Ebooks or Paperbacks on Board and Why?

[Amapola]

We currently have books on board because I can purchase best sellers from thrift stores way cheaper than ebooks. However, I will be purchasing a tablet or ereader soon.

[Bobalu]

I love my Kindle for both on and off the boat. I travel quite a bit for work and find the Kindle the perfect device. As a leadership development facilitator, when a client constantly is citiing a book I am not familiar with, I can usually find it on Amazon and can download it and be reading it within minutes. It also makes reading on a plane or at dinner by myself more tolerable

Not much of a feature for the sailing side of my life.

On the boat I particularly like how energy efficient it is. I charge it once and use it for two or three weeks at a time. The only drawback, it hates getting wet.

[banyandah]

Originally Posted by Bobalu

Not much of a feature for the sailing side of my life.

Well, Bobalu, we have a sailing story you can read on your kindle and it is currently available to Cruiser Forum members for free when you purchase our Practical Boat Bits and Tips, a volume filled with very helpful boatie ideas. The sailing story will take you around the exotic and diverse island continent of Australia, to the world's oldest rock paintings, the most exquisite coral reef with the worlds largest tidal difference that perches you higher than the surrounding sea. Learn something of Australia's difficult discovery, the men who risked ships and lives to explore and chart its waters. Both for a paltry $5
If you want files for your kindle, best to email me direct.

Ebooks ~ 2 for 1 Sale to CF Members

Buy Jude's Practical Boat Bits and Tips for $5
And receive a free copy of Two's a Crew

Both in PDF format



------ More Details ------- ------ More Details -------

[mbianka]

Originally Posted by CaptForce

This great volume of books is the big win with the eBooks. Thousands of books never comes to mind for us,- we usually carry a couple dozen and I'm only reading one at a time. We trade out our supply regularly, but if you wanted to keep a huge number of books, I can see that something like the Kindle would be best.

Capt Force:

I can see if you constantly swap out the books on board space would not be a problem. I certainly don't have thousands of books loaded yet. But, it's growing. I read mostly non fiction books and do use the Kindle note feature a lot to mark passages in many of the books I've read. Which is handy for bringing me back to the location in the books later on. But, it's not only books that are loaded. I have a manuscript I'm working on and other documents, manuals and other notes up on my Kindle too.

[roverhi]

I was an early adopter of the Kindle. Find it the ideal size for handling while reading. Books now seem cumbersome and a bother to read and/or carry around. Have actually bought books to read on the Kindle that I own in print version. The Kindle is just so nice to use. Have been secretly wishing my original style paper white Kindle would give up the ghost. Would have an excuse to buy the new model with built in reading light, then. Unfortunately, the old one shows no signs of dieing despite numerous drops, falls, a TransPac and many many book read over the years.

Also have an iPad but it's too heavy and bulky to be used comfortably except with it in the Apple Origami stand and a keyboard. Much easier to transport than my old laptop but not the device I want for reading.

[goboatingnow]

The new kindle with the built in front light is just amazing and fixes the only drawback of the older versions


The other hidden benefit is that 3G whisper net gives you free web access anyway in 3G land, yes it's slow a bit buggy and limited but hey it's works across countries and costs nothing.

Had a few e-ink screens fail across 3 kindles. ( me wife, daughter )

Dave

[Talbot]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

The new kindle with the built in front light is just amazing and fixes the only drawback of the older versions .........

The kindle does have good points, and the concept is great for people buying new books from Amazon. Wher this and other readers fail is where you already have a number of books in pdf format. So far I have not found a pocket size reader that can cope with pdfs, and i have a lot of books in pdf format.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Talbot

The kindle does have good points, and the concept is great for people buying new books from Amazon. Wher this and other readers fail is where you already have a number of books in pdf format. So far I have not found a pocket size reader that can cope with pdfs, and i have a lot of books in pdf format.

loads of PDF to AWF convertors around try K2PdfOpt. ( google it) also the newer kindles read PDFs directly

as to pdf pocket sized readers, try Ipad min, any android mini-tablet etc etc etc

Dave

[mcarling]

Originally Posted by Talbot

The kindle does have good points, and the concept is great for people buying new books from Amazon. Wher this and other readers fail is where you already have a number of books in pdf format. So far I have not found a pocket size reader that can cope with pdfs, and i have a lot of books in pdf format.

