* SIMILARLY,WHEN I WORK * ON A COMPUTING DEVICE * THERE IS REALLY NO * SUBSTITUTE FOR A GOOD * RELIABLE UNIVAC 70/3. * CALL ME OL'SKOOL! LINE ERROR,RETRANSMIT
I think I've spent more on books--paper books--since getting my ereader last month than I have in the six months before that. (Admittedly some of this is due to landing a job, but I don't think all.)
Perhaps I've read The Diamond Age one too many times, but I think it'd be neat to have a book with actual "smart paper", such that you get all the affordances of having a real book and it can re-ink itself into another story when you're finished reading.
I'm pretty sure that I can get .epub files out of most of my Kobo books, and there are programs to let you read those on-screen. And I know Smashwords at least includes PDF, RTF, plaintext, and HTML versions of the book among all the ones you get when you buy it. So even if you don't want to loan out your ereader, there are ways to let someone else have the book you're reading.
I suppose the hard part is that you're giving, not lending, but you could always delete your copy once you loan it out, and get whoever you loaned it to to 'mail it back to you when they're done.
Kobo books are Adobe DRM protected epubs. With a little help from I ♥ CABBAGES (DRM) and Calibre (epub->MobiPocket) I regularly read Kobo books on my Kindle.
Rather more annoying than just buying books on my Kindle, but a whole whack of publishers seemed to have blacklisted the Kindle in Canada of late.
Don't hate, but I love my Kindle. Love that I can choose between half a dozen books that I'm currently reading depending on what mood I'm in, plus The Economist, without having to haul said books/magazines around. I love the slate easy-on-the-eyes background which leads to less eyestrain for me personally. Love that public libraries are starting to let me "check out" titles on it. I really believe e-readers are a great thing for the publishing industry.
Having said that, it won't be worth it if libraries get left behind. I'm glad they're hopping on the e-reader express, and there will always be room for physical, lendable copies.
I personally love the fact that on Kindle I can buy even more books than normal and I *don't* have to buy new shelves every year. And a new house to put them in every ten.
I just bought a metric assload of used books a couple months ago, and I figure that by the time I work through all of those at my currently-glacial reading pace there will be a color Kindle out with a revision or two behind it, which will let me read these gigs of comics that have been sitting on my harddrive for nearly a decade, one of which is Sandman.
I have replaced almost every book I own with Kindle/e-book versions of it, and I've not really looked back. What the Kindle is terrible for -- textbooks, cookbooks, coffee table books -- I still have in print form.
The Kindle really is notoriously not waterproof - and also, searching is just not as easy as flipping through a cookbook, landing on "Ooh, this sounds good". Plus, yes, I do like pictures in my cookbooks of impossibly perfectly prepared meals in four-color glossy. I know, it's so very gauche of me.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-13 11:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-14 03:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-14 05:21 am (UTC)* ON A COMPUTING DEVICE
* THERE IS REALLY NO
* SUBSTITUTE FOR A GOOD
* RELIABLE UNIVAC 70/3.
* CALL ME OL'SKOOL!
LINE ERROR,RETRANSMIT
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-14 09:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-14 01:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-14 08:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-14 09:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-14 01:09 pm (UTC)I'm pretty sure that I can get .epub files out of most of my Kobo books, and there are programs to let you read those on-screen. And I know Smashwords at least includes PDF, RTF, plaintext, and HTML versions of the book among all the ones you get when you buy it. So even if you don't want to loan out your ereader, there are ways to let someone else have the book you're reading.
I suppose the hard part is that you're giving, not lending, but you could always delete your copy once you loan it out, and get whoever you loaned it to to 'mail it back to you when they're done.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-14 06:49 pm (UTC)Rather more annoying than just buying books on my Kindle, but a whole whack of publishers seemed to have blacklisted the Kindle in Canada of late.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-14 10:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-14 11:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-14 03:19 pm (UTC)also, lol'ed at the icon
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-14 06:50 pm (UTC)Having said that, it won't be worth it if libraries get left behind. I'm glad they're hopping on the e-reader express, and there will always be room for physical, lendable copies.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-14 11:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-15 01:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-15 10:52 pm (UTC)I just bought a metric assload of used books a couple months ago, and I figure that by the time I work through all of those at my currently-glacial reading pace there will be a color Kindle out with a revision or two behind it, which will let me read these gigs of comics that have been sitting on my harddrive for nearly a decade, one of which is Sandman.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-15 03:39 am (UTC)When the Big EMP hits us, I'm fucked.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-15 12:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-15 07:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-15 10:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-15 10:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-15 10:59 pm (UTC)