Anyone use an eReader?
Oct. 22nd, 2010 10:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pslasherHey everyone, I'm thinking of getting a Kindle and am curious to know if any of you use an eReader? If so, I'd love to hear what you have and what you like and dislike about it. I'm also keeping notes here on the other eReaders I come across, and will be updating them as I go on.
I've seen the second gen Kindle and the Nook, and they both look good. I haven't spent much time playing around with them, but based on a quick view of both of them, they seem pretty similar in function. They both look like something you could really use for serious reading of long books, without the eyestrain of reading on a computer.Sony has quite a few ereaders, but I've never seen any of them, and honestly I'm wary of buying something like this without having actually seen one. See below.
The features for the new Kindle (3rd gen) look pretty good. It's very small and light, great battery life (20 days longer than the Nook when wifi is turned off because it doesn't have the color touch screen), and it looks attractive. The price is pretty reasonable and there are even a lot of fashionable covers you can buy. The problems with the Kindle are limited file type support and storage space.
The Amazon store seems to have a really wide collection to choose from, and I expect that to grow. However, if I buy an ebook from a small vendor will I be able to read it on my Kindle? It looks like I can do conversion of non-DRM protected ebooks in Calibre, but how often are books offered for sale without DRM? I don't have an answer for that, as I've never actually bought any. Lol, it may be silly to worry about it since I've never bought any, but I plan to keep this thing for a long time and eventually paper will be less common. If I buy a Kindle I'm locking myself into the MOBI file format, when there is still a format debate going on - epub is supposed to be the international ebook format, but if the Kindle is so popular will epub catch on? I don't want to be on the losing side and have to repurchase things if I ever want to buy a new ereader in the future, you know?
Also, I plan to use the ereader a lot for keeping my favorite fic with me everywhere. Amazon claims that the Kindle can hold 3,500 books, and that's a whole lot. However, with the way I hoard fics/audiobooks/vids that I like, there is a good chance that eventually 4GB is not going to be enough space. With the amount of audiobooks I've downloaded I've filled up my 16GB iPhone, and that wasn't something I expected to do. I'll just have to swap books/fic out between the library on my computer and the Kindle. I don't think that will be much of a problem (I already do it for the iPhone), but just sticking a new SD card in would be faster and more convenient.
The final problem is getting my favorite fanfic into ebook format, and it's a problem that is independent of the ereader. The AO3 will let you download any fic in MOBI, Epub, PDF or HTML formats, so that is very exciting. It's extremely easy, just click and download. There is also![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
epub_fanfic , which is a growing community for fic in epub form. I should be able to use Calibre to convert those fics to MOBI for the Kindle very easily. The real problem is making sure I can take the fics out on the web (HTML docs) and read them on the ereader. The Kindle says it supports HTML - if it does that would be awesome. Except that plain HTML probably doesn't allow for table of contents, or bookmarking my place in the fic - and those are important when reading long fic. I could attempt to convert the HTML into an ebook format, there is a tutorial here, but it looks pretty complicated. However, I might attempt it for some of the fic I really love... Are there any easier ways? (There seems to be some good info at the resource link below)
ETA 10/26/10: I stopped by Borders the other day and tested a couple of the readers they had out:
Sony Reader Pocket edition, model number PRS350SC. It's very light, but it has an unusual "book" shape, and I like the way the more symmetrical readers feel in the hand. It had a 5" screen, and I think that will be to small for reading. It's bigger than the iPhone, but if I'm buying something dedicated for reading I want it to be a little bigger. Frankly, 6" is even on the small side, but that seems to be a pretty common size. The touch screen was very useful, but I wonder how much that will drain battery life. The menu took a little bit of figuring out, but nothing too clunky. It has a stylus, which may or may not be a necessary feature. (I was informed in the comments that this model actually has a 6" version, and supports collections of books based on tags which can be applied in Calibre. This would be perfect for fanfic.)
