BOOKS, TABLET or KINDLE?

[Pelagic]

Yippee, the house was rented today and we have a month to decide on what comes on board

For 30 years, living on the water, I carried an extensive library of reference and recreational books.

Now that you can download and use screens, are books obsolete?

Back to living on board, my deep and wide library shelves are presently empty and could be repurposed, if I wanted. My partner wants [emoji179]

I have no experience with electronic readers, so don't knowif I can find everything I need from downloads



So what does the modern liveaboard choose as a reading medium?

[MartinR]

You save a lot of weight not carrying books. I have an iPad, but Kindle seems to me the better alternative for reading books. Uses almost no power, perfectly daylight readable, cheaper.

[bletso]

I find it depends on the book. I do most of my leisure reading on the ipad. However when it comes to manuals and technical stuff I much prefer paper.

[dwedeking2]

When I moved to Hawai'i i moved all my books to Kindle. Kindle doesnt mold in a high humidity environment. I like kindle vs a tablet/phone because of the glare free screen. I keep real cook books and technical books though (just easier for me to use with those tasks).

I read a lot of fictional series. So if i read the first book in a series and like it, the next book is a click away even in a lot of remote locations.

[250224]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

So what does the modern liveaboard choose as a reading medium?

All of them of course: books, tablet/notebook and a kindle.

Books are much more beautiful, from the look of your boat cabin you want this . I own the new waterproof paperwhite Kindle and it's great! But the screen is quite small and imho works best when reading 'uncomplicated' books. With 'complicated' books where you might want to quickly follow links, jump to other book locations or when there is multimedia content, a tablet/notebook is much better.

[ahun]

Kobo.

[Pelagic]

Hi blu3534...what you say about Notebook vs Kindle makes sense (yet to buy a Tablet)
But the book thing is not about show.
Most of my treasured reference books and Admiralty Volumes are like old friends.....but being old are often out of date for modern applications, it is really dead weight to bring onboard

Can all the best boating reference books on electricity/aircons/ electronics ....knots etc...be downloaded?

My cabin is nice but a bit too dark for my tastes. Ironically, I never see the library as that mirrored entry door latches across it and is rarely closed.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by ahun

Kobo.

What is that?

[valhalla360]

Physical books, particularly non-technical, are fading away.

There's a nice nostalgia but beyond that they offer little or nothing over a tablet. For a cruiser where space and weight are critical, the move is likely to be faster.

[Suijin]

I have a Kindle paperwhite and an iPad and find the Kindle FAR better for reading as it’s a passive display. Downside is content availability and the fact that formatting and images sometimes don’t display properly.

The killer device on a boat is an iPad/tablet. Chartplotter mirror/remote, camera, video camera, movie viewer, internet reader...it’s a huge amount of utility packed in one device.

Books. Love them but they can lead a rough life on a boat if you go anywhere humid. Aside from reference books I have a modest collection on board for pleasure that I keep trimmed.

I will say that as convenient as the Kindle is, when I can relax with a real book for pleasure reading the superiority of that experience always jumps out at me.

[sailorboy1]

Kindle! They are cheap and designed for book reading so why mess around with something?

[denverd0n]

Any sort of book that relies on diagrams or illustrations I find better in a hard-copy book. For everything else, I prefer my Kindle.


And let me add that I was one of those who thought I would NEVER want an e-reader. I loved my books. Something "special" (I thought) about holding a real book and leafing through the pages. I was convinced that e-readers were the work of the Devil... Until I tried one. Now, I have no intention of ever being without one again.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Kindle! They are cheap and designed for book reading so why mess around with something?

Really it's a blurry line between the various tablets (android, kindle, kobo, ipad, etc...)

I wouldn't want one that was a dedicated reader with limited functionality beyond that. Depending on the model some kindles are just branded android tablets. Other kindles are largely limited to reading books.

I want a device that can read books but also surf the net, email, play games, track my calendar, act as a backup chart plotter....etc...etc... and still be cheap.

Why not get all that extra functionality for the same cheap price?

[jkleins]

I had a bunch of well loved books on the shelf for 3 years. I realized last month I have not opened one in all that time. I have all my reading books on a Kindle paperwhite and all my manuals and technical books on my iPad.
I find it is so much easier to look a manual and set the iPad up next to the project and read what I need to then to have the book open. I finally threw all the paper away and stowed the books. Now I need to figure out what to put on the shelf’s that doesn’t shift around while sailing. :-)
I differ a little from denverdOn in that I really like the diagram books like splicing manuals, etc on the iPad in that you can set them up in the case and they stay put. The Kindle doesn’t handle diagrams or pics near as well.

[denverd0n]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

Why not get all that extra functionality for the same cheap price?

Because of all the tablets and e-readers that I've looked at (and I've looked at a LOT of them!) the only one -- THE ONLY ONE! -- that is just as easy to read in full, direct sunlight as a "real" book is the Kindle Paperwhite. None of the others really even come close.



And let's face it, in terms of "boat-bucks," e-readers and tablets are pretty cheap. Get a Kindle Paperwhite for when you want to read, and a tablet to do all that other stuff.