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More eReader thoughts.
More for my own use - just getting down my list of what's important to me in an eReader.
- Readability/the screen. This is the biggest thing to me. I want it to look like paper and not a video screen. So no color, unless it can switch to paper mode. I can get fatigued reading too much on a video screen, so the closest this can mimic paper, the better.
- Ease of uploading fic. I still have most of The Altverse series to go through, after all. :)
- The formats it uses. I'm disappointed that everyone's being so proprietary about things. Borders has already gone down the drain, what if B&N goes bye-bye? Won't I be able to buy eBooks anymore if I have a Nook? This bugs me because there are tons of different companies that make DVD players, and they all can play the same DVD. It's ridiculous that eBooks aren't the same way.
- Size/weight. I don't want to be squinting to read, but I don't want to hold something giant. A large paperback size would be ideal since I wouldn't want to have to flip to the next screen every two lines or something. Lighter is obviously better, although my number one reading spot is in bed, lying on my side. The book is sort of propped up as opposed to held, so I can't imagine a few ounces difference in weight would matter much.
- Library eBooks. In theory, apparently. I've not used the service, but apparently the San Diego library has a decent sized collection of eBooks. No idea if it includes anything I want, but it would be nice to have that option down the road.
- Wi-fi. It's pretty low on the list since it sounds like it could be handy for transferring files, but I don't plan on surfing the web with this thing. I've got a laptop for that.
- Battery life. It seems like all of them are fairly decent. As long as it gets me through the couple of hours I usually read at night, I'm good.
- Keyboard/touch pad. I simply don't care what type of interface it has, so long as it isn't clumsy to use.
Have fun!
Re: Have fun!
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It'll take ePubs, pdf, and word documents that I'm aware of.
I mostly use it for free ebooks I find here on LJ and for fic I've put into PDF format.
I can't talk about the specs of the newest ones, but it's worth a look to the website at least.
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It's very light (even with the optional cover attatched), the font size is very adjustable, the battery lasts for a month, transferring files is easy (I've transferred fic using calibre...but you may want to make sure it's properly formatted, first-the fic I transferred had some old, wonky coding and it has a few character errors but is still readable) and, personally, I actually find it less tiring to read the kindle screen than actual paper.
Buying books is really easy, too. And you can now also get (admittedly, vastly overpriced) covers with an integral booklight so that you can read in the dark, too (since the screen isn't backlit).
I can't help you with the library question (since I don't use libraries for ebooks and, if I did, I wouldn't be using an American library!) but the kindle probably ticks all of the boxes but that one.
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However (and this in no way helps your decision now, as this is something I think will take a few more years to pan out) I do think that amazon will eventually win the ebook battle on sheer magnitude of sales, even if the kindle isn't the absolute best. The amount of advertising and publicity it gets is really setting it apart (certainly in the UK where loads of people I know have suddenly brought one in the last 6 months). In the same way that the iPod probably isn't the greatest mp3 player ever, but it's untouchable now. And when that happens, it'll probably result in the formats being opened up.
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Amazon has a huge share of the current ebook market. They're claiming something like 80%. Add to that that there are rumors that they are consistently dropping the price of the Kindle and possibly going to provide some sort of promotion soon for Prime members (free Kindles?) and, well, they'll probably own it.
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Other pluses over Kindle: Nook has expandable memory and replaceable battery, can do library books, and can view PDFs.
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Also, our local Best Buy sells both Kindle and Nooks (they have them on adjacent display racks). I saw that yesterday for the first time. I was quite surprised-- they must have made a deal with both companies.
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Oooh, that's good to know, because that is something I've worried about, in terms of buying e-books.
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Getting anything on it is very easy. You just hook the cable up to a USB port and treat it like a USB drive. Just drop things into a folder. The only format that doesn't work is epub, but that's why there is Calibre.
In terms of library, have you heard of the service called Lendle? If you own an ebook bought from Amazon, you can make it available to share to others, and borrow from others as well. You also don't have to do a straight swap because it can do three way swapping as well. You lose the book off your Kindle for a week, just like you would lend a physical book to someone, and then it comes back.
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I'm not wild about looking up the books on the device, but that might be just me. I've not figured out how to quickly search for titles. I'd be surprised if B/N went under any sooner than Amazon... they were smart to move to netsales quickly, while Borders was expanding physical stores.
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Crumbs! :D I probably wouldn't have that kind of problem.
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Then, I would say Nook or Kindle are both your best bet.
Ease of uploading fic. I still have most of The Altverse series to go through, after all. :)
I'm right there with you -- I mostly read fic on my nook. It is super easy to copy and paste any text off the Internet and then convert it to PDF, and load it on my Nook. Plus, as far as the alt-verse goes,
Borders has already gone down the drain, what if B&N goes bye-bye?
Ah yes, this worries me too. But I will say there are ways to convert files. There is a program called Calibre, and I have bought a couple of books from Amazon and been able to convert them into epub format for my Nook.
Battery Life -- I charge my Nook every 3 or 4 days. I use it a lot, though -- so much fic!!!
I take it to read in bed too, and it's very comfortable. I fall asleep to re-reads of In Human Hands (which when I made it into a PDF, turned out to be about 600 pages) and all my favorite TenII stories. :D
The Nook has a touch pad. Its...... okay. All I really care about is that turning pages is easy -- just clicking a button. The thing is the Kindle has that big stupid keyboard, which I would hardly ever use, so I definitely prefer my little touchpad.
I honestly have no idea how to go about getting Library e-books -- it would be cool -- but for instance, do you have to have a San Diego library card to get library ebooks?
I don't want to be squinting to read, but I don't want to hold something giant.
With the Nook, you can change font size to ANYTHING you want. :D
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I like hearing that it makes good bedtime reading. *WANTS*
And I think you do need a SD library card to do the ebooks.
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I went with the original NOOK (with the e-ink screen) myself and I don't have an ounce of regret. I wanted something that looked like a book-not a computer screen. Plus, I didn't need it to multitask. I have too many other devices that can sing and dance for me. I wanted a reader.
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And I'm exactly like you - I want an electronic book, not another laptop.
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