Britons Rejoice - eBooks are coming

[DimesDan]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

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!

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.

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]

^ 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]

 

[Christopher]

Ohh, that image is going to get a lot of use, I can tell...

 

[DimesDan]

That aimed at me as if so, I know

 

[JD]

Where does that picture come from?

 

[Dayton Ward]

It's a screencap from "The Tholian Web."

 

[KRAD]

^ Specifically a POV shot of a deranged Chekov as Spock tries to calm him.

 

[JD]

Ah cool, thanks.