Trek Books for Kindle

[Mr. Laser Beam]

You can use Calibre to add a cover but you may have to remove the drm first which, according to many of the posts of this thread brands you as an automatic pirate, even if you have no intention of ever sharing your file with another human being.

Hmm. Never mind, then. I don't need a cover quite that badly.

 

[JWolf]

I have a question which has nothing to do with piracy (at least I don't think so ) but it does have to do with Kindle Trek books, so I apologize for butting in...anyway, the Kindle version of Dark Mirror is missing its cover. Any way that one can be added? I know this sounds weird to say about a Kindle e-book, but it looks kind of weird seeing all of my Kindle books with those beautiful cover images and yet DM has none.

Strip the DRM, convert mobi to mobi using Calibre and the conversion can add in the c over for you. Stripping the DRM does not automatically make you a pirate. It's sharing it on tenet that does.

This is a good image to use.

http://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/iss/600w/383/19833832/19833858_1.jpg

 

[Deano2099]

You aren't worried at all about the possibility of Amazon deleting your books off your Kindle - which has happened in the past?

Not really, because of the huge uproar when that did happen.

Well, Amazon being a worldwide giant in the book selling market certainly helps there.

Exactly. Amazon aren't going anywhere and neither is their proprietary format. It might not be the best format, the Kindle might not be the best eReader, but it's just like the iPod all over again. Other companies might release better stuff but for half the world "Kindle" is becoming a synonym for "eBook reader". The idea that Amazon's format will become (or already is) obsolete is crazy. They're the biggest bookseller in the world.

 

[ST-One]

You aren't worried at all about the possibility of Amazon deleting your books off your Kindle - which has happened in the past?

As far as I know there was a single incident, when a publisher released a Kindle book for which it did not own the copyright. Amazon pulled the book from customers' Kindles and refunded the purchase price. Afterwards they apologized and said it had been a mistake to handle it in that way.

So there is the precedent.

It's more convenient to buy ebooks via the Kindle, that is true. But the Kindle itself isn't really that great a device; the navigation through the collections is cumbersome and you have to hack the device just to add a font that isn't so damn big even on the smallest setting.

All of the currently available ereaders have pros and cons. I and a majority of other ereader owners feel that the Kindle's features, combined with Amazon's strength as a company, their history of being primarily a bookseller, and their customer service, make it the best choice.

I have a Kindle and I have a Nook - the Nook is the better eReader.

I don't know what books you've been reading. I've been doing most of my reading on a Kindle since they were first released, reading all different kinds of books from many different sources, and I've run into very few books that had noticeable formatting errors.

The Star Trek novels, for example.
The Mars-trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson.
Dahlquist's The Dark Volume
Some of the H2G2 books.

And there are more.

I think the bottom line here is that we are talking about two different kinds of ebook customers. One kind delights in tinkering under the hood, hacking fonts, reformatting books, removing DRM, etc., etc., i.e. basically approaching ebooks and ereaders as a hobbyist.

The other kind of ebook customer is simply someone who likes to read.

No, you are wrong about this.
I wish I wouldn't have to 'tinker under the hood', but I simply can't enjoy reading a book when the text is horribly formatted, no matter how good the book itself is.

 

[ST-One]

Well, Amazon being a worldwide giant in the book selling market certainly helps there.

Exactly. Amazon aren't going anywhere and neither is their proprietary format. It might not be the best format, the Kindle might not be the best eReader, but it's just like the iPod all over again. Other companies might release better stuff but for half the world "Kindle" is becoming a synonym for "eBook reader". The idea that Amazon's format will become (or already is) obsolete is crazy. They're the biggest bookseller in the world.

I agree. But that doesn't mean that they have to offer a product (the Kindle itself and the AZW-files) that isn't really all that great.

 

[label]

I agree. But that doesn't mean that they have to offer a product (the Kindle itself and the AZW-files) that isn't really all that great.

You realize, of course, that you're in the minority here? Most people and critics/reviewers consider the Kindle to be the best eReader in the market and it's sales demonstrate that amply.

Don't get me wrong..........I like the nook. I own one (nook color actually). I've read on the nook and there are things I like about the nook better but none of them have to do with reading a book. If you're looking to simply read on a device, it doesn't get any better than the Kindle in most people and reviewers opinions.

