e-books, hardbacks or paperbacks our thoughts.

[Perpetual Man]

It's simple—you use the e-reader's camera to photograph (or video) you and the author together. After all, the autograph is nothing more than a memento of meeting the author.

Do e-reader's have cameras? Genuine question, my kindle doesn't (or perhaps I've missed something)

As far as signed books goes, I've got a couple. Most for a rather well known fantasy author. Over the years I've collected some wonderful messages and I cannot see it being the same with an e-reader.

At the last signing the writer made a mistake, something that turned into a joke (although a few days later it lost the humour) but the point is I have a book now that is uniquely signed to me, a joke between reader and writer forever inside the front cover. Had it been on an e-reader, any mistake would just have been deleted and redone.

 

[ktabic]

Do e-reader's have cameras? Genuine question, my kindle doesn't (or perhaps I've missed something)

People are using e-reader to mean iPad, tablet, smartphone and desktop software. Dispite the fact that they are not proper e-readers, just bad implementations

As for how to get signatures in a ebook world, I like the idea of signing a physical postcard with the book cover printed on it. Should be relatively cheap and still give the fans something physical to take home.

 

[Perpetual Man]

People are using e-reader to mean iPad, tablet, smartphone and desktop software. Dispite the fact that they are not proper e-readers, just bad implementations

As for how to get signatures in a ebook world, I like the idea of signing a physical postcard with the book cover printed on it. Should be relatively cheap and still give the fans something physical to take home.

That's a great idea ktabic.

I can see a market for that kind of thing - special albums to collect the cards in,
could be quite special.


A little observation of my own, neither a for or against. One of the things that you get with a physical book is being able to see you passage through the book. The further you go the less you have to read, your position marked by a book mark or whatever else you may use.

No matter what there is no way you can do that with an e-book, could be a death knell for the bookmark as well.

But I'm starting to quite enjoy the percentage bar at the bottom of the screen, so something different but serves the same purpose I guess. Swings and roundabouts.

 

[elvet]

I've been on the fence about getting one. The reality is that I have no more space left, so I figured I'd have to succumb soon.
Surprise, surprise! hubby bought a Kobo touch for me today. I still have ~200 books yet to read, and many unfinished series (I want to have them all real books), but I think I will consider buying new series or standalones as e-books. One irony as I look to this E-book future is that I recently started buying limited edition books from Subterranean Press. I'm collecting the First Law trilogy as well as the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

Update: I just bought my first E-book. First impression, I miss the color of the cover. Page turning is slow.

 

[Diggler]

I had also been sitting on the fence about E-Readers for a while. I love having a physical book in my hands, and get a thrill out of looking at my burgeoning collection of Philip K. Dick and Edmund Cooper collection on the shelves.

The downside to physical novels is also room. I have 2 book cases full of to-reads, and boxes full of read books. Another issue for me is cost and availability. To buy novels in Australia, you have to be pretty damn rich, what with most of them being an average $25+. Also due to being so isolated we are forced to buy novels from overseas sources then waiting up to a month for the books to arrive.

My wife splashed out and bought a Kindle the other day, and I have to say I am mighty impressed! Instant access to thousands of free books via Guttenberg and hundreds of thousands via Amazon. They are generally comparable in price to a UK softcover, and are delivered in 60 seconds of purchase... I am SOLD!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Bwwahahahaha!

The plan is working, Vertigo. The minions are coming over to the dark side.

It's only a matter of time before we conquer the WORLD!!!

Bwhahahahaha!

 

[Vertigo]

Well we always said it would happen DA . The thing that interests me is that I have never come across anyone who has made the decision to get an eReader and then been disappointed. Even people who fully expected to be disappointed.

PM: different eReaders do this in different ways - my Sony states something like 123 of 234 so you get a rough idea. I have to admit that I don't really like either approach. Its a bit like a digital watch, most of the time you don't really want to know that it is 10:46:23 exactly, you just want to know it is around a quarter to eleven. Which is why I prefer analogue watches. In the same way most of the time you just want to know that you have x big a chunk of pages left to read, not have to work it our precisely.

Having a touch screen my Sony also has a slider that you can drag to an approximate position in the book. I quite like this but you have to call it up, it's not always there.

 

[Perpetual Man]

Hmmm, there is a slidebar on the bottom of the kindle too, but (he just checks) it is always there!

On the kindle mobile app you have to call it up and the PC as well, a very useful tool.

Is your Sony touch screen at all, or just button controlled?

 

[Vertigo]

It is touch screen, which I must admit I do like particularly for dictionary lookups - just a quick double tap of the word I want to look up or search for. I frequently find myself coming across someone's name in a book and thinking "who the heck is that", double click it and search backwards to find the previous time their name appeared and so remind myself who they are then search forward to get back to where I was. Very handy.

That said, the screen is not quite as clear as the Kindle screen. The latest generation of Sony reader screens are much better than the previous one but the touch screen does still seem to compromise the clarity a little. If I put my Sony alongside a friend's Kindle their screen is just that little bit clearer.

To turn the page you sweep your finger right to left across any part of the screen, just as you might a real book... if you don't mind treating your pages so harshly the touch screen doesn't seem to mind though

 

[Perpetual Man]

I think that's one thing that I thought was missing with the Kindle was the lack of a touchscreen - but if that is the price to pay for slightly clearer screen so be it.

