Onime No Kyo
Posts: 16842
Joined: 4/28/2004 Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: Mynok quote:
ORIGINAL: Onime No Kyo quote:
ORIGINAL: AW1Steve quote:
ORIGINAL: bradfordkay quote:
ORIGINAL: Nikademus So what do Threadsters think about the eBook revolution? Having recently been forced to shed about 200 pounds worth of trees.....i'm having to admit that my initial resistance to the idea of referencing literature via the "John Luc-Picard" method. ("Computor!......reference the 20th century novel.....Hotel Royale....download it to my desk reader!")....is waning a bit. The idea of not having to both find the space to store such tombs as well as having the ease of having one's library instantly at one's fingertips to be somewhat exciting. A moot question of course at the moment since very very few reference or military history books are in e-format at this time. (the brag of 2+ million books available via the Nook for example...seems restricted to gaudy fiction novels) I expect this to change over time however. I'm not sold on the idea yet. To me, it's like buying the download only version of a game... if you have an electronic failure you will have to rely upon the record keeping and good will of the seller to be able to regain your copy. I hate the idea of paying good money for something nebulous like that. Give me a hard copy every time. And I'm not getting rid of my DVDs (or VHSs) yet. Since I have a house full of furniture the prospect of moving my video and book collections doesn't deter me - the furniture, bicycles, camping gear, etc will take up a lot more space than either of those collections... My wife and I have had Kindles since Christmas, and both of us love them. It will never (or so I pray) ever replace books, but they are very useful. I use mine for magazine and newspaper subscriptions , reference books (such as dictionaries), and any novel that I would normally buy in paperback. 3/4 of my library contains free classic books. It's great always having a small library with you everywhere you go. I swap books back and forth from my wifes for free, as well as to my desktop computer. It's got a decent size screen , unlike a phone, and I can adjust the print size as needed. Good battery life, and it powers a small reading light inside the book jacket (that I purchased seperately). Like anything in life, there is room for improvement, but I certainly have gotten my moneys worth. I tried reading on my iPhone, but it just didnt answer. I know the screen is mall and all, but it doesnt have the same feel. In addition, quite a bit of my reading is in Russian, and I highly doubt that there is a sufficiently decent selection of that. I do, however, enjoy audiobooks on the phone. I'm currently listening to PO'Bs The Catalans in the car. Very handy. My wife loves her iPad for both audiobooks and for eBooks. Of course, she's not really into military reference materials. The iPad has the advantage of being able to read all the eBook formats: iBooks, Kindle, Nook, and ePub. And you might do some hunting about because Google has been doing massive work making an electronic library in the open ePub format (I believe). You might find more than you think out there. Just don't look at the regular stores. And FYI, with the new iPad coming out yesterday, online secondhand computer buyers are being inundated with people selling off their old iPads (only a year old) to get the new one. You could probably find an old WiFi-only iPad pretty dern cheap right now. Losing books isn't an issue. You back them up onto your computer through iTunes. Then you backup your computer to an online backup service. No worries. Plus you can also do it to an external drive. Backup options are limitless and dirt cheap these days so there is absolutely ZERO reason you should not have multiple copies of everything you want to keep. Another great job with the subject line, <insert mild Martian insult here>.
_____________________________
"Mighty is the Thread! Great are its works and insane are its inhabitants!" -Brother Mynok
|