The FT reports:
Amazon.com says it is selling more e-books for its Kindle electronic reading device than paperback and hardback print editions combined, helping its book business to see its strongest growth in more than a decade.
I'm amazed: on the UK site the Kindle book is often more than what I might call the real thing.
But, I'm no technophobe. I haven't embraced this yet. So this is an off the usual topic request: is the Kindle worth having?
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I think that the day that someone releases software that allows users to create their own Kindle content (and they change copyright law to allow people to take an existing paper book and reformat it) it will become massively useful – after all, you could then reduce a substantial library to a few disks and an A5-sized reader.
But for all that, Kindles do not replicate the experience of a real book.
An example: stepdaughter (18) keeps to books because she can take one to bed and read. If she drops off and the book falls out of bed it doesn’t get badly damaged. She would not risk that with a Kindle!
Thanks
I buy a mix of paper books and kindle books for use on my phone’s kindle reader app. I’ll typically read a paper book at home for enjoyment, but love having an increasing chunk of my library of technical and reference books always in my pocket. As I’m getting more used to it, the convenience of always having the book to hand seems to increasingly win out over my aesthetic preference, so I’m starting to buy more fiction in Kindle format too.
You can download kindle on any smartphone . No need to buy Amazon’s hardware.
I’m told by people who like their books and use it a lot that it has lightened the load on their briefcase considerably. I borrowed from one my work for a while and found the interface clunky, though the reading experience is good. But the main problem for me with the Kindle is that it requires you to have a deep business relationship with Amazon, since it is the only source of titles. And I’m not sure that such a relationship sits well with progressive politics, as Housman’s Bookshop points out: http://www.housmans.com/boycottamazon.php.
Andrew
Kindle USP is epaper – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper
if your not a technophobe, and you already have an ipad or similar, then can’t see the point of the extra hardware – but if you travel a lot and like reading then it fills a gap.
The screen technology the Kindle uses means it can be used in the sun, in fact the brighter the sunlight the easier to read it. Thaat is the point – it is very like paper to read.
I have downloaded the (free) Kindle player for my netbook which works great, but is useless outdoors in daylight as the screen is difficult to read .
The Kindle is great. I was initally sceptical, as I am (was) a big fan of proper books, and felt that holding a slim device would be nothing like as nice as holding a proper book. However this idea was soon dismissed as the Kindle is easier to hold, and actually much better.
Some e-books do seem to be quite expensive, however there are stacks of very cheap titles and I have discovered plenty of new authors.
Battery life of 30 days is also very good (as long as the internet connection is turned off).
After Sky+ and the Blackberry, I think the Kindle is thrid best piece of recent technology!
Mark- Whilst you can download the software onto a smart phone or iPad, the Kindle is a lot easier to read in bright sunlight compared to other devices. You can also access the internet anywhere that has 3G for free, and whilst the browsing experience is not amazing, it is fine for catching up with the news (for example).
James- The Kindle is pretty hardy, Dropping it on the floor from a bed would not be a problem.
I have owned a Kindle for over 12 mths now, and originally got one because if you fly locost, the baggage allowance is only 15kg, most of which seemed to be taken up with my books! now I can travel with as many books as I like! I read Nick Shakson recently in India on it and it performs perfectly even in the strongest sunlight, I don’t think I’ll go back to paper.
The reason I don’t have one, is that Amazon can delete anything on the device they want. I don’t like that.
I think they’re excellent overall and easy to use, but as Andrew Curry says, the interface is a bit clunky. If you religiously read footnotes this can get to be a bit of a pain, but for most reading it’s absolutely fine.
The other thing I’d mention is that most ebooks I’ve read have at least a couple of formatting issues (lines that inexplicably “wrap” too early, odd gaps between paragraphs). I’d imagine if you’re a wannabe subeditor it can get annoying.
Pros: Handy, light, excellent for reading outside and good build quality, resizeable text is very useful
Cons: Clunky for anything but sequential reading
This is a small plea for help…I am interested in buying a Kindle because I have to read a lot of PDFs downloaded from an eighteenth century literature database. The eyestrain from reading on a laptop can get quite bad but the kindle seems to avoid that by the way it is lit. So I have 2 questions: the stuff I read often has an old-fashioned ‘s’ that looks like an f and although the Kindle site says it can handle one’s PDF material I don’t know if it would be able to handle old scanned literature. Could anyone step up and see if that were possible? The other question is: does anyone think Amazon might have a problem with the material itself? It is out of copyright but I don’t know if it would get flagged up somehow and stopped.
I live in rural Perthshire and I’m stuck at home caring for my ill wife. We’ve become isolated because of her illness and I need someone to help me out. Anyone out there willing?
Sorry to put this on your website Richard but (from one Christian to another) I don’t know what else to do. The Amazon website doesn’t seem to have a phone number where I can discover the answer to my questions.
Excellent questions
How easy is it to publish on Kindle?
You’ve got me thinking……
I bought mine just after Christmas and wouldn’t go without it now.
In terms of PDF conversion accuracy I haven’t tried anything like the age of what you seem to be suggesting but most scanned documents I’ve tried converting so far have worked well, albeit sometimes with odd formatting. I’d be willing to test it out if you could point me in the direction of something similar to check. However if this doesn’t work you can actually just the read the straight pdf on the kindle, avoiding the eyestrain and possibility of poor conversion however this doesn’t offer the adjustable text size.
In terms of Amazon having a problem with the material itself I can’t see them doing anything at all, the material you’re referring to is out of copyright, and even if it were they appear to realise that a good portion of their users will be using it for pirated material and not doing anything about it.
And Richard, it seems to be fairly easy to self publish material for sale on the store if that’s what you’re thinking of? https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin
Philip M
I understand from more scientifically minded friends that the pfd reader sometimes has difficulty with charts and graphs – and e.g. greek lettering for calulations. It might therefore be a bit poor on your f and s issue – there is supposed to be a new version coming out that will read pdfs better.
As to the copyright point -you won’t be in breach of copyright so I wouldn’t worry. A number of lawyer colleagues of mine have put old treaty series on the kindle and no problems with it being flagged or blocked.
A good blog on how to use kindle is at
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com
I found it useful when I first got mine.They seem to know alot about it all … though perhaps you already tried there!
Get an iPad with the kindle app instead…..
Get an iPad with the kindle app instead….. if you never want to read a book on it in outdoors during the day.
Also, aren’t iPads just a little bit more expensive?
I bought one but sent it back as I did not like the screen and found it useless in dim light where I can still read a book without any problems. It just felt like an expensive Etch-A-Sketch. Also books seems to be just as expensive as the hard copy and you cannot share them unless your family have all got Kindles as well. I also missed the full colour covers that you get with books.