Kindle books versus oldfashioned ones ??

[Devil's Advocate]

Jen, If you get Calibre (free ebook database management software) on your PC and then download the books to your PC it can organise the works wonderfully and then upload them to your Kindle.

+1 on this. In fact, +2 million.

Calibre is an absolute must for anyone who has ebooks. Terrific software, it's completely free, easy to use, and does a tremendous job of tagging and editing metadata for ebooks.

In fact, the metadata abilities of Calibre puts its music equivalents like iTunes to shame.

 

[biodroid]

Devil's Advocate - I use Calibre to remove the DRM on bought books because half the time they are formatted poorly, I then use Sigil (basically an HTML editor) to reformat it and convert it back to Kindle format, then it's readable again. My friend pirated a lot of books and he gave me some and I noticed most of the time they had whole chapters missing or duplicate chapters etc. Not worth it and anyway pirating is bad and the author loses out on payments. I was against the pirating thing from the beginning because it robs someone of their livelihood, basically the author has to eat and pay bills just like me and they need the money to continue writing full-time, therefore I will gladly give them my money.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Devil's Advocate - I use Calibre to remove the DRM on bought books because half the time they are formatted poorly, I then use Sigil (basically an HTML editor) to reformat it and convert it back to Kindle format, then it's readable again.

Yeah, I remove the DRM, too. Mostly because my ebooks are bought from Amazon and are in their proprietary AZW format, and I need to convert it to ePub so I can read it on my Nook.

 

[biodroid]

Has anyone read a novel on the iPad yet? What did you think? I am not trying to go off the Kindle conversation here.

 

[Jen526]

Jen, If you get Calibre (free ebook database management software) on your PC and then download the books to your PC it can organise the works wonderfully and then upload them to your Kindle.

Thanks for the suggestion! I downloaded Calibre at one point to try set up a recurring blog download, but couldn't get it to work quite right - and never went back to explore it's other features.

I'll definitely give it another look.

 

[anivid]

Thank you all – much obliged ;-)
Well Chrispy – we’re almost neighbourgs I see – and my guess is that you’re in the French-speaking part of la Suisse.
It seems you can change your country on the Kindle site on amazon.com (upper, left corner) – if changing it to Europe, as I can see is a possibility – it should cover all six EUR countries represented with an amazon – n’est-ce pas ??
If not, not to worry.
I just checked and they claim to have 41,232 SF/F ebooks on English in Germany, and 44,617 in France ;-)
The Eur Amazons seem to be organised with the UK in the top, at least la France is acting as a subsidiary to the English one, hence Germany, Austria and the other European ones might be too ??
A new Kindle called Kindle Keyboard 3G, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 3G Works Globally, 6" E Ink Display is for sale on Amazon.co.uk now – any experiences anyone ??

Best.

 

[Rosemary Fryth]

It's odd, I am writing ebooks yet do not possess an ebook reader. I do plan to buy one however each time an electricity, rates or water bill comes in, the ebook purchase gets pushed further back. Maybe I'll buy one if my first royalty check is substantial enough.

A friend of ours the other day made an interesting comment in regards to ebook readers and fantasy/sci-fi genre. He said that the sort of people who buy ebooks, tend to be the techie types who read sf/f. I think he is right. Going by my sales figure I also think that people in the UK still have an aversion to the new gadgets like ebook readers. My sales on Amazon.uk have been minute in comparison with Amazon.com. The Americans are obviously embracing the new technology, whilst the Brits and Europeans prefer to hold a paper book in their hands.

 

[D_Davis]

Jen, If you get Calibre (free ebook database management software) on your PC and then download the books to your PC it can organise the works wonderfully and then upload them to your Kindle. You might have to do a bit of fiddling with the Calibre upload settings to get it so put them in sensible places on your Kindle but once set up it can do it with a single mouse click. Doing it like this also means that you are not relying on Amazon or whoever to keep archives of your book you will have a full backup archive on your PC.

Thanks for the tip - this sounds awesome.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Has anyone read a novel on the iPad yet? What did you think? I am not trying to go off the Kindle conversation here.

I haven't read a full novel. In fact, I haven't even read a full chapter, which might be an answer itself.