I read PDFs on my iPad. No problem. My first choice for books is iBooks, then Kindle books, then PDF books. I have many of each on my iPad.

[Blue Crab]

Caution to J&J Merican readers and downloaders: That AUD5 is 5.40 USD! "Paltry" my waltzing matilda! The whole deal took no more than 3 min which included a moment of thoughtful prayercontemplation before I mashed that download red button.

You techies already have your choices but I have access to many recorded books that I find allow me to multitask pretty efficiently. I know for a fact my watchkeeping suffers while reading.

I must admit that dreams of Ipads have been recurring lately. Can a Microsoft user make the transition?

[david7]

I'm curious to know what kind of books you find in these cruiser book swaps? Because you couldn't pay me to read most of the books in my marinas laundry room and the one time I saw a decent book I was on my way to take a shower and by the time I was finished it was gone. I read fiction but it has to be well written and I pretty much never see non-fiction books on the shelf.

Right now I have a few regular books and a kindle. A few of my books I would have a hard time parting with (some first editions and signed copies) and there is still plenty of space on my boat.

In regards to the kindle/iPad question...it doesn't exist. They are different devices built for different purposes. That's it...I use my kindle to read and my iPad for everything else. I wouldn't feel comfortable bringing my iPad along for a two week backpacking trip and you can't do anything else on the kindle.

[SaucySailoress]

Originally Posted by Blue Crab

I must admit that dreams of Ipads have been recurring lately. Can a Microsoft user make the transition?

I tried. I found the gadget over-rated and under-functioning. But then at the time I was studying for a Masters Degree, and found my little netbook far more useful for travelling than the iPad. The iPad is great as a recreational device, though, the games are great, the eReaders are great, the internet access is great (except for the typing, no CtrlC, CtrlV there, which I use regularly as a mod here), the... well, that's it, really.

So when my mum decided to adopt my iPad because she loved how accessible and portable it is compared to her laptop, I let it go without regret.

[mcarling]

Originally Posted by Blue Crab

I must admit that dreams of Ipads have been recurring lately. Can a Microsoft user make the transition?

For approximately 50 million iPad buyers so far, the iPad was their first Apple product. Presumably most of them were Microsoft users.

Originally Posted by SaucySailoress

I tried. I found the gadget over-rated and under-functioning. But then at the time I was studying for a Masters Degree, and found my little netbook far more useful for travelling than the iPad. The iPad is great as a recreational device, though, the games are great, the eReaders are great, the internet access is great (except for the typing, no CtrlC, CtrlV there, which I use regularly as a mod here), the... well, that's it, really.

The conventional wisdom, with which I agree, is that iPads are better than laptops for content consumption (reading, watching movies, listening to music, surfing the web, etc.) but generally quite weak for content creation (writing, drawing, etc.). For example, Apple do not provide an iOS software development environment which runs on an iPad. All iPad/iPhone/iPod software development must be done on a Mac.

I find that, for me, writing a post like this one is about the upper limit of what I write using my iPad. If I have to write anything much longer, then I switch to my MacBook Air.

[Blue Crab]

Good point(s).

My kids all went Apple when they got old enough to choose.

[Lin Pardey]

It is interesting to watch which of the books Larry and I wrote people prefer as hard copies instead of ebooks. Since 2008 when all of our books became available either way, ebook sales have added a lot to our kitty and have introduced us to a lot of new readers. But...the majority of people who buy our books still seem to prefer real books when it comes to our Storm Tactics handbook, Larry's details of Classic Boat Construction and Cost Conscious Cruiser, all books with lots of diagrams or photos. Our sailing narratives have become more popular as ebooks. What is interesting is, Amazon chooses 100 books a month to introduce to Kindle readers. They ask the publisher to lower the price for that month to $3.99 or less and guarentee the publisher a miniumn number of sales during that period. (We know because my memoir about the time we spent building Taleisin was chosen this month and the publisher lowered the price from $7.99 to $2.99 for the month) So ebook readers have the advantage of giving users a chance to get bargains. Me? I still love folding, spindling and mutilating real books when I am afloat, also love some of the finds we used to happen upon in book trading spots along the cruising route.