are you downloading books yet?

D

Dagny

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hmm, i hope I put this in the correct forum?

Thanks to creative commons, the gutenberg project, online free libraries, and publishers looking to save a buck in shipping, more and more new (and old) books are becoming available as legal, downloadable PDFs. One of the sites that I do reviews for asked if their reviewers would be willing to review off PDFs, instead of having the books mailed to us.

so, are you downloading books yet? pdf? kindle? do you want to download books?

aparently i'm uber-old fashioned, as the idea of reading all my stuff on a screen/kindle/tricorder just annoys the hell out of me. i've read all of one novella online. was a great story, and it took me 3 days to read it at an hour a clip, and about a week for my eyeballs to recover.
 
I prefer hard copy but I do PDF, or Microsoft reader (.lit) files... or whatever on any of the desktop PCs in the house.

Besides the usual;
Baen free library,
Project Gutenberg,
Many books,
Free speculative fiction on line,
(I hesitate to add) Munsey's (formerly blackmask), etc.

I found a new one the other day; Suvudu
Suvudu Free Book Library - Suvudu - Science Fiction and Fantasy Books, Movies, and Games

I'm still waiting for someone to develop a good, comfortable, portable reader; until then paper will still be king.
Some otherwise very expensive or difficult to find books are very accessible as downloads, and you can try different authors easily (lots of samples out there for free besides complete books)...
If you really like ebooks you can order many (if not most) new releases as a down loadable file, but you normally have to pay for it.

Enjoy!
 
There is another post on this

-> Free eBooks!

But to answer the question. Yes, more than half of my reading is on the pc. Its very convenient and much easier to carry than a stack of books. But, when I find a book I really like or my favorite authors come out with new books I go buy a copy for my collection, so I don't mind reading on the computer but I still collect the good ones! :p

Also Kindle 2 was just put out

-> Amazon.com: Kindle 2: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation): Kindle Store
 
I haven't and I don't intend to. I hate reading stuff on a screen... it's hard on the eyes and there are too many distractions to focus on what I'm reading. I'm a horribly inefficient online reader. Plus, I just LIKE having a book in my hands. I'm kind of old school like that I suppose... I still buy cd's rather than downloading songs too :) The hard copy artifact just looks so nice on a shelf.
 
It does look really nice!
But when you travel or move a lot it is very troublesome to pack them all around with you. I actually have storage for my books and have been just adding to it as I go for now. Having the ability to read on the pc makes things soooo much lighter... and easier.
 
I have to agree with soulsinging - I much prefer paper to computer for reading text - plus internet and computer things don't distaract me either (well not as much).

Honestly though if online were the only place to get a book I would get it that way - I won't let it stop me reading something, but given the choice I prefer paper
 
I much, much, much prefer books and it'll have to be something so akin to paper that I can't tell the difference to make me switch to something like the Kindle! I was flicking through New Scientist the other day and saw an article about the flexible reading tablet that's being made. There was a picture of two women at a table, one clutching only this flexible tablet and the other surrounded by piles of books. Personally, I'd rather be the one with the many books.

The internet is definitely useful for finding scholarly books, and essays to be used for my own stuff, but books from the library are still my first port of call for such. And always my option for fiction. *Holds on tightly to her trusty paper books*
 
Saeltari said:
It does look really nice!
But when you travel or move a lot it is very troublesome to pack them all around with you. I actually have storage for my books and have been just adding to it as I go for now. Having the ability to read on the pc makes things soooo much lighter... and easier.
Click to expand...

I will admit, my last move was a nightmare and I thinned my collection considerably after the hassle of packing all those boxes. But on trips or travel I always want a book... it's a pain to haul around my computer or open it up to use on a plane. A book is so much lighter and easier to carry. And I never read more than one at a time, so at worst I need to carry 2-3 in case I finish the one I'm currently reading.
 
I'm sometimes grab texts from Project Gutenberg, and convert them into something more readable, usually for viewing on my phone. But only if I really cannot find a print copy anywhere for a reasonable price. Otherwise, no. I tried. But no.
PDFs are not suitable for extended reading (they are meant for displaying documents as they would be printed).
.lit is Microsoft only, mobipocket seems to have been abandoned, Sony ereader is platform dependant, and kindle only works on iphones and kindles - also I'm not convinced I should be helping amazon further corner the bookmarket, they are becoming to big.
Pricing is screwed - some ebooks appear to cost more than the actual paper copy.

One final reason I don't like ebooks is that you can't curl up in an armchair with a fresh new book.
 
Saeltari said:
It does look really nice!
But when you travel or move a lot it is very troublesome to pack them all around with you. I actually have storage for my books and have been just adding to it as I go for now. Having the ability to read on the pc makes things soooo much lighter... and easier.
Click to expand...

Lighter than a small paperback ;)

I always read my books on the bus.

I have tried reading on the comp but i cant see anything but some computer words and not a book.
 
I currently read only paper books as i like to handle a book and don't own a laptop , I also find reading long texts on a screen really difficult.
Possible stupid question here - Can anyone tell me how do you keep track of what page you're on when reading a pc book?

Also i just can't see me taking a laptop in the bath or a prolonged wvisit to the bathroom :)
 
I have not as yet but don't mind the odd perusal online but would not make it a habit, unless it was a book I was desperate to find and there is one I have been looking for years.:)
 
nj1 said:
Possible stupid question here - Can anyone tell me how do you keep track of what page you're on when reading a pc book?
Click to expand...

It's not a stupid question. Acrobat Reader, Internet Explorer and MS Word are not proper ebook reading software. Proper ebook software will remember your page for you, allowing you to resume from where you were and most will also have auto-scrolling, so you don't have to press anything to advance on.
Really good ebook software will allow you to have multiple bookmarks, notes and highlighting.

nj1 said:
Also i just can't see me taking a laptop in the bath or a prolonged wvisit to the bathroom :)
Click to expand...

It's not just laptops. There are dedicated ereaders (the irex, the kindle, the sony e-reader), software for PDAs (Palms tended to give me cramp after extended sessions, but where pretty good. The older greyscale are great - no backlight) and phones (my old nokia e90's internal screen is great, as is my nokia 5800. The n95 wasn't to bad either. iPhone should be pretty good - and is even getting kindle software, but any phone with java midp can probably run some sort of ereader - although screen sizes might be a bit small). All those devices have the advantage of being more portable and longer battery life than a laptop - although you might want to avoid using them in the bath.:p
 
I'm not really a technogadget kind of guy so have no knowledge of these sort of things. I use my mobile for cals only and the odd text so couldn't use it to read a book.
The other gadgets you mentioned, how would you upload a book? would you link it to your PC or can you buy something like a DS game but with a story on it ( my missus has a DS and I could pinch it when she's not looking).
What sort of price do they retail at, Books and readers?
 
The biggest catch is what was mentioned before, ebook prices are usually a bit ridiculous. :eek:

My laptop is not lighter than a paperback :D, but it is lighter than 3 to 4 paperbacks which is what I can average on a trip. Long as i'm not having to drive.

I haven't taken a bath in eons... so I don't worry about dropping anything in the bath :p

Most of the readers you can download books to. Amazon has their library, and Microsoft has an ebook store as does Adobe, so you just go online to the stores and download the book and read it on your pc, as long as you have the right software, which is usually free.

Kindle is an actual ebook reader and gives you acess to Amazon's vast library of books, just not allll of their books, not yet at least. If you do get an ebook reader make sure it accepts a variety of formats. Kindle, I think is around 3 hundred something.
 
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