Kobo Reader, model number N416-bus-w. This was light, 6" screen, very easy menu to figure out and use. However it didn't seem to have a farthest-page-read feature, it's geared towards right hand only use (that may get tiring for long stretches of reading) and it was slow to do everything, from turning on, loading books and turning pages. To be fair, I don't know if a low battery was causing the slowness (that didn't occur to me as a source of the problem until after I had left) but I'm not looking favorably on the Kobo as a purchase because of it.
11/12/10: I stopped by the Barnes & Noble today to look at the nook. It seems to be a good solid reader, and I liked it a lot. A little heaver than the Kobo and Sony Reader, that may get tiring after a while. Other than the weight it felt good to hold. I like the way the curved corners feel. Also, the pageturns and menu response is a little slower than the Kindle, but not as slow as the Kobo. I could probably get used to it, but it's not preferred. I liked the color touch screen a lot, but I think it limits battery life quite a bit - with 3G off you only get 10 days. I'm still debating if it's worth the tradeoff. You can read any book in the B&N ebook store for free for one hour a day, and B&N offers discounts and free books every Friday, though you have to go into the store to access that feature (thus keeping the bricks and mortar relevant). You can also access Google's archive of free public domain books, which has something like a million ebooks, because the nook reads epub. Also, my public library has started a free epub library lending program, which I would be very interested in and couldn't access with the Kindle without figuring out how to break the DRM and convert the files. The thing that really blew my mind though was the space capacity. It takes a microSD card which can be purchased in 64GB sizes. Let me repeat that: 64GB! That's hundreds of thousands of books on your nook! And more fic than I can even calculate, given that fic is typically much smaller than novels. The 64GB card is very new and still outrageously expensive, but like everything else it will come down in price. In a few years it will probably be as inexpensive as 8 or 16GB That got me very excited about the nook, and my resolution on getting the Kindle is wavering based on that alone. You can browse the web from a basic browser; that's really appealing to me for reading fic. Also you can create collections or lists of content right on the device, called My Shelves, and that's pretty cool. You could have fandom or pairing or rating collections, or whatever else, without having to manage them from the PC. Another really cool thing about the nook and nook color is they have solved the page number problem. They've figured out a way to calculate and display what page you would be on if it were a paper book, regardless of font size. It's neat to have the familiar page numbers as an indicator of where you are in the book.
12/19/10: Recently I checked out the nook color. It's got a great color screen and a good size for reading at 7". The color screen is pretty cool for reading magazines and newspapers. The sample magazines looked beautiful on the screen. The layout was exactly the same as a paper magazine, and you can zoom in or out to see the whole page or read small script. The nook color seperates content that you buy from B&N and content you upload to the device, and uploaded content requires a few extra clicks to get to. However, you can create collections or lists of content right on the device, called My Shelves, and that's pretty cool. You could have fandom or pairing or rating collections, or whatever else, without having to manage them from the PC. The extra apps like games and Pandora radio will be interesting to many. However I found that the back button wasn't obviously available at several spots while reading and browsing. I'm not sure if I'm just not familiar with the reader and didn't see it or if it's just not there. See the nook note for info on page numbers. The battery life isn't great though - you only get about 8 or so hours from it.
I also checked out the iPad at the Apple store, even though I'm not actually planning to buy one. As expected, the display is gorgeous and you can adjust everything from the screen brightness to how the bookshelf is displayed (bookshelf or list). When you click on a book from the bookshelf you get a display of an open book, with words on both pages. You can change the font (there are quite a few fonts to choose from) and the font and page color to black and white or sepia. iBook also calculates your place in the book and displayes it in page numbers.
Anyone have any tips or comments? I'm particularly interested in hearing your experiences with fanfic and your ereader, and anything extra special about your device that you like.
ETA: I started a post on thefanfic_ebooks comm here comparing the Kindle, nook and Sony ereaders and it's gotten some very good comments.
List of posts and communities that may be helpful
slyprentice's list of software related to ebooks - excellent source for info on getting fanfic ebooks made, edited, put onto your device, ect.
fanfic_ebooks - LJ community for discussing all things ebooks
ebook library - website for downloading ebooks. Multifandom, but concentrates mostly on the site owner's favorite fandoms (which coincide with several of mine).
my ebook tag on delicious
I've seen the second gen Kindle and the Nook, and they both look good. I haven't spent much time playing around with them, but based on a quick view of both of them, they seem pretty similar in function. They both look like something you could really use for serious reading of long books, without the eyestrain of reading on a computer.
