Britons Rejoice - eBooks are coming

[Dimesdan]

JWolf wrote:

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Imagine carrying the lastes SCE/CoE omnibus around with you. In fact, imaging carrying two of them. Can you do it? Do you want to do it? Now imagine carrying around a device that is about the same size as a regular paperback, slightly wider, not as thick, and slightly heavier. Now imagine the SCE/CoE eBook on it able to be read when you want without the hassle of having to carry such heavy omnibuses. It's well worth it.

Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, sorry, are you on a planet with a higher gravity than here on good ol' Earth or are you just a lazy so and so, either way, I just weighed how heavy Voyages of the Imagination is which by my reckoning the chunkiset Trek book I own and my scales told me that it is just over one kilogram in weight, so, they arn't exactly heavy now are they.

Now, I have this wonderful thing called a man bag (tis about the same size as a lap top bag and yes, it's the male equilivant of a hand bag) and I do this strange thing with it, and thats carry things, from my wallet and keys, too the latest book I am reading, now with that book, I can in less time it takes to say "beam me up Scotty" I can find my place with my book mark and start reading. Now of course this technology isn't very fancy, it involves a lot of manual labour by turning one page after another, and sure sometimes light levels may not be so powerful that I can not read at that time, but thats more to do with nature than the book itself. Were as with all technology, I'm sure this reader has it's failing - high battery consumption if you read from it all the time, the chances of partial tunnel (or what ever it's called) by constently pressing the down button all the time.

Please don't get me wrong, I have no problems with ebooks, I might one day get them for my lap top, but if you are going to use the fact that books are heavy as a reason to buy a piece of tech I see no reason to own, I think you should hang your head in shame or watch Wall-e as ok this is a huge leap of logic, we could all be like those far future humans on the Astral.

Ok, Rant over and time for a nice real ale at the pub!

[JWolf]

I can pull out my reader and in less time then it takes you to pull out your pBook and flip to the page you left off on, be at the page I left off. Not only is the reader lighter and smaller then the omnibuses, it's easier to hold (in most cases) and it's easier carry multiple books with you. Also, it's a lot easier to get out-of-print Star Trek books as eBooks then it is to find them as pBooks. Now how is it being lazy to want to make it easier to carry around heavy books? I can carry around the entire set of Star Trek Omnibus editions in on my reader then you can in your bag. I too carry around a bag similar to what you've described. No way I'd want to carry around that many large heavy books and with my reader, I don't have to. I just have to haul around the reader.

[Deano2099]

Well Jon's comments on carrying books around were directed at me and I happen to agree with him. Having an eBook reader is a fair bit more convenient than carrying books around. Especially as I get a bit annoying when my books get creased and frayed from bouncing around in a bag.
Had I vast amounts of money, I'd have imported a Kindle already. But for someone on a modest income, the initial cost of £200, plus re-buying any book I already owned I wanted to read on it, with practically no saving on new books... Hell forget all the rest, £200 alone is too much for a slight increase in convenience. It's the price of 40 books.

[Dimesdan]

JWolf wrote:

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I can pull out my reader and in less time then it takes you to pull out your pBook and flip to the page you left off on, be at the page I left off. Not only is the reader lighter and smaller then the omnibuses, it's easier to hold (in most cases) and it's easier carry multiple books with you. Also, it's a lot easier to get out-of-print Star Trek books as eBooks then it is to find them as pBooks. Now how is it being lazy to want to make it easier to carry around heavy books? I can carry around the entire set of Star Trek Omnibus editions in on my reader then you can in your bag. I too carry around a bag similar to what you've described. No way I'd want to carry around that many large heavy books and with my reader, I don't have to. I just have to haul around the reader.

Everyone is to there own I guess and I've seen you go toe to toe with far more knowledgable individuals than I on the issue of ebooks and from those what I've seen you are fanatical about electronic books and like so many fanatics once you have stated your opinion, you don't back down.

So may I just ask a questions?

You claim you can start it up, find the place you were upto and then resume reading faster than if I had was reading a hard copy, does it not take a while to load up and then do you not need to navigate through to where you were?

What is the memory like on the devise, once you've ran out, do you need to delete the contents to make more room, or can you just add more memory space?

Battery life: On aveage, how long does the battery last, and what type does it take? Is it a onboard rechargable battery or do you need to keep feeding it AA/AAA batteries or the really small watch type?

What if I lose the infomation on the reader, do I need to rebuy the literature or can I just down load it again?

And I have no problems carrying a large amount of books with me, a few years ago while visiting home from uni, I decided I wanted my book collection up at uni which was nearly 200 miles away, now I don't drive, so I put them all in a massive sports bags and went back on the train with several changes, yes I admit, they were heavy, but I prefer my books in hard copy, I prefer to have the texture of them in my hand, knowing full well that they are more than a whole bunch of digital data, I prefer to look across my room and see all the books on my shelf or sitting cross legged on the floor with research texts surronding me. Now I know these PADDs have there place, but for me, I prefer having a physical paper book in my hands, it feels far more intimate.

[Trent Roman]

Dang, and I thought my run-on sentences were bad.

Size and weight are certainly an issue I consider when traveling with books, and one of the reasons I'm casting dark glances at the trend towards more trade paperbacks. I have a fairly sizeable commute and rarely stay still for more than two hours at a time even when I'm on campus, and I've often got quite a number of sizeable tomes with me in addition to whatever pleasure reading I might want to carry around. A year and a half ago I wound up with a sprained trapezoid just from improperly lifting that mutha of a bag, and I've been cautious about overloading myself since (and I'm not overweight). Plus, things like the S.C.E. omnibi are rather unwieldy, and I've taken to saving those for reading at home rather than trying to jostle myself in a position to read them in public transit that doesn't wind up with me falling to the floor everytime the bus/train/metro makes a sudden turn or comes to a sudden stop. I still love my handy, portable MMPBs, but heft and handling are certainly advantages electronic readers have over their bulkier cousins in the pulp'n'paper world.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

[Dimesdan]

Trent Roman wrote:

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Dang, and I thought my run-on sentences were bad.