I was pleasantly surprised by some of the features on the Kindle that I did not know about - the ability to play MP3's while reading (if that's your cup of tea), the rather scary ability to read the books to you, but the fact that you can access the internet was a really unexpected bonus! (By which I mean you can surf with limitations)

 

[Metryq]

This is only rumor, but anyone contemplating buying a Nook might want to wait a little bit:

RUMOR: Apple interested in buying Barnes & Noble

I'd say this is a credible rumor, as the iBook store selection is comparatively limited. Publishers might also like the idea, as (to the best of my knowledge) no one has yet cracked the iTunes Store "FairPlay" DRM, while "archiving" software for Amazon and B&N is readily available.

 

[AE35Unit]

Well I tried out a new sony reader the other day and boy did I notice a difference between it and my sony! Very sharp text with much increased contrast, and the touch screen worked fabulously! And it was selling for 111 quid- same price as a kindle! I like the dictionary feature- touch a word and it highlights. Touch again and a list of definitions appears! Very smooth!

 

[Diggler]

Just splashed out $180 for a Kindle. Should be here on Monday I hope. So you can pretty much say I'm an E-book person now. Well sort of an E-book person, I still have over 100 currently unavailable books to read in my collection.

 

[Vertigo]

Well I tried out a new sony reader the other day and boy did I notice a difference between it and my sony! Very sharp text with much increased contrast, and the touch screen worked fabulously! And it was selling for 111 quid- same price as a kindle! I like the dictionary feature- touch a word and it highlights. Touch again and a list of definitions appears! Very smooth!

That's one of my favourite features AE. My vocabulary is not that spectacular and the likes of Mieville tends to have me going for the dictionary. I really wouldn't like to go back to the paper dictionary; it's just so easy on the Sony!

 

[Perpetual Man]

I know there is a dictionary on the kindle, but I haven't used it on the handheld yet. I'll have a play later and say what I think.

The PC version is rather straight forward, double click on the word and definition appears. Unfortunately it appears to be an American Dictionary (only unfortunate if you are not in the US) I think you can change it.

I'll also have a look at the mobile app, see if that has dictionary.

 

[Nesacat]

I have thus far resisted the temptation to get an e-book reader but I suspect it's only a matter of time. I'm running out of space to place bookcases and I don't think the neighbours are going to lend me their walls. I already have books in my parents' home and at Morpehus' place in the Netherlands.

I might get an e-reader for books I just want to read the once. I think I'll continue to buy books I'll want to keep and/or re-read. At the moment I'm culling and that should clear some space.

I don't specifically choose to buy one format or another. I might buy a hardback if I cannot wait for the paperback. Very often I buy the paperback and then buy a hardback because I really liked the book and want to re-read it. Sometimes the hardbacks turn up at my local remainder store and then I convert my paperbacks. Yes, I do really like hardbacks.

I have some signed editions simply because the opportunity to get them signed (science fiction & fantasy conventions) presented themselves. I also have first editions because Brian, the owner of Porcupine Books found them and thought I might like them and the price was within my budget.

 

[Dave]

The PC version is rather straight forward, double click on the word and definition appears. Unfortunately it appears to be an American Dictionary (only unfortunate if you are not in the US) I think you can change it.

Just as a slight aside, I think dictionaries may become more important in the future that you might think. If you take Web Browsers as an example, you can get British, Australian and Canadian English dictionaries, but whenever my Browser upgrades to a new version it resets to the American English by default.

Given how much people seem to object to American English in the UK (the BBC website had an article that produced pages and pages of comments) I would see it as an increasing concern.

The original BBC article is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/14130942

However, there was a very good riposte here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14285853

So, maybe it is only 'angry from Tunbridge Wells' who is really bothered by this and it is not such a big issue. What do you think?

 

[Perpetual Man]

After I posted I actually thought about it for a bit, and decided when reading it did not really matter that much. Even when there are subtle spelling differences the majority of words all mean the same thing - and in the case of the author being American then if there is a change in context it is almost certainly going to be the US one.

Writing on the other hand... then you need a proper UK dictionary.

My investigations have shown that there is no dictionary on the Kindle android app - but this might change in the future.

And the Kindle itself has an easy to use dictionary and you can change the language quite easily (but not even remotely as easy as a touchscreen, which from the sound of thing is the biggest downfall of the kindle)

Something I have not really looked at is editing docs on the kindle or other e-readers. Is it possible (obviously not published novels, but your own documents)?

 

[ktabic]

Having been waiting (impatiently) for the ebook revolution to finally take of (I've only been going on about since the mid-ninties) it's finally got to the point where I've been buying more ebooks than paper books. In fact, I'm actually on an ebook only year.
The only physical paper books I've brought have been the BSFA finalists that weren’t available in epub format (next year, if they aren't in epub format, I won't read them). I even managed to buy some ebooks in the dealers room at Eastercon (Angry Robot books are really into ebook).

So far this year, there have only been two books I have wanted and haven't been able to buy in epub format (not counting the BSFA finialist books). Somewhat annoying as both can be brought in the US as ebooks.

 

[X'Nedra]

I read e-books, paperbacks and hardbacks.

I find e-readers especially handy when I am reading a series of books and finish one at an obscure time of the day when I can't make it to the bookstore to get the next one. Problem solved - just download the next one! sorted!

As much as I love the smell, feel and experience of reading books, I still like to have a digital copy which can't be drawn on by my toddler, or have pages fall out of etc.

There's a place for both! Hardbacks/paperbacks for collecting and e-books for on-the-go reading.