Granted, it's fine that you prefer one over the other......we're all entitled to our own opinion. But, to keep stating that the Kindle is an the inferior product that you seem to be trying to do just isn't reflected by the reality of the situation where the Kindle by almost all accounts is the clear cut winner.

 

[ST-One]

If you're looking to simply read on a device, it doesn't get any better than the Kindle

Well, displaying text and page-turns put the Kindles, the PRSs and the Nooks pretty much on par.
Navigating through your collections is where the Kindle falls short; the Nook's coverflow-library is simply the easiest and fasted and user-friendliest way to browse through your library.

 

[label]

If you're looking to simply read on a device, it doesn't get any better than the Kindle

Well, displaying text and page-turns put the Kindles, the PRSs and the Nooks pretty much on par.
Navigating through your collections is where the Kindle falls short; the Nook's coverflow-library is simply the easiest and fasted and user-friendliest way to browse through your library.

Maybe....."user-friendly" is largely dependent on the user in question. I have no problems with the "categories" concept that Kindle uses and my ability to stick one book in several different categories that I can create and arrange makes it very easy for me to find any book I'm looking for.

That being said, I spend very little time in an average month looking for books on my device and much more time actually reading them so the actual value of the navigation system each device uses is negligible to either device, regardless of which menu is better.

 

[bfollowell]

and it's sales demonstrate that amply.

just isn't reflected by the reality of the situation where the Kindle by almost all accounts is the clear cut winner.

While I certainly love my K3 and personally feel that it is the best ereader for me, sales and being the clear cut winner have absolutely nothing to do with quality or actually being the best. There are far too many things that go into driving sales that have nothing to do with which product is the best.

Look back at the old Betamax/VHS war in the early 80s. There was never any question that Beta was a far superior product. It had far superior image quality and was better than VHS in most respects. None of that had anything to do with sales though. It was just too expensive and most people couldn't afford it. So they all bought VHS and it was the clear-cut winner. History proves that but it still doesn't make it better. It wasn't. Simply said, sales don't tell the whole story.

I personally think my K3 is the best ereader out there too, but it isn't the best because sales are so good and I don't necessarily think sales are so good because it's the best. Those two things aren't necessarily related to each other.

I still love my Kindle and think it is the best ereader out there for me but I have to agree with ST-One that the collection/organization aspect of the Kindle is just plain awful.

Just my two cents.

- Byron

 

[Lee]

I have a Kindle and I have a Nook - the Nook is the better eReader.

I beg to differ. I've read numerous comments from people who own both the Kindle and the Nook, and almost all of them say the same thing -- the Nook's interface is clunky and not intuitive, and the interaction between the color touchscreen and the eink screen makes for a clumsy user experience. Several of them commented that it seemed as if the Nook programmers took all the functions of the Kindle and added at least one step to each of them.

No, you are wrong about this.
I wish I wouldn't have to 'tinker under the hood', but I simply can't enjoy reading a book when the text is horribly formatted, no matter how good the book itself is.

I guess you and I are perceiving things differently. I've read several Star Trek books and I haven't noticed any of these horrible formatting problems.

 

[ST-One]

I have a Kindle and I have a Nook - the Nook is the better eReader.

I beg to differ. I've read numerous comments from people who own both the Kindle and the Nook, and almost all of them say the same thing -- the Nook's interface is clunky and not intuitive, and the interaction between the color touchscreen and the eink screen makes for a clumsy user experience. Several of them commented that it seemed as if the Nook programmers took all the functions of the Kindle and added at least one step to each of them.

Which is bullshit.

No, you are wrong about this.
I wish I wouldn't have to 'tinker under the hood', but I simply can't enjoy reading a book when the text is horribly formatted, no matter how good the book itself is.

I guess you and I are perceiving things differently. I've read several Star Trek books and I haven't noticed any of these horrible formatting problems.

Then you don't have a problem with those huge spacings between paragraphs, which result in fewer text per screen-page?

 

[LightningStorm]

No, you are wrong about this.
I wish I wouldn't have to 'tinker under the hood', but I simply can't enjoy reading a book when the text is horribly formatted, no matter how good the book itself is.