If you mean my sentance length, yes I know they are pretty loooooong, I was always told when writing news copy at uni (I was a Broadcast Journalist student) I should refrain from those lengths as we were not meant to go over fourteen words before a capital letter cropped up.

[JWolf]

Deano2099 wrote:

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Well Jon's comments on carrying books around were directed at me and I happen to agree with him. Having an eBook reader is a fair bit more convenient than carrying books around. Especially as I get a bit annoying when my books get creased and frayed from bouncing around in a bag.
Had I vast amounts of money, I'd have imported a Kindle already. But for someone on a modest income, the initial cost of £200, plus re-buying any book I already owned I wanted to read on it, with practically no saving on new books... Hell forget all the rest, £200 alone is too much for a slight increase in convenience. It's the price of 40 books.

Take the book Forged in Fire. The list price is $7.99. The eBook price is $5.19. Now take 15% off the cost of the pBook and with no sales tax, you get $6.79. That's a difference of $1.60. Now if you have to add sales tax and/or shipping, that increases the price even more for the pBook while the eBook stays the same. So eventually, you would save enough money to have paid for the reader.

[JWolf]

Dimesdan wrote:

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Everyone is to there own I guess and I've seen you go toe to toe with far more knowledgable individuals than I on the issue of ebooks and from those what I've seen you are fanatical about electronic books and like so many fanatics once you have stated your opinion, you don't back down.

So may I just ask a questions?

You claim you can start it up, find the place you were up to and then resume reading faster than if I had was reading a hard copy, does it not take a while to load up and then do you not need to navigate through to where you were?

As long as I am where I left off when I shut off the reader, I can just turn it back on and it comes right up to the place I left off. Very fast.

What is the memory like on the devise, once you've ran out, do you need to delete the contents to make more room, or can you just add more memory space?

Te reader I have has 210.2MB of free internal memory for content and according to Sony can hold about 160 eBooks. I have 78 eBooks and a few photos on it and have 139.6MB left. I could use an SD card or a memory stick with it for even more memory. But I find I have no need at present as the internal memory is enough so far.

Battery life: On average, how long does the battery last, and what type does it take? Is it a onboard rechargeable battery or do you need to keep feeding it AA/AAA batteries or the really small watch type?

The battery is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. It lasts quite a long time. You can either turn off the reader fully or turn it off into standby. Standby is where it turns on right away towhere you left off. But if you don't plan on using the reader for a few days or longer, then turning it fully off is the best way to preserve the battery. It lasts quite a long time. More then a week easily. But how much you read also has an impact on battery life. The reader uses eink and once the screen is drawn, it takes no power to keep the screen visible. It still takes power otherwise. But if you were reading on say an iPod Touch, you'd need to power the device and the LCD screen where eink need no power to the screen except for making changes to the conents of the screen.

What if I lose the information on the reader, do I need to rebuy the literature or can I just down load it again?

Most online eBook shops allow you to redownload already purchased content. But as these are just files, once you download them, you can back them up. Also, you can backup the contents of your reader. So if you were to lose the conents of your reader, you could either redownload from where you purchased or just reload from your computer.

And I have no problems carrying a large amount of books with me, a few years ago while visiting home from uni, I decided I wanted my book collection up at uni which was nearly 200 miles away, now I don't drive, so I put them all in a massive sports bags and went back on the train with several changes, yes I admit, they were heavy, but I prefer my books in hard copy, I prefer to have the texture of them in my hand, knowing full well that they are more than a whole bunch of digital data, I prefer to look across my room and see all the books on my shelf or sitting cross legged on the floor with research texts surrounding me. Now I know these PADDs have there place, but for me, I prefer having a physical paper book in my hands, it feels far more intimate.

Yes, it is nice to be able to look at the bookshelves and see the books you've purchased and want to keep. But, there does come a time when you won't have room to display all of your books in a way that you can see them.

When I am laying in bed on my side, it's a lot easier to read using my reader then it is to read a hardcover or omnibus edition. The normal paperback is not a problem though.

[Dayton Ward]

JWolf wrote:

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Yes, it is nice to be able to look at the bookshelves and see the books you've purchased and want to keep. But, there does come a time when you won't have room to display all of your books in a way that you can see them.

I just bought a bigger house.

[JoeZhang]

Dayton Ward wrote:

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I just bought a bigger house.

That's how I did it - my house looks like a library.

People always ask "where's the TV?" and then make their excuses and leave when I tell them I don't own a TV.

[Dimesdan]

Cheers for all that Jwolf, I saw a leafleat in Waterstones yesterday, it's looks ok, but I'll still pass.

Oh and I have no problems paying fall wack for a book if it's worth it, if not, I just use my student card which is anywhere between 5 > 20% discount, but that runs out soon!

Dayton Ward wrote:

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I just bought a bigger house.

Not a bigger boat then?

And that can be a problem, but one thats easily solved, get a new bookshelf

[Dayton Ward]

^ I bought more bookshelves when I bought a bigger house.

[Trent Roman]

I had too many books and not enough money for a bigger house. So I bought some mortar and solved both problems in one swoop.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

[Dimesdan]

Dayton Ward wrote:

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^ I bought more bookshelves when I bought a bigger house.

Although on my income and the whole credit crunch which is constently in the news, I found it more cost effective to just buy a new bookshelf or two!

[Dayton Ward]