Robear wrote:I found all 6 of Jane Austen's books in Kindle format for $1.59 last night. Kiri was over the moon. :-)
Since these are all public domain titles, what exactly is the benefit of buying them in a Kindle format? Just curious.
I bought a cheap version of alice, even though I'd brought in a stanza formatted version -- the TOC and illustrations are cleaner and easier to read. Plus, its easy. It's not instant to get and convert a book. Is your time worth $1.59 for 20 minutes? I know mine is.
Robear wrote:I found all 6 of Jane Austen's books in Kindle format for $1.59 last night. Kiri was over the moon. :-)
Since these are all public domain titles, what exactly is the benefit of buying them in a Kindle format? Just curious.
Agreed. Couldn't you find them on Project Gutenberg and convert them via the free Mobipocket Creator?
Speaking of which, how is DRM free .mobi support? As good as .azw?
DAMN! I want one of these! But — and correct me if I'm wrong — it's not realistic for me, yet. I'm a voracious reader, going through 1-3 books a week. But this past year I finally weaned myself off the bookstore to save $$$ and now get 99% of my books from the library.
NYC has a fantastic library system and seems to have a pretty good eBook collection, but I've been watching the books I check out over the past couple of months and only about 10% of them have ebooks available for download.
I guess when ebooks become so ubiquitous that most every title is released with one and available via the library, I'll finally be able to fulfill this lust, but for now... I'll just have itchy hands, wishing to hold and caress another gadget I covet.
A note on de-registering. I'm selling my old Kindle to a GWJer here, so I deregistered it from my Amazon account. But all my books stayed on the old Kindle even so! I'm assuming once he connects it to his Amazon account so he can start buying books, it will wipe those out, but for the moment, he's inheriting my library. I can't even find out a way to wipe them but for going one-by-one.
Can't you just open the drive when it's plugged in to your PC, and delete the files there?
rabbit wrote:A note on de-registering. I'm selling my old Kindle to a GWJer here, so I deregistered it from my Amazon account. But all my books stayed on the old Kindle even so! I'm assuming once he connects it to his Amazon account so he can start buying books, it will wipe those out, but for the moment, he's inheriting my library. I can't even find out a way to wipe them but for going one-by-one.
Can't you just open the drive when it's plugged in to your PC, and delete the files there?
Don't tell him that! I want a few books to check the thing out with.
It came.
Headache with UPS aside (they said they delivered the Kindle "to my Front Door" which apparently means "I shoved it in your mailbox because I didn't want to take the time to drive up your driveway") I'm excited to explore. It's a very cute looking device, and the packaging WAS very cool (not quite Apple levels, but inspired).
WhisperNet isn't HORRIBLE, though loading a list of 150 blogs took awhile. Now I'm trying to decide what my first book will be.
The ability to surprise my wife with the download in less than the time it took her to return from walking the dog. Oh, and also it was Kindle-formated, so it looks nice.
Ok, one quick "yay" and one quick "boo."
Yay: The Onion! $1.99 a month is not bad at all to automatically have the Onion delivered to my Kindle.
Boo: Downloaded my first book (Anansi Boys) and I REALLY wish the Kindle kept track of my progress in a chapter as opposed to my "Location" progress. I understand that it can't easily tell me how many "pages" I have left when I can easily change the text size but... no wait, why can't it do that? It has to re-render the text when you change the size, so can't it update overall progress?
I guess I got spoiled by Stanza (for the week I used it). I'm the type of reader who likes to flip forward in a book to see how many pages I have left in a chapter, so I can gauge if I should push toward that goal before putting the book down. Now, I know how far I am in the whole BOOK (which is nice) but I'd like it to be broken up into smaller chunks (maybe a toggle in the settings or something).
I've never used an e-reader program that kept track of your chapter progress.
SommerMatt wrote:Since these are all public domain titles, what exactly is the benefit of buying them in a Kindle format? Just curious.
...Plus, its easy. It's not instant to get and convert a book. Is your time worth $1.59 for 20 minutes? I know mine is.
I've converted tons of books to use on Mobipocket, and many other ebook reader programs accept HTML files. 20 minutes? You're doing something wrong 
I REALLY wish the Kindle kept track of my progress in a chapter as opposed to my "Location" progress.
I don't understand what the practical difference is between the two. If you leave a book and go back to it, you'll end up at the same virtual page. This isn't good enough?
I had a tiny epiphany today: eventually, mothers will be reminding kids to 'bring your book', singular. Each kid will only have one.
I REALLY wish the Kindle kept track of my progress in a chapter as opposed to my "Location" progress.I don't understand what the practical difference is between the two. If you leave a book and go back to it, you'll end up at the same virtual page. This isn't good enough?
I had a tiny epiphany today: eventually, mothers will be reminding kids to 'bring your book', singular. Each kid will only have one.
I mean, yeah, it's good enough (i.e. I'm not going to return my Kindle) but I wouldn't mind the ability to track where I am in a chapter. Heck, even if the long progress bar at the bottom defaulted to having dots where the chapters started (like how articles are separated when reading a periodical) that would be a good start. Maybe it's me that's weird, but it doesn't seem too strange: when I'm reading an entire book, I want to stop at a chapter break, and it would be nice to know, for pacing, how far away that is.