I guess you and I are perceiving things differently. I've read several Star Trek books and I haven't noticed any of these horrible formatting problems.

Then you don't have a problem with those huge spacings between paragraphs, which result in fewer text per screen-page?

The flaw in the two of your arguments with regard to this is that it is entirely possible that Lee hasn't yet seen a book with the formatting issues you mention. ST-One, your argument presupposes that all Star Trek books have formatting issues. Lee, yours presupposes that none of them do because you haven't seen any that have.

 

[ST-One]

The flaw in the two of your arguments with regard to this is that it is entirely possible that Lee hasn't yet seen a book with the formatting issues you mention.

I seriously doubt that.
But it's possible that he isn't bothered by them and can ignore them.

 

[Lee]

I have a Kindle and I have a Nook - the Nook is the better eReader.

I beg to differ. I've read numerous comments from people who own both the Kindle and the Nook, and almost all of them say the same thing -- the Nook's interface is clunky and not intuitive, and the interaction between the color touchscreen and the eink screen makes for a clumsy user experience. Several of them commented that it seemed as if the Nook programmers took all the functions of the Kindle and added at least one step to each of them.

Which is bullshit.

Wow, what an intelligent argument. Seems like I hit a nerve. And you still haven't said why you think the Nook is a better ereader.

No, you are wrong about this.
I wish I wouldn't have to 'tinker under the hood', but I simply can't enjoy reading a book when the text is horribly formatted, no matter how good the book itself is.

I guess you and I are perceiving things differently. I've read several Star Trek books and I haven't noticed any of these horrible formatting problems.

Then you don't have a problem with those huge spacings between paragraphs, which result in fewer text per screen-page?

Is that the horrible formatting you're talking about? An extra line between paragraphs? Who cares? If it was there, I obviously didn't notice it. Sounds like much ado about nothing.

The book I'm reading now, Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages, has no spaces between paragraphs.

 

[ST-One]

I beg to differ. I've read numerous comments from people who own both the Kindle and the Nook, and almost all of them say the same thing -- the Nook's interface is clunky and not intuitive, and the interaction between the color touchscreen and the eink screen makes for a clumsy user experience. Several of them commented that it seemed as if the Nook programmers took all the functions of the Kindle and added at least one step to each of them.

Which is bullshit.

Wow, what an intelligent argument. Seems like I hit a nerve. And you still haven't said why you think the Nook is a better ereader.

Sorry to disappoint, but you hit nothing.
And I have said why I think the Nook is better, just a few posts up.

 

[JWolf]

If you're looking to simply read on a device, it doesn't get any better than the Kindle

Well, displaying text and page-turns put the Kindles, the PRSs and the Nooks pretty much on par.
Navigating through your collections is where the Kindle falls short; the Nook's coverflow-library is simply the easiest and fasted and user-friendliest way to browse through your library.

With the 650, I can get a table of 9 covers on screen that I can then move about very easily. It's actually quite nice if you like that sort of thing. Collections on the 650 work even better then the K3. Witht he 650, you don't have to actually be registered with Sony to use it. You have to be registered with Amazon to use collections on the K3.

What does the nook have for organization?

If you live outside the USA, the Kindle is not the best choice. The best choice is a reader that handles ePub via ADE.

 

[JWolf]

I guess you and I are perceiving things differently. I've read several Star Trek books and I haven't noticed any of these horrible formatting problems.

Then you don't have a problem with those huge spacings between paragraphs, which result in fewer text per screen-page?

The flaw in the two of your arguments with regard to this is that it is entirely possible that Lee hasn't yet seen a book with the formatting issues you mention. ST-One, your argument presupposes that all Star Trek books have formatting issues. Lee, yours presupposes that none of them do because you haven't seen any that have.

I have seen errors in Star Trek eBooks. I have even mentioned some of them on this forum. Not all Trek eBooks have errors. Someone started a thread for one of the Vanguard eBooks in AZW format and said there were problems with it. A good example is Ender's Game. It had enough errors to have to be pulled so it could be fixed.

 

[bfollowell]

The book I'm reading now, Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages, has no spaces between paragraphs.

