BOOKS, TABLET or KINDLE?

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by ppvora

I don't want to come across as a Luddite (and I'm not) but if your book life expectancy (how long you expect to be able to read a certain book -- of course there's some uncertainty there) is more than X years (you pick X) then I would stick to paper or pdf. Paper is highly unlikely to become obsolete. pdf files will become obsolete but at some fairly distant time in the future.

Why paper or pdf? Amazon will go bankrupt some day (study IBM closely -- yes, it hasn't yet but sometime it will) and so will Apple. What if they go bankrupt well before X years have passed? Will you consider buying those books over again in some other format?

Although Adobe Systems is the creator of the pdf format, there are many free and open-source pdf readers, so pdf readers will likely be available for a long time after the demise of Amazon and Apple.

I agree except that epub is an open standard unlike Amazon's proprietary akz files or Apple's Fairplay drm. So just get everything in the epub format and get a reader capable of reading epubs and you should be fine—or as fine as anyone is in this day and age. Additionally, epubs are just a fancy bundles xhtml file so it should be even more future proofed

[ozdigennaro]

Don't be silly. Except for rare exceptions, kindle (or kobo). I carry two hundred books with me when I travel, and it's lighter and smaller than one hardbound.

[Jdege]

I have a Barnes&Noble Nook - essentially a Samsung Galaxy Android tablet with Nook ereader software loaded.

I've also loaded the Kobo ereader app, and the Google Play ereader app, and the Kindle ereader app. And I rarely use any of them. I prefer the Moon+ ereader.

You see, I insist on being able to extract any ebook I buy from the publisher's clad ecosystem so I control the file myself.

If you've loaded a book onto your device using the publisher's app, the publisher's app can remove it.

This isn't a hypothetical threat. There have been multiple instances of travelers buying books in the U.S., loading their books onto their tablet in the U.S., travelling overseas, connecting through an overseas IP address, and having the app delete any ebooks that the publisher couldn't legally sell in that jurisdiction.

So when I buy an ebook I extract the actual file and load it into my own ebook repository on my own disks. If I can't figure out how to do that for a given publisher, I never buy from them again until I do.

I use a software package to manage them: Calibre

And I load them onto my tablet using an app: Calibre Companion

[Captain Randy]

Just got the new Kindle Paper White which just launched a couple weeks ago. This one being waterproof! The Kindle Oasis is waterproof also but much more expensive. I have been a kindle on ipad reader for many years but I gotta say the new little kindle is pretty cool. I got the bigger 32 gig model at $159. I have had it for 3 weeks now and still has half a charge. I will be pdf'g my manuals soon to read from the ipad.

Small, light, relatively inexpensive and waterproof.

So far I'm a fan.

CR

[Madehn]

I have about $30k worth of books on several models of kindle-- i like the paperwhite for casual reading and reading at night-- i have a kindle DX (obsolete model available used or refurb'd on ebay) that i like because of the much larger screen. i read A LOT- almost a book a night for pleasure and really like the kindle and having all of my books available in the cloud. That being said i like printed hard copy manuals that i can take down by the engine and that i can clearly see diagrams and pictures in, The e-readers have one huge downfall and that is their ability with illustrations and diagrams- ifind that those are often problematic on the kindles. If you get a kindle i would highly recommend that you buy a good cover-- protects the kindle and also gives a very "booklike" feel to the unit. Used Kindles are so cheap now that you can get multiples and have multiple copies of a library in the space that a few hardbacks would take up. When we started downsizing from the big house etc, i took 22 pickup truck loads of books to the used book store- i had shelves in every room of the house and they were all full - i purchased digital copies of the most treasured with the funds form the bookstore - i've never regretted it or looked back-- now to get rid of the last 14 feet of bookcases that i retained may be tough though.

[johnjuliano]

We have paper books to trade them at the book exchanges.

Certain odd books we want are not available on Kindle and others are much cheaper on paper… We generally trade the latter away.

…and on Kindle, we can both read the same book at the same time.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by Dooglas

The fact that you can adjust the size of the font (all ereaders do this) is also a great feature which makes them more readable than paper books - especially paperbacks with their small fonts.

That is a great point! [emoji106]

[denverd0n]

Originally Posted by ppvora

What if they go bankrupt well before X years have passed? Will you consider buying those books over again in some other format?

Won't have to. There are a couple of standard formats for e-books, and dozens (probably hundreds) of open source software packages for converting between them.


