Kindle vs Physical Books

[K_V_B]

Originally Posted by ErBrown

So I bring this up because I'm curious what others do here. There have been several reference books that after buying electronic copies, I've wished I opted for physical books.

I bought the Kindle DX especially because the big screen makes it more suitable to reference materials. I have PDFs on it of all manuals I need. The Kindle DX is no longer being sold however.

Now if only someone would make a tablet/e reader with a 10" color e-ink display, that would be perfect...

[mbianka]

Originally Posted by Thumbs Up

We have an older kindle that can go online via 3g as well as wireless, the 3g connection is free and we have used it in Mexico and Honduras to send and check e-mails. But what I wanted to mention here is that it works great for viewing radiofax weather information, much easier to see than on a computer screen!

Thumbs

Could you explain how you get the weather fax onto your Kindle. Sounds like a great use for it especially in the cockpit where the Kindle excels in the bright light compared to LCD screens.

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by K_V_B

...Now if only someone would make a tablet/e reader with a 10" color e-ink display, that would be perfect...

+1 I love the E ink screens. I know the refresh rate is slow, but I would love to have some nav instruments made with the same technolodgy.

[jeremiason]

I have had a Kindle with 3g/Wifi since 2010 and used it for three years while cruising.

It worked well and I was able to download books from Amazon in Mexico and all of Central America through the Kindle Modem. Be careful with that though, I have heard that some places there are connection fees.

I used it for email a couple of times, but it was painfully slow.

We also downloaded a Central America Cruisers Guide to the Kindle. The text portion was ok to read, but the charts were just too small.

We used Calibre to organize or convert other e-books to Kindle format.

Calibre is a great way to organize you e-books and also allows you to preview them.

calibre - E-book management

[Rhapsody-NS27]

Originally Posted by atoll

ever tried to wipe your arse ,or roll a cigarette with a kindle,when the paper runs out.....

Reminds me of this funny commercial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VweJslplSbE

[ErBrown]

I completely agree with the comments that for readability using the kindle app on a tablet or laptop is functional, but it still presents a bit of a usability issue when flipping back and forth for reference type stuff. It's pretty odd for me to be saying this, since my job is 100% technology focused and I pretty much life with a computer, smartphone, tablet within reach at every second while on land but I find myself wanting less and less of it when I'm on a boat. Part of that is probably due to the fact that our current boat is so old and crappy and really just used for goofing around the lake. We're shopping for a larger boat to keep on the gulf and I'm sure once we go down that route I'll be adding a few life proof cases to phones and tablets and as a result will find myself more willing to use them on the boat. I guess the hard thing for me right now is trying to determine which books I'd be better off with a paper copy and which are fine electronically. Unfortunately the issue is that most of the books I find myself wanting hard copies of are huge hardcover references life "The Annapolis Guides to Seamanship" which I like to be able to flip back through. Other books with many tables and charts I find frustrating to read on e-ink but in truth they're fine on a tablet so I guess I'll just suck it up and go electronic. We just need the e-reader technology to catch-up with this particular use case.

I still love paperback for book swaps/exchanges but if I'm just stocking up on a ton of reading material for entertainment purposes, it's pretty hard to beat the electronic version...as long as there's a few paperbacks around in case the reader goes belly up.

[rognvald]

There are some things in life that will forever be sacrosanct: Laphroaig single malt Scotch, a Montecristo Cuban cigar, Russian Beluga caviar, the music of Bach, the novels of Joseph Conrad, the haunting scenes of Paul Gauguin, the embrace of a beautiful woman, the sweet sour taste of salt air as you climb slowly upwind towards a desolate anchorage and the tactile sense of slowly turning pages in a paper book that takes you to a place somewhere else in time . . . functional? . . . economy of space? . . . Not in my lifetime. Good luck and good sailing.

[NorthernSeaWolf]

Originally Posted by rognvald

There are some things in life that will forever be sacrosanct: Laphroaig single malt Scotch, a Montecristo Cuban cigar, Russian Beluga caviar, the music of Bach, the novels of Joseph Conrad, the haunting scenes of Paul Gauguin, the embrace of a beautiful woman, the sweet sour taste of salt air as you climb slowly upwind towards a desolate anchorage and the tactile sense of slowly turning pages in a paper book that takes you to a place somewhere else in time . . . functional? . . . economy of space? . . . Not in my lifetime.

True, however how many manuals and other non-fiction good-to-have's can be considered sacrosanct? Okay, perhaps one or two of my Brian Greene works need to stay paper (and they would), however, I can understand wanting to streamline that which is not aesthetically pleasing on some level...

(said the girl with 3 filled, 6-foot bookcases)

[Mycroft]

rognvald, you either aren't a liveaboard or you have a storage facility of some kind.

If it wasn't for the Kindle, I couldn't live on a sailboat. I refuse to pay to store stuff and I need books.

[klmmicro]

Originally Posted by atoll

ever tried to wipe your arse ,or roll a cigarette with a kindle,when the paper runs out.....

Yeah...and the owner got pissed for some reason.

[sailorboy1]

I love my kindle, but for a reference book I would always get a real book because I just can not "flip" though an e-book.

[Mexdon]

Originally Posted by klmmicro

Yeah...and the owner got pissed for some reason.

Was it his kindle to piss him off more?

[rognvald]

Originally Posted by Mycroft

rognvald, you either aren't a liveaboard or you have a storage facility of some kind.

If it wasn't for the Kindle, I couldn't live on a sailboat. I refuse to pay to store stuff and I need books.

Mycroft,
True on both counts. However, when we lived aboard for ten years we never had a problem with book storage since we lived simply as far as personal items and were able to store those books we chose to keep(about once a year) in our stateside home. Others were recycled in book exchanges along the path. There are some things in life that we all choose to do that defies logic and reason. Life would be boring to live as a machine. Good luck and good reading.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by NorthernSeaWolf

Okay, perhaps one or two of my Brian Greene works need to stay paper

That's funny - the only two non-technical, non-equipment manual books I have on board right now are Brian Greene (well, I guess his stuff could be considered technical and equipment manuals of sorts).

I have them on Kindle, but I'm too dumb to read straight through them without flipping back all the time and looking at diagrams and rereading sections.

I'm OK with quantum mechanic ebooks, but the string theory math and concepts just tangle my brain and require paper books.

Mark

[colemj]

As for cruiser's book exchanges, I will never enjoy Danielle Steele, Harlequin Romances and the like (apparently 99.999999999999999% of all books being read out here), and even for those (very) rare books in my reading range that might show up, I got tired of having the bug-infested, rotting and stinking things on the boat.

I have begun to view book exchanges like those pox parties where the parents bring their children specifically to catch communicable diseases (bugs, mildew, mold and rot in this case). Only in this case, it doesn't build up helpful immunity...

Mark