h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, Christmas before last my (now ex-)boyfriend bought me a Sony eReader and I love it!! It's brilliant, it feels like a book when you hold it, and it's even better than a book because I can have 100s of titles in one book sized gadget!

My Ma's neighbour was given an Amazon Kindle for last Christmas and she loves it too for some of the same reasons!!

Personally I prefer my eReader as it's more "book-sized" (the Kindle feels too small to me, the screen looks tiny!!), and (weird as this may sound ...) I actually like the fact that I can't download books direct through 3G, I have to download them through my computer ... otherwise I'd be broke by now!!

Which eReader type thing have you got, and what have been your experiences ... good or bad?

Lx

Hi there

Mine is a Kindle, given by Mrs Deke as an early Christmas present last year. I’d hummed and hawwed over getting an e-reader for a couple of years. Mostly I’d looked at the Sony but kept putting it off while hoping the price would drop. Mrs D made up my mind for me and got the Kindle when they were first being advertised before last Christmas.

I’m glad she did now. I’d wanted to revisit some of the old classics (of all sorts) that I’ve read before and a few that I’ve had in mind for a while. I think that I’ve bought more ebooks over the last six months than I have paperbacks for the last six years.

The experience has been almost all positive. I don’t mind being semi tuned to Amazon. Certainly they’ve got a great selection and the prices are fair. I’ve also picked up three or four from Gutenberg.

The great advantage for me is not having to find somewhere to store the paper version. Being the type that can never throw a book away, when we moved house about ten years ago, I had to find homes for a couple of score of paperbacks that I was never going to read again. But I wouldn’t have minded having them backed up in the Kindle.

The Whispernet facility is first class. Just being able to order up a book without having to find a ‘puter or Wi-Fi is magic. The only slight problem I’ve encountered is that it can lock up after a prolonged bout of searching through Amazon’s shelves. But that’s soon cleared by re booting, and it’s only occurred three or four times.

All in all, a neat piece of kit. I wish they'd been available years ago.

Deke.

I don't have one but am watching this space.

Same as Rod.

Hi agin.

One of the useful features with the Kindle is that you can create your own wishlist via Amazon. Occasionally one or another book takes my fancy from w/e paper reviews and I can see if it's on Amazon's ebook listings. If I don't want to get it right now I can keep it on that list for later.

They also give feedback recommendations from what you've already bought. I'm a bit of a sucker for Stephen King and I've acquired four of his books for the e reader. The ‘recommendations’ are now almost exclusively populated by SK's entire output.

I’ve picked up another two books this weekend, one classic (ish) t’other a more modern. I wouldn’t have done so normally.

Deke

I have the iPod Kindle app, and it's definitely made me buy more books. Kinda like that deal, where you get the printer practically for free, just so you'll buy the expensive toners.

Amazon may be thinking just like that...
http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/12/amazon-wants-to-give-a-free-kindle-to-all-amazon-prime-subscribers/

This question has been on Ask for a good while now and the thread is still active. It seems there is a lot to be discussed about e-readers.

F19585?thread=7122794

Also, I hope she will forgive me for linking to her journal, BEl has been telling us about her adventures with her e-reader:

F127730?thread=7658966

The whole concept of ebooks is a good one, I think. Mine is a free app on my iPod Touch (I also have the free app for PC). My hands get very cramped from holding books open, and that limits how long I can read. I've read all three of "The Girl who..." books on the iPod, as well as "Pyramid" and "After the Frost" by Henning Mankel. Only downside is having to tap the page more frequently. I do love Nordic Noir, though.

I don't have one. I can't help feeling that they are very expensive, for what is basically a very limited computer...

I can see the attraction, though. But I don't think I could bring myself to pay more than about £20 for one.

You shouldn't have to buy the Kindle itself. The reader is available for various devices -- like your computer, your pda or your smartphone -- to download for free.

I've got Kindle on my computer, but it's not quite the same as reading from my eReader, after all I can't take my pc to bed with me!! Lol!!

Lx

My husband uses his smartphone as an eReader -
1) The screen can be set to white on black (easier on the eye and less disruptive when reading at night).
2) Easier to hold than a paperback - when his hands are tired, paperbacks catapult themselves out of his grip.
3) Plenty of free ebooks are out of print - he was v happy to find several by Arthur Machen.

And if too tired to read but too awake to sleep, he can play one of the downloaded games instead - eg the tilting marble puzzle.

Just one stupid question - $$$? A paperback is ~€10, how much to download an eeklectricks book?

I have a Sony eReader. I bought it in preference to Kindle because it supports a greater variety of formats. All the books on it are free classics from Gutenberg, 'cos I object to paying hardcopy prices for a virtual item. There's so much of the cost of a paperback that doesn't apply to an ebook. Where does the extra go? The publisher's pocket, that's where, I'll bet. I wouldn't mind if the author got some extra, but I don't suppose they do.

I've just realised I answered Pit's question by implication, not directly. An ebook costs about the same as a paperback. In fact, if you look at the number of '3 for 2' or 'Buy one, get one half price' offers on the High Street, paperbacks are cheaper. To me, this doesn't make sense.

, it makes sense for the robber barons who have bought legal rights. Go to youtube, look for a song you have loved for 40 years..."you are no longer allowed, (insert company name) have just bought your country." Rectums.

You ask how much to download an ebook? It’s not my experience that they are the same price as the hardcopy version.

For the most part, I’ve found the ebook price against the paperback retail price, to be quite good. There are also quite a few books on the Kindle store’s list that are under £3, in some cases down to pence.

Discounts against paperback prices vary a lot. A straw poll on six paperbacks reviewed in the press in the last couple of weeks (all fiction), showed only one not available (yet), and the discounts varied anywhere between twenty and fifty-seven percent for the rest.

The discounts on hardback are about the same or better. ‘Frinstance, a book I asked for, for Christmas last year, retailed then at twenty quid. The Kindle price was £5.22. It’s still currently retailing at £10 thro’ Amazon, so today you‘d enjoy a near 50% saving. That may be an exception, but the discounts still bring the prices substantially down.

Deke

I don't know if any of you readers of ebooks download non-fiction titles, but I have a question for any that do. How are illustrations handled? Most, if not all, of my paperback non-fiction books have at least one section of colour or black-and-white photographs. I would be reluctant to buy an ebook version of one of these books if it didn't have these photographs.

GOOOOD question, CD!

As it happens, the book I mention above is one such. All the photographs from the book are reproduced together with their explanatory notes.

I’d say that the reproduction is almost as good as the photos in the book. They don’t seem to have lost very much definition and are recognisable as a photograph with reasonable detail. Some photos are however about 10% smaller. Another book: ‘A Christmas Carol’ has the illustrations from the ’original’ and they are quite well reproduced too.

I’ve got no idea if all the books that have photos are reproduced, but the facility to do so is there. Most of the modern books that have cover artwork is also reproduced.

Deke