I bought this one for my Kindle too and it wasn't too bad. Did you happen to pickup Rihannsu, Book Five: The Empty Charir? It is, in my humble opinion, one of the all-time worst looking ebooks I've ever had the displeasure to have purchased. There's no space between the paragraphs. There's no space between paragraphs, there’s no space between scene breaks, there's no indentation. There's no paragraph formatting period. Each chapter looks like one giant paragraph. It basically looks like a dumb text dump of the book. Heck, you might as well be reading in Notepad. There's also no proper cover and no table of contents.

Yes, you're right; there are two different types of people on here when it comes to ebooks. People that like reading only and don't care the slightest bit what the formatting looks like and people that like a properly formatted ebook that looks as good as or better than the paper versions of the same book. It's obvious which group you belong to and which group some of the others on this thread, including myself belong to. There's absolutely nothing wrong with either view. We're just different, that's all. This has almost nothing to do with the Kindle though. Usually S&S versions that are poorly formatted like this on the Kindle versions are just as poorly done on the epubs so it wouldn't matter what reader you were using.

If you don't care that an ebook you paid good money for is poorly formatted and it doesn't bother you, then I for one am happy for you. You're just the type of person S&S is producing for these days and you won't be upset by their poor quality. For the rest of us, we certainly have every right to our high standards and have every right to expect a better quality product for our hard-earned dollars.

Just my two cents on the subject.

The original intent of this thread was someone asking for suggestions for reading suggestions for their new Kindle and somewhere along the lines the thread got hijacked into a discussion of ebook formatting opinions and Kindle vs the world/the world vs the Kindle garbage. Now, let's all agree to disagree and let this thread die a nice, quiet death, please. There's far too much debating (arguing) on this board concerning S&S's poor formatting and their agency selling model.

Why can't we all just get along?

- Byron

 

[ST-One]

If you're looking to simply read on a device, it doesn't get any better than the Kindle

Well, displaying text and page-turns put the Kindles, the PRSs and the Nooks pretty much on par.
Navigating through your collections is where the Kindle falls short; the Nook's coverflow-library is simply the easiest and fasted and user-friendliest way to browse through your library.

With the 650, I can get a table of 9 covers on screen that I can then move about very easily. It's actually quite nice if you like that sort of thing. Collections on the 650 work even better then the K3. Witht he 650, you don't have to actually be registered with Sony to use it. You have to be registered with Amazon to use collections on the K3.

What does the nook have for organization?

If you live outside the USA, the Kindle is not the best choice. The best choice is a reader that handles ePub via ADE.

The Nook has something similar to those types of collections - they just call is 'shelves'

But I don't use them; I've softrooted my Nooks and use the NookDevs coverflow-library. Whith that I don't have to organize the books into collection but have still find the book I'm searching for fast and easy (that's an advantage of the LCD-touch-display)

 

[BrotherBenny]

I have found that the Trek books on the Kindle do have covers, but when you click on the book, it takes you several pages from the front cover. Just backtrack and you'll find it.

As for earlier comments to me about having a guilty before proven innocent mentality, I will once again say I do not. In normal things I trust everyone until they do something to lose that trust. When it comes to stripping the DRM off eBooks and hacking the fonts and all the rest of that jazz, including changing the format with Calibre, I think it is blatantly illegal. You may not personally be doing that and then uploading the files to the internet for others to download, but my bet is that the vast majority of people who play around like that are.

The worst you could say I am doing would be to tar you with the same brush as I do them. The fact of the matter is, that if you don't like what you have, then don't get it. If I could get hired by S&S to make sure the books are properly formatted, I would. The mistakes I noticed in the TP series books were annoying, yes, but I think they stem from increasing the font size, which messes up the basic formatting, which itself is not adaptive. On the Kindle, you can increase the font size and make fewer words on a line. I think this might have been put in place to fix that annoying habit of making it look unjustified in some places.

I love my Kindle, and I think it's several orders of magnitude better than the Sony Reader, but then I only read books on it. I don't fiddle around with what I buy to make it all neat and perfect because I can live with a few formatting errors. It doesn't make me lie awake at night sweating and wondering what I will do, and it certainly doesn't move me to break the law in spirit if not in letter.