The features for the new Kindle (3rd gen) look pretty good. It's very small and light, great battery life (20 days longer than the Nook when wifi is turned off because it doesn't have the color touch screen), and it looks attractive. The price is pretty reasonable and there are even a lot of fashionable covers you can buy. The problems with the Kindle are limited file type support and storage space.
The Amazon store seems to have a really wide collection to choose from, and I expect that to grow. However, if I buy an ebook from a small vendor will I be able to read it on my Kindle? It looks like I can do conversion of non-DRM protected ebooks in Calibre, but how often are books offered for sale without DRM? I don't have an answer for that, as I've never actually bought any. Lol, it may be silly to worry about it since I've never bought any, but I plan to keep this thing for a long time and eventually paper will be less common. If I buy a Kindle I'm locking myself into the MOBI file format, when there is still a format debate going on - epub is supposed to be the international ebook format, but if the Kindle is so popular will epub catch on? I don't want to be on the losing side and have to repurchase things if I ever want to buy a new ereader in the future, you know?
Also, I plan to use the ereader a lot for keeping my favorite fic with me everywhere. Amazon claims that the Kindle can hold 3,500 books, and that's a whole lot. However, with the way I hoard fics/audiobooks/vids that I like, there is a good chance that eventually 4GB is not going to be enough space. With the amount of audiobooks I've downloaded I've filled up my 16GB iPhone, and that wasn't something I expected to do. I'll just have to swap books/fic out between the library on my computer and the Kindle. I don't think that will be much of a problem (I already do it for the iPhone), but just sticking a new SD card in would be faster and more convenient.
The final problem is getting my favorite fanfic into ebook format, and it's a problem that is independent of the ereader. The AO3 will let you download any fic in MOBI, Epub, PDF or HTML formats, so that is very exciting. It's extremely easy, just click and download. There is also
epub_fanfic , which is a growing community for fic in epub form. I should be able to use Calibre to convert those fics to MOBI for the Kindle very easily. The real problem is making sure I can take the fics out on the web (HTML docs) and read them on the ereader. The Kindle says it supports HTML - if it does that would be awesome. Except that plain HTML probably doesn't allow for table of contents, or bookmarking my place in the fic - and those are important when reading long fic. I could attempt to convert the HTML into an ebook format, there is a tutorial here, but it looks pretty complicated. However, I might attempt it for some of the fic I really love... Are there any easier ways? (There seems to be some good info at the resource link below)ETA 10/26/10: I stopped by Borders the other day and tested a couple of the readers they had out:
Sony Reader Pocket edition, model number PRS350SC. It's very light, but it has an unusual "book" shape, and I like the way the more symmetrical readers feel in the hand. It had a 5" screen, and I think that will be to small for reading. It's bigger than the iPhone, but if I'm buying something dedicated for reading I want it to be a little bigger. Frankly, 6" is even on the small side, but that seems to be a pretty common size. The touch screen was very useful, but I wonder how much that will drain battery life. The menu took a little bit of figuring out, but nothing too clunky. It has a stylus, which may or may not be a necessary feature. (I was informed in the comments that this model actually has a 6" version, and supports collections of books based on tags which can be applied in Calibre. This would be perfect for fanfic.)
Kobo Reader, model number N416-bus-w. This was light, 6" screen, very easy menu to figure out and use. However it didn't seem to have a farthest-page-read feature, it's geared towards right hand only use (that may get tiring for long stretches of reading) and it was slow to do everything, from turning on, loading books and turning pages. To be fair, I don't know if a low battery was causing the slowness (that didn't occur to me as a source of the problem until after I had left) but I'm not looking favorably on the Kobo as a purchase because of it.