You mentioned pdf. Do you really think that if Adobe goes bankrupt tomorrow we are all going to be forced to convert all of our pdf files to other formats? No, of course not. There's already a wealth of others out there making software to work with pdf files, and all kinds of ways to convert them. The same is true for mobi, azw, and epub.


(And, by the way, my Kindle happily reads all of the different formats, not just Amazon's.)

[Jersey Girl]

The hardest things I gave up when we moved into the boat were the garden and the books. After the first year I mov d the last of the books to a daughter’s house.
Paperwhite Kindle for fiction and easy non-fiction.
IPad for magazines, charts and how -to stuff.
Try BookBubs for daily $2 books. You set up your interests and are emailed several every day.

[KP44]

It is risky to bring books you treasure. The high humidity is very hard on books. Bring kindle versions and keep your volumes elsewhere. I use a laptop and we do OK. But electronics need power.

[svnisus]

Got a Kindle way back in 2008 when they first came out and was living on my Bayfield. Got rid of all my for pleasure books...made a couple of marina libraries happy! Really enjoyed and utilized all the extra space it allowed me. Plus the point someone else made about having just about anything you want/need to read at the click of a button is super convenient.

Now looking for my next liveaboard and will definitely load my latest Kindle and not worry about DTBs (dead tree books) taking up space and getting moldy.

[Jdege]

Originally Posted by denverd0n

Won't have to. There are a couple of standard formats for e-books, and dozens (probably hundreds) of open source software packages for converting between them.

The problem is that if you don't have physical control of an ebook's file, if you only access it through the publisher's app, when the publisher's website goes offline you've lost access to the book.

At best, you have access on a device you've downloaded it onto. When the device breaks, or for some other reason you replace it with a new device, you have no ability to download the book onto the new device.

It's called future-proofing.

Always get control of the file, and save it in your own repository.

If you don't, you haven't purchased the book, you've only rented it.

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by Jdege

The problem is that if you don't have physical control of an ebook's file, if you only access it through the publisher's app, when the publisher's website goes offline you've lost access to the book.

At best, you have access on a device you've downloaded it onto. When the device breaks, or for some other reason you replace it with a new device, you have no ability to download the book onto the new device.

It's called future-proofing.

Always get control of the file, and save it in your own repository.

If you don't, you haven't purchased the book, you've only rented it.

Lol, you sound like my kind of paranoid person. Everything I have I crack then sideload onto my devices. As a quick correction, its not the publishers who have you by the short and curlies, it's the retailers (Amazon, Apple Kobo etc...). If it was the publishers then that would at least make sense.

For those of you who don't know and might care, when you "purchase" an ebook you aren't really buying it...just "leasing." If, for example, you piss amazon off by buying and returning too many boat parts, they can kick you out, revoke your membership and poof there go all the books you thought you "bought." So always, always download a copy to a safe place.

[hellosailor]

"so don't knowif I can find everything I need from downloads"
So what? I've said it before and will say it again, commit bibliocide. Take a crate of books you can't find online to any small "social" or commercial printing shop, give the man $20 and ask him to cut the bindings off those books using his guillotine cutter.
Now you've got nice stacks of neat pages that can be easily fed into a compact duplex scanner like the Fujitsu ScanSnap, and voila, you've killed the books but they can live forever electronically. As your very own private PDF files.
(If you don't use the guillotine cutter, scanning is going to be a bitch, one way or another.)
No downloads necessary.

Mind you, I like books. And for some things I prefer paper and being able to flip back and forth. But unless you can afford the luxury of the library as well as the books...commit bibliocide.

Kindle provides some great viewing options, in that the b&w versions get great battery life and are great to read in sunlight. Tablets are more versatile. Doesn't matter much, once your books become PDF files they can be read on most everything, including a smartphone.

[denverd0n]

Originally Posted by Jdege

The problem is that if you don't have physical control of an ebook's file, if you only access it through the publisher's app, when the publisher's website goes offline you've lost access to the book.

Well, yeah. Obviously. That's true for anything that you keep stored on someone else's hardware, and access only over the internet. So, for important stuff that you don't want to risk losing, you download it and keep your own copy. I figured that went without saying.


And we're not talking about very much space, really. I have over a hundred books that I've downloaded and the total space used is about a quarter of a gigabyte. "War and Peace" is generally considered a REALLY BIG book. In epub format, without illustrations, it's less that 1.5 megabytes. So, keeping copies of your books isn't any kind of hardship.