Book Storage

[sarafina]

and you can get titles for much less than 20 bucks, just have to shop around, not on amazon!

[sneuman]

I am also an avid reader, but I discovered over time that I rarely re-read. I have found in the past decade or so - first over successive international moves and now as a liveaboard, that the best thing to do with books once you've read them is to give them away to someone who might do the same. Since I moved to Hong Kong in 2000, I have maintained a "two bookcase rule". If one book goes in, one goes out. Two shelves, fully stocked. Now that I liveaboard, it's the same policy, but the shelves are quite a bit smaller.

Full disclosure: I also have several boxes of books in storage. :-)

[mintyspilot]

Originally Posted by sarafina

and you can get titles for much less than 20 bucks, just have to shop around, not on amazon!

$20?? Whee!!!! What kind of books are you on? I picked up 3 of the "Jack Aubrey" books on a 3 for 2 offer and they worked out at £5 (=$7.50) per book.

@Sneuman - re-reading. I can re-read some books but not others. When I've read my way through the 20 book series I'm reading now, I'll put them away for a while and then at some point in several months time - maybe longer - I'll redo the whole series as one giant read. There's lots of books it doesn't work for. Many of the John Grisham ones are OK for one read, but every few years I like to re-read the books of The Lord of the Rings - so much better than the movies and I'm still finding bits in there that seem new, even after all this time.

I have the full five book set of Philip K Dick's collected short stories and some of them are rubbish and others are very thought-provoking. He tackled a lot of social issues that we are still struggling with today.

If I had a two bookshelf rule it would have to be one shelf for the giveaways and one shelf for my favourites that I would be loathe to give away.

[witzgall]

Public libraries are starting to offer e-books to lend. They expire after a time, and you can renew-just like a real lending book.

Chris

Originally Posted by osirissail

No such system is available for the electronic readers, you must purchase each book separately from some internet source or other store.

[Roaring Girl]

I must be a luddite after all - but I'd find it hard to adjust to relying solely on an e.reader for my books. There are all the reasons listed above, plus pure power consumption! And I enjoy the pleasure of books, the handling and heft of them.

The ventilation point is of course correct - and applies to more than books. We all carry books - manuals, pilots, how-to. Some of us want other books as well, and there are ways to manage them on board.

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by witzgall

Public libraries are starting to offer e-books to lend. They expire after a time, and you can renew-just like a real lending book.
Chris

The last time I looked at the title of this forum it mentioned that it about Cruising Boats and Cruising People - not people living on land with access to their local library. There are few, if any, "local libraries" in the various islands and coastal cruising areas accessed by people cruising the world. If there are they are rarely in the English language and you as a foreigner are not eligible for a library card. E-books simply do not exist outside major first world population centers although they can be purchased on line.
- - But there are stacks and stacks of free paperback and other books in the marinas and at bars and hang-outs just about everyplace cruisers do stop. Finding new reading material and getting rid of the books you finished is easy. The hard part is digging through the hundreds of books to find the ones you are interested in reading.

[Delezynski]

our Nor'Sea 27! We love to read. Jill has had her Sony reader for over 2 years aboard and I have a Nook.

you can read about them on our web site (see link below) under "Guenevere's Reading Room" area along with a few sites for FREE ebooks. If you go to our "Video Shorts" area we did a small YouTube video of each of our readers. That way you can see them work for yourself in real time.

And YES, the read just like a book in sunlight!

Greg

[Bash]

Originally Posted by osirissail

There are few, if any, "local libraries" in the various islands and coastal cruising areas accessed by people cruising the world.

That's not the case if you have internet access. My local public library, here in California, allows me to download ebooks through the internet. They don't care if I'm across town or across the ocean.

[sabray]

I borrowed an ipad the other day. Have to say the reading was easy theres a kindle app along with the other ebook stuff. And I can down load The NY times. beats the hell out of my Sunday Dinghy trip to get my newspaper fix. Im waiting a bit for the next version also would like to see the slate. Off topic the GPS on this model non 3g had me a good 40 yards out of position and I kept moving around the campus although I was still. Granted there were buildings next to me.

[Therapy]

There are now three Kindles in our house. We don't share well when it comes to that I guess. There are sites that have free books but they are mostly pretty old stuff. Fine for that if you want some of that stuff. As for the newer stuff, well ya gotta pay so the authors can continue to eat and write.

Most of the Amazon books are 10 bucks. A lot are 5 or 6.

There are sites that one can get books from. A subscription is paid and one can even request books that they don't have. In a day or so they are there. We went away for April and even though our subscription did not allow for so many requests they obliged when I whined with our excuse of wanting to load up before we left. 60 some books for trip. Download to the computer and then to the Kindle. Internet access required!

Now, I don't think some of these places are much different than some of the music sites that no longer exist so feel some will be attacked and shut down for some legal reason or another but right now books for us are real cheap.

I have friends that are sticking to the "I like the feel of touching, holding, feeling, etc,etc........whatever. Any argument can be used.

Power. Not even worth discussing with the Kindle. I charged mine once during the month. The wife charged hers three times I think - kinda lets you know who was conning the ship huh? I can read every day for hours for a week at least. Power - a non issue.

Electronic. Yep. So is the cell phone - I take care of it. The laptop - uh huh, yep, watch out for it too. We don't read in the rain but I bet a zip-lock bag would do the trick pretty easily.

Trading - well that would not work in the traditional way but imagine this: You meet someone that has a Kindle and uses the computer to store books like we do. "I have that, what is your email address?" BINGO! Or; "I have that. Stop by with your laptop, no wait, take this thumb drive and drop it back by later on." Imagine a little box in the marina office (some even have computers for the cruisers use right?) full of old thumb drives with little cards attached with what books are on the inside.........hmmmm........... I have several old, expensive then, 256 meg (I think) thumb drives I no longer use because their capacity has been outstripped by the digital camera. I could leave hundreds of books at a time.

Technology is advancing all the time.
I took a long time to buy a chart plotter. Did you?
Actually I bought a boat with a chart plotter but what the hey!

Anyway, they are here.

Use them or not.

[LauderBoy]

As far as the electronic + water = bad thing with the Kindle, keep an eye out for this coming out soon: M-Edge | Products | Guardian Case for Amazon Kindle (Fits 6" Display, Latest Generation Kindle)

That should make the Kindle over board and wave friendly.

Anyone have experience with the newer Kindle 2 and the wireless availability in the Bahamas/Caribbean? Just wondering if it's something you should load up before heading out or whether you can download boats while on the hook in most areas.

[rebel heart]

A good cheap alternative for a waterproof case (or mist/splashproof anyway) is a gallon zip lock bag. I know I said it before in this thread, but I love my Kindle onboard. I find myself reading much more. One of the best technology investments I've made in a long time.

[Tom and Maje]

This has been an interesting thread. Next year we're going to be buying and moving on to a Lipari 41.

I'm a published author of historical romance and, although, I try to buy all my research books on Kindle, I have several that I can only find in paper. We already live in the Virgin Islands, so I know the problems of keeping paper books in good shape. I'd love to see some photos of where you keep your books.

Thanks,

Maje

[Twoflower]

We are also on a Lipari so storage is a mixed bag. Lots of space for my clothes but books tend to be on the kindle . However I can't resist the urge to bring on the odd paperback but I always return them to the Laundry which tends to act as the library in our marina. I hope you enjoying your Lipari we love ours

[Twoflower]

Hi Maje just realised we have already shared e mails hope you find a lipari that you love take care Elaine,