Where have all the ebooks gone?

[Skittles]

Hey, I know this is off-topic, but I have a really random question about the Kindle. Does it tell you how many pages the book you're reading has (based on your chosen text size, obviously) and which page you're on while you're reading? Thanks.

Enh, I don't care about the off-topicness.

The Kindle doesn't use pages, since the font size is user-selectable and that affects the pagination. So instead, each "page" you see on screen has a Location reference at the bottom. Right now, for instance, I'm on location 2094 through 2099 of Dawn of the Eagles.

That way, I can go to any of my friends with a Kindle and say "Check out location 1138 in this book I'm reading" and when they load the book and choose "Go to Location 1138", it will jump to the same spot I'm at.

In the "Go to Location" menu, it shows you how many locations there are, so you can get an idea of how far you are in the book, and how much you have left to read.

There's also a progress bar at the bottom of the page to show you how far you've read through the eBook. It's a small bar, so it doesn't get in the way or distract you from reading.

Oh, and nice to meet a fellow Browncoat, by the way.

 

[Thrawn]

Hey, I know this is off-topic, but I have a really random question about the Kindle. Does it tell you how many pages the book you're reading has (based on your chosen text size, obviously) and which page you're on while you're reading? Thanks.

Enh, I don't care about the off-topicness.

The Kindle doesn't use pages, since the font size is user-selectable and that affects the pagination. So instead, each "page" you see on screen has a Location reference at the bottom. Right now, for instance, I'm on location 2094 through 2099 of Dawn of the Eagles.

That way, I can go to any of my friends with a Kindle and say "Check out location 1138 in this book I'm reading" and when they load the book and choose "Go to Location 1138", it will jump to the same spot I'm at.

In the "Go to Location" menu, it shows you how many locations there are, so you can get an idea of how far you are in the book, and how much you have left to read.

There's also a progress bar at the bottom of the page to show you how far you've read through the eBook. It's a small bar, so it doesn't get in the way or distract you from reading.

Oh, and nice to meet a fellow Browncoat, by the way.

Very cool. And your friend would have to have text formatted the same size to get the same location numbers, or are they independent of size?

And thanks

 

[Skittles]

Very cool. And your friend would have to have text formatted the same size to get the same location numbers, or are they independent of size?

And thanks

They're independent of size. The location just refers to a certain page/sentence of the book, so that you always have a 'true' indicator of where you are within the book, no matter what your font size is.

 

[Thrawn]

They're independent of size. The location just refers to a certain page/sentence of the book, so that you always have a 'true' indicator of where you are within the book, no matter what your font size is.

Much appreciated.

In general, I feel like I'm going to want a Kindle or something similar pretty soon (so I'm doing the research on them), but with the delays discussed in this thread and a few other minor issues, I think I'll wait a few more months.

 

[Brynthe2]

Much appreciated.

In general, I feel like I'm going to want a Kindle or something similar pretty soon (so I'm doing the research on them), but with the delays discussed in this thread and a few other minor issues, I think I'll wait a few more months.

Another thing to consider when looking at the Kindle will be what other kinds of books you like to read. I've found www.manybooks.net to be a great source for Kindle books that are free. They are mostly Project Gutenberg books that are no longer under copyright, and are now available to the public for free. Manybooks has converted the majority of them into Kindle versions that you can download to your computer and transfer to the Kindle, or you can go to their portable website mnybks.net and download the Kindle versions directly to the unit itself, using the Kindle's mini web browser. Obviously, these are older books, but if you're interested in books by Dumas, Lovecraft, Jules Verne, Lewis Carroll, Arthur Conan Doyle, etc. its a great source for Kindle books.

Also, in regards to .pdf files, I've had great success converting non-protected .pdf's to Word (.doc) format, transferring them and reading them on the Kindle.

As for the delays, I've only had problems with Star Trek books and that has been just recently. The majority of other books I read seem to come out around the same time as their paper counterparts, for the Kindle.

 

[JWolf]

For New Frontier the hardback of Stone and Anvil comes with a CD with electronic versions of all the previous books too.

But the problem is that they come in PDF. Not a good format for fiction reading.

 

[JWolf]

Much appreciated.

In general, I feel like I'm going to want a Kindle or something similar pretty soon (so I'm doing the research on them), but with the delays discussed in this thread and a few other minor issues, I think I'll wait a few more months.

Another thing to consider when looking at the Kindle will be what other kinds of books you like to read. I've found www.manybooks.net to be a great source for Kindle books that are free. They are mostly Project Gutenberg books that are no longer under copyright, and are now available to the public for free. Manybooks has converted the majority of them into Kindle versions that you can download to your computer and transfer to the Kindle, or you can go to their portable website mnybks.net and download the Kindle versions directly to the unit itself, using the Kindle's mini web browser. Obviously, these are older books, but if you're interested in books by Dumas, Lovecraft, Jules Verne, Lewis Carroll, Arthur Conan Doyle, etc. its a great source for Kindle books.

A really really good source of free eBooks for the Sony Reader line (500/505), Kindle, and any other device that reads Mobipocket format is MobileRead http://www.mobileread.com/forums/ because people there have been posting lots of public domain eBooks and freely available eBooks. A lot nicer formatted then the ones Manybooks gives you. There is even one Star Trek eBook available for free.

 

[ATimson]

But the problem is that they come in PDF. Not a good format for fiction reading.

But they come without DRM, so you can convert them to other formats.

 

[JWolf]

But the problem is that they come in PDF. Not a good format for fiction reading.

But they come without DRM, so you can convert them to other formats.

Converting from PDF to something else is not as easy as it seems. Not even using Adobe Acrobat Pro gives perfect conversion results.

 

[ATimson]

Converting from PDF to something else is not as easy as it seems. Not even using Adobe Acrobat Pro gives perfect conversion results.

Oh, I know. But it usually gives "good enough" results, especially combined with a few choice search/replaces to strip out the extra line breaks.

 

[Brynthe2]

A really really good source of free eBooks for the Sony Reader line (500/505), Kindle, and any other device that reads Mobipocket format is MobileRead http://www.mobileread.com/forums/ because people there have been posting lots of public domain eBooks and freely available eBooks. A lot nicer formatted then the ones Manybooks gives you. There is even one Star Trek eBook available for free.

Good to know JWolf, I'm always happy to find new sources of reading material for the Kindle, especially if they're free.