I suppose if you have never tried an eReader, it might be okay. I have a couple of friends who don't seem to mind it. But as someone who is now used to his Nook, I didn't like reading on the iPad. Too big, too heavy, too bright. It just doesn't feel like reading a book. At least eInk readers come close to replicating the experience; with an iPad, I was acutely aware of the fact that I wasn't reading a "real" book.

He said that the sort of people who buy ebooks, tend to be the techie types who read sf/f.

That's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure if it's accurate. If you see lists of best-selling titles and authors for ebooks, it's usually the likes of James Patterson, Dan Brown, John Grisham, etc.

Going by my sales figure I also think that people in the UK still have an aversion to the new gadgets like ebook readers. My sales on Amazon.uk have been minute in comparison with Amazon.com. The Americans are obviously embracing the new technology, whilst the Brits and Europeans prefer to hold a paper book in their hands.

I also think part of the reason is cost and availability. Devices like the Nook aren't even available outside US/Canada at all, and the ones that are (like the Kindle) are usually significantly more expensive when compared to the American versions.

 

[Valko]

I use the Kindle app on my iPad. Personally I think it's brilliant. I haven't bought a paper book in the last 18 months & have given most of my books to charity shops.
The only drawback is back catalogue availability.

 

[Lord Soth]

I love my Kindle and now read 98% of my books on it, however it doesn't look too impressive on a bookshelf!

The only time I buy paper books now is for favourite authors (in hardback) and if I am going away and don't want to risk loosing my kindle.

 

[Lord Soth]

...and what's with these links being added all over the forums? Providing income for whoever owns this place?

(sorry If this has been stated elsewhere!)

 

[Vertigo]

Yes LS they've been around for some time now. The links are created automatically when they pick up on keywords. And it does help defray the cost of the site somewhat I believe.

 

[Snowdog]

So I too now have a Kindle (the basic one). I was going to get a Kobo touch screen because of the native support for ePUB, but when I tried it in Smiths it seemed a bit unresponsive and slow. I also tried a Sony but settled on the Kindle because of it's simplicity and because it's lightning fast.

Getting an ereader was the last thing on my mind, but I recently went into Waterstones and was shocked at the cost of new paperbacks. One book I was after (a well-known book that had gone through a lot of editions) was £9. Another, in the public domain, was priced at a staggering £8 (which I remember being sold for £2-3 only a couple of years ago).

Sadly, our libraries are also degrading and neither of the books was available there. Even though ebook prices are also high, I can at least now read public domain works without paying through the nose.

I am amazed at the price of ebooks though. The new GRRM book is £12.99, which is more than the hardback. The price of books in general has curtailed much of my reading and while there is much to explore in the public domain, I have been buying fewer and fewer new books, and I think that will continue into the ebook era.

 

[Grunkins]

I like the heft and smell of books. I like judging whether a particular book deserves a dog-ear or a bookmark. I like perusing personal libraries.

 

[Snowdog]

I like the heft and smell of books. I like judging whether a particular book deserves a dog-ear or a bookmark. I like perusing personal libraries.

I agree with you completely. A move to ebooks is not something I wanted. Anyway, it's not an either or. I still have my old collection to look at and re-read.

 

[ScottSF]

I personally find the reading experience on my Kindle superior to reading a dead tree book. Partially because I have some lingering dyslexia so by upping the font size I read much faster. Part of my problem was eye tracking so a 10 to 12 word line was easier for my eye to get lost in than a 6 to 8 word line. Also it's easier to read while commuting no the train when I have to stand up. Another cool thing was once when I forgot my Kindle, I downloaded the kindle app on my iphone and not only could I download my book on to my phone but it remembered my place! That doesn't always line up exaclty when going back to the kindle from the phone.

Sometimes I go to big book sales and buy a dead tree copy of things I've already read just for a keepsake. Also I use shelfari to keep track of what I read and get that nice feeling of looking at them all on a shelf

 

[Parson]

I've just purchased a Kindle, and I love it. I can't believe it (I have no eye problems save I wear glasses) but I find it much easier to read, particularly in low light. A thing I would have expected to fall otherwise.

 

[Vertigo]

No stopping you now with those Baen deals, Parson!

 

[Parson]

Amen! brother.