before purging them.
Final Thoughts: Dont wait! Dont deny yourself the pleasure of having thousands of books at your finger tips!
Kindle format to Nook? What about the DRM? That's the BIGGEST drawback to investing in current ebooks. Several years back, I bought the three volumes of Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver trilogy as eReader files. They were keyed to my old Sony Clie, which died. Now I can't read them. Money wasted.
Blessings upon Baen, which sells ebooks with no DRM, at a reasonable price. Even though I could easily steal from them, I don't; I buy.
Julia, I've been drowning in books too (see "the library that ate my apartment") and just recently downloaded Kindle PC and one book, to see if I would like it. And I LIKE IT. On my laptop I got a brilliantly readable display. And anything I order to read can be read on any Kindle device or reader, so if I eventually get a dedicated device I'll have access to anything I've downloaded.
Just knowing all that content is available has enabled me to clear out over 40 novels already, with more to come. I'm checking the vast Kindle Store to see what's available, and if a title (in a non-collectible, non-treasured edition) in my library is available, I am giving it away - because if I absolutely, positively, have to read that book again, I can get it in a minute.
I'm confident that Amazon will be around, the content library will continue to expand, and the Kindle platform will continue to evolve, throughout my lifetime. It took quite a bit of internal debate, but this has been a major victory in my uncluttering campaign.
Though anyone looking at my bookshelves would probably say, eh? :-)
I've seen other posts on Unclutterer about the value of Libraries. One thing those posts often miss is that libraries can be great sources for info on technology as well as books and magazines. Some libraries or library systems have e-book readers and other devices for in-house use and some even have them for check out Comparing features is great, but there's nothing like being able to handle the devices & see how they look, work and feel in your hand. A few libraries/library systems I know of have ipads and netbooks as well as Kindles, Nooks & a variety of other equipment. Offering these technologies helps libraries and librarians to be familiar with the technologies customers are using and it's great service to the public as well!
Richard Askenase, in a comment thread over at Teleread:
"I believe that Sony will NOT be a long term player in ebooks. 1) They have been continuallty struggling with matching Amazon prices for the hardware. 2) Their bookstore is totally non-comptetive and won’t be so. 3) No One thinks of them in terms of books. So, I think they’ll be gone by 2012.
"Kobo I don’t see as a long term player in the US market either. 1) Borders may be bye bye (or at least shrinking by 30-50%), thus the major retail outlet for the Kobo will diappear. And, Borders is not much of an ebook store anyway. Kobo does have a good product apparently, though, according to Joanna, it still needs major software upgrades, but I think their future is Canada, Australia, etc, NOT America.
"B & N has done an excellent job fixing the Nook, and now competing on better price and wifi model. Also, I see that the B & N ebook sales may have bettered Amazon in March/April, according to reports. I think that is a big shot across the bow of Amazon, and has startled them MORE than lowering the nook price. So, B & N is in this for the long run (and their in-store marketing is pretty good).
"Apple’s iBook store, in my opinion, will not be a very big player although they will continue to sell many iPads. 1) They are so far behind Amazon and B & N on number of books in the bookstore and the reviews, etc within the store, that they will not catch up. 2) In fact, I do not believe that they will try. Look Amazon has over 615,000 ebooks in the store, and still over 580,000 after deducting the free public domain books. Apple is at about 50,000- not competitive. I think the iBook store will stick with best sellers only and not go for depth of catalogue. 3) I still believe that it has been shown that not much book reading is being done on the iPad. The number of 2.5 books downloaded per ipad is a JOKE, and does NOT make the iPad a serious ebook reader for the serious reader. Newspapers and magazines will be its reading forte (which is fine).
"Finally, I think the big elephant NOT yet in the room is Google. I don’t really understand where Google is going. Will they sell an ebook reader? How will they sell ebooks to other ereaders? We should see their strategy over the next 18 months."
My husband's boss today suggested that it would be a good idea to adapt some of the software the company produces to run on e-readers, so he might be getting a Nook to play with.
I'll eventually be making the switch, as I have visual limitations and need to be able to resize text and change contrast levels: some books I will always need to own in hardcopy, but for most it's the information that's important to me, not the format.
Lucy - the text size and contrast were major considerations. DH is legally blind; with his glasses, he can read fine and is fully functional, but being able to get your average piece of reading material in a large text size is going to make reading a lot more comfortable for him. And I'm sure as I age it will be nice for me, too!
i bought my husband a kindle partly because that was our only option in australia and partly because i'd already started buying kindle books for the kindle app in my iphone.
o, kindle isn't perfect. but's pretty darn good!
a gf gave me some books in london and i chewed through two of them and was hooked and of course they are a series.
kindle to the rescue!......i had downloaded two more in the series within three minutes of closing the book.
if the nook ever becomes available here, i'll get one of those too and really hedge my bets.
anything to avoid paperback clutter....
I have the Kindle and like it quite a bit...I also read many books via ereader on my iphone. I think if you stick with the nook or kindle, you'll be fine. Of course, the ipad does much more than read books so I'd love one of those.
Finally, I'd only buy as many books as you plan to read before you'll need to upgrade to the next version of your reading device. If you've read most of your previous books, then it won't be such a big deal if they're not compatible with your next ereader.
For me it is less about the reader and the DRM than it is about the store. If I can't find the book I want to buy at all (hi there iTunes store!), well then DRM is not an issue. Amazon is simply the best at selling books online. I don't expect my Kindle to be in use 10 years from now, any more than I expect my fabulous-Droid-phone-that-I-adore to be.
Like others above, I download books from my library to my Kindle, and some I buy. Classics, like all of Dumas, are $1, so even with the DRM, if you factor in how much it would cost me to physically have all his works, I am ahead financially.
In the end, for me, it was a decision to not have so many books. Both in my house, and in my bag. My Kindle has about 200 books on it right now, and wherever I am, I can pick something to suit my mood. Love it!
You don't need to buy the classics. You can download them for free from manybooks.net, already prepared in Kindle format.
Anyone who charges you for public domain ebooks is scamming you.
One advantage of the Nook is that B&N keep a copy of your purchased library and you can re-download at anytime for free any titles purchased. Should something happen to your Nook, you already have an online backup. (Of course, I also keep a back up of all my purchased titles on my external hard drive as well).
@zora, that's true, but the public domain ones frequently don't have nice TOCs and indexes, and I'm willing to pay some poor editor a dollar to do that for me. I don't feel scammed, as it is easier for me to find a particular quote or section this way, and to me enhances the edition. YMMV obviously.
HappyDogs, I agree. Public domain republishing often means very shoddy editing. I got a hard copy of John Stuart Mill that I didn't realize was somebody's amateur republication - what a mess!
Sigh. Project Gutenberg's early history bites again.
Until 2001, PG books were produced by people working alone. Some of them were conscientious, some weren't. Michael Hart, who started PG and owns the trademark, doesn't care much. He believes in letting people do what they want. He is also suspicious of academics.
Distributed Proofreaders started in 2001 and was initially producing books to meet PG's low standards. Over the years we've become much more serious about quality. Proofing is now done in five steps, not two. We make HTML versions with TOCs.
However, the old, BAD books are still in the PG catalog. Many of the most famous of them were done before DP. DP is re-doing some of those, but not all.
There's been some talk of setting quality standards and finding a home for a library of free ebooks guaranteed to be of high quality, ones that scholars can trust. So far it's just talk.
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