I've never used an e-reader program that kept track of your chapter progress.
Stanza does. When you open a book you open to the chapter list and when you click into a chapter, it shows your progress within the chapter and not the overall book. I guess it's just a personal preference thing.
Ohh, I get it now. Yeah, that would be nice.
See I never even considered something like that. I don't personally see any need for it, but if you want it.. then you want it 
I'm still completely pleased with the thing. I went ahead and got Amazon's leather cover for the thing, and they overnighted that to me too even though I only requested the usual free 2nd day delivery that comes for free with my Prime membership.
I like the case. It folds around the back and out of the way nicely while giving you something a little more substantial (and textured) to hold on to.
But on another note, is the battery in the Kindle 2 not replaceable by the user?
That's a bummer, if true.
You guys suck donkey balls.
Next up: GWJ delivered as a Kindle book!
How about The Escapist?
My wife surprised me with a Kindle 2 the other day. What a great gift. I owe her something fancy now.
I spent the evening downloading a bunch of "greatest book" freebies and some stuff I actually paid for. So far I'm pretty impressed. Haven't had a ton of time to read with it yet. I'm still tearing through about three or four physical books at the moment, but I hope to get into the Kindle this weekend.
At first glance though, I have to admit that this is probably my favorite piece of technology ever. These guys are geniuses and deserve to be showered with money.
I've converted tons of books to use on Mobipocket, and many other ebook reader programs accept HTML files. 20 minutes? You're doing something wrong :)
Your way (free):
Me, sitting on the couch, about to head to bed: "Oh, hey, I know, I really wanted to re-read Ulysses."
Run down stairs.
Turn on computer.
Surf over to Gutenberg.
Find James Joyce.
Download HTML version.
Run up 2 flights.
Grab Kindle.
Run down two flights.
Launch Stanza (mobi, whatever)
Click all my settings and whatnot.
Plug in kindle.
Transfer.
Unplug kindle.
Return to couch.
My Way (80 cents):
Go to bed.
Turn on kindle.
Type in "Ulysses"
Click Buy.
Yawn, turn off light, find booklight.
Read.
I admit, perhaps it's stupid to pay 80 cents to save a few trips up and down the stairs and 10 minutes mucking around on my computer. I spend a lot more than 80 cents on a lot of stupider things though.
I admit, perhaps it's stupid to pay 80 cents to save a few trips up and down the stairs and 10 minutes mucking around on my computer. I spend a lot more than 80 cents on a lot of stupider things though.
No, I get it. I think that's sort of the genius (?) of the Kindle's built-in cellular service-- that it requires little to no thought/effort to purchase a book you have an interest in. If the prices are reasonable enough, there's very little incentive to go hunting for your own copy.
Me, sitting on the couch, about to head to bed: "Oh, hey, I know, I really wanted to re-read Ulysses."
You want to re-read Ulysses and you are claiming you don't have the energy to go up and down stairs a couple of times?
Heck, you need the exercise just to ensure you have enough brain cells primed for the job.
To be fair, it's MUCH more likely I say "Crap, where the hell is our copy of 'Stranger in a Strange Land'? Did I loan that to my sister last fall?" and then just give up and buy it again. We're both book hoarders and proselytizers, which means we love sharing books, but we also love re-reading them 1000 times. For instance, right now, I can't figure out who has my copy of "The 300."
Deadron wrote:Next up: GWJ delivered as a Kindle book!
How about The Escapist?
No.
No, I mustn't.
It's okay, Word, it's a safe link. I got a weird error when it loaded though, try this one, it seems more stable.
So I just finished my first book (I need to read more Neil Gaiman) and started my second one, Amber (Tara of Buffy fame) Benson's new book "Death's Daughter."
Lo and behold, it has markers in the progress bar showing the chapter breaks. This is an acceptable workaround for the problem I was describing earlier (not knowing how far I have left to go in a given chapter).
So, is "Death's Door" the exception to the rule (no progress markers whatsoever except for how many sentences out of 6000 I've read like "Anansi Boys") or is it the more common occurrence?
I don't recall seeing chapter points yet, but I'll check the books I've bought so far.
Yeah, of the three I have, only the Amber Benson book has chapter markers.
Hmm.
what do the numbers in the middle at the bottom mean?
So what happens if you're in an area where you have poor Sprint cellular service? Can you still get books onto the Kindle?
Yes, you just DL them to your computer, then drag them over.
what do the numbers in the middle at the bottom mean?
As far as I can tell, a "location" is a sentence.
So, you're reading "Location 248-59" as in "The 248th through 259th sentences of the book. The bottom right number is showing you the total number of locations.
I'm sure this grows to include diagrams and perhaps even beginnings of chapters, etc. but that is what I understand a "location" to be.
I have to reiterate how much my wife, an extremely voracious reader, loves this device.
She's also a news nut.
She's told me at LEAST once a WEEK, since last November, that she "luuuuuuuuuuvs" her Kindle. That's how she pronounces it. "Luuuuuuuv" it.
I'm rapidly approaching that state, Ducki. It's nearly ideal for me. While I wish it had more features, what it does is more than I had hoped for, and it's just plain useful. And stylish.
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