eBook Readers

[Robzilla1983]

Anyone have any of the eBook readers? I've been thinking about the Kobo, because of the price point. I'd love to have the iPad, just because the screen is so friggen nice, but I can't justify spending that kind of cash when all I really want to use on it is the iBooks app

[Guest tparker]

I like the idea of eBook readers, but still prefer dead tree editions. If they ever come out with maybe adding a dollar or two to price of books, with download of eBook, then it will be time.

[Dobroverich]

I have the Sony eReader. I really like it. I love to read and I travel a lot (a lot of times with baggage weight requirements) so packing a lot of books doesn't work out. It's light and easy to use and all that stuff. The only problem I've noticed so far (aside from people laughing when I tell them I have to charge my book) is when you doze off while laying down and reading a metal ereader hurts more when it falls into your face. I still prefer paper books and if I ever read an ebook that I absolutely love I'll probably go out and buy it in paper form.

[Sethbacca]

I've been eyeballing the Kobo myself and think I'm going to take the plunge next month once it becomes available. You can never have too much reading material

[transer]

I'm sure it's not what you were thinking....but I've been reading ebooks on my smartphones/pdas for years-first on my palm pilots, then my Treo, and now my iPhone. If you have a smartphone currently, it'd be worth giving it a shot. I was very surprised at how comfortable I was reading on the small screen. YMMV, of course, but it's an option...

[Sethbacca]

Yah, I tried the ereader on my Android phone, it's okay, but i'd prefer an e-ink screen for reading of anything other than a couple mintues here or there.

[Vader]

I've read on electronic devices for years. Used to use PDAs, all in Pocket PC format (the Dell Axim x51v was one of the BEST ever made, so of course they discontinued it rather than coming out with a new model... :roll: ), the last of which I still own but use only rarely now. This past New Years, I got myself a Droid smartphone, and went converged. For reading, there's a program called Aldiko which works pretty well - free trial, and the full version only costs like $1.99. I don't even remember what functions might be gimped in trial mode, honestly. I had to convert all my old ebooks to the format Aldiko uses (that's .epub, which is apparently fairly common - everything I had prior to that was MS Reader format, .LIT), but one can use a program called Calibre for that (free, IIRC), and it'll do batch conversions. I did 275 conversions at once. Aldiko will also let you go online and find free, public domain books - I got a lot of old classics that way, over the air.

Some people can't tolerate reading on an LED screen, so try it out before you commit. I've never had a real problem with that - if my eyes are already strained or I already have a headache, I can't take it for too long, but usually I could read literally all day on my PDA/phone. I also don't have a problem with re-reading books, as long as it's been a little while since my last pass through - and with a few hundred to choose from, that's typically not an issue. If you use a smartphone, you'll have to be sensitive to battery drain - try to stick with stuff stored locally, on the phone, rather than online, and plug the phone in whenever you can (which they advise you to do anyways, these days). Since most manufacturers, excluding Apple :x , trust users to do things like, oh, replace a LiIon battery on their own, it might not be a bad idea to get a spare - I actually carry mine, though I've only needed it once when I accidentally left the phone on in book-reader mode when I put it away (which defaults to locking the device on - I pulled it back out of the case and saw I had <5% power remaining and was nowhere near a charger, so I had to swap batteries), and I switch the installed battery for the spare every month. If you don't like LED or the new AMOLED screens (don't ask me what it stands for...), try the Kindle's B&W e-ink screen - I'm told it looks just like a physical newspaper.

I REALLY dislike DRM, and I'm a big sci-fi/milscifi fan, so most of my books are from Baen Publishing. They have an extensive Free Library, on the principle that "The first hit's free..." :twisted: - you can get the first, or first few, books in most of their series there, to see if you like them, and you can find e-copies of their promo CDs online which have copies of lots more - and you're free to download them, as well. Baen asks, if you like what you read, that you buy dead-tree copies, and tell you friends what you liked. Most other e-book sellers do DRM their wares, and Amazon demonstrated the ability to independently delete things from users' Kindles a year or two back - caveat emptor.

For my part, I love that I've got a library with me very nearly everywhere I go. I'm rarely bored.