11/12/10: I stopped by the Barnes & Noble today to look at the nook. It seems to be a good solid reader, and I liked it a lot. A little heaver than the Kobo and Sony Reader, that may get tiring after a while. Other than the weight it felt good to hold. I like the way the curved corners feel. Also, the pageturns and menu response is a little slower than the Kindle, but not as slow as the Kobo. I could probably get used to it, but it's not preferred. I liked the color touch screen a lot, but I think it limits battery life quite a bit - with 3G off you only get 10 days. I'm still debating if it's worth the tradeoff. You can read any book in the B&N ebook store for free for one hour a day, and B&N offers discounts and free books every Friday, though you have to go into the store to access that feature (thus keeping the bricks and mortar relevant). You can also access Google's archive of free public domain books, which has something like a million ebooks, because the nook reads epub. Also, my public library has started a free epub library lending program, which I would be very interested in and couldn't access with the Kindle without figuring out how to break the DRM and convert the files. The thing that really blew my mind though was the space capacity. It takes a microSD card which can be purchased in 64GB sizes. Let me repeat that: 64GB! That's hundreds of thousands of books on your nook! And more fic than I can even calculate, given that fic is typically much smaller than novels. The 64GB card is very new and still outrageously expensive, but like everything else it will come down in price. In a few years it will probably be as inexpensive as 8 or 16GB That got me very excited about the nook, and my resolution on getting the Kindle is wavering based on that alone. You can browse the web from a basic browser; that's really appealing to me for reading fic. Also you can create collections or lists of content right on the device, called My Shelves, and that's pretty cool. You could have fandom or pairing or rating collections, or whatever else, without having to manage them from the PC. Another really cool thing about the nook and nook color is they have solved the page number problem. They've figured out a way to calculate and display what page you would be on if it were a paper book, regardless of font size. It's neat to have the familiar page numbers as an indicator of where you are in the book.
12/19/10: Recently I checked out the nook color. It's got a great color screen and a good size for reading at 7". The color screen is pretty cool for reading magazines and newspapers. The sample magazines looked beautiful on the screen. The layout was exactly the same as a paper magazine, and you can zoom in or out to see the whole page or read small script. The nook color seperates content that you buy from B&N and content you upload to the device, and uploaded content requires a few extra clicks to get to. However, you can create collections or lists of content right on the device, called My Shelves, and that's pretty cool. You could have fandom or pairing or rating collections, or whatever else, without having to manage them from the PC. The extra apps like games and Pandora radio will be interesting to many. However I found that the back button wasn't obviously available at several spots while reading and browsing. I'm not sure if I'm just not familiar with the reader and didn't see it or if it's just not there. See the nook note for info on page numbers. The battery life isn't great though - you only get about 8 or so hours from it.
I also checked out the iPad at the Apple store, even though I'm not actually planning to buy one. As expected, the display is gorgeous and you can adjust everything from the screen brightness to how the bookshelf is displayed (bookshelf or list). When you click on a book from the bookshelf you get a display of an open book, with words on both pages. You can change the font (there are quite a few fonts to choose from) and the font and page color to black and white or sepia. iBook also calculates your place in the book and displayes it in page numbers.
Anyone have any tips or comments? I'm particularly interested in hearing your experiences with fanfic and your ereader, and anything extra special about your device that you like.
ETA: I started a post on the
fanfic_ebooks comm here comparing the Kindle, nook and Sony ereaders and it's gotten some very good comments.List of posts and communities that may be helpful
slyprentice's list of software related to ebooks - excellent source for info on getting fanfic ebooks made, edited, put onto your device, ect.
fanfic_ebooks - LJ community for discussing all things ebooks
ebook library - website for downloading ebooks. Multifandom, but concentrates mostly on the site owner's favorite fandoms (which coincide with several of mine).
my ebook tag on delicious
P.S.
Date: Monday, November 8th, 2010 06:16 am (UTC)If you read anything from fan fiction.net I recommend the Fan Fiction Downloader program (though I hear ff.net has started to strip out author's html coding so many stories lost their hr tag section breaks) but Fan Fiction Downloader can save you many many hours of effort. That and writing directly to the author to ask if they have a single file version that's not a PDF.
Re: P.S.
Date: Monday, November 8th, 2010 05:45 pm (UTC)I don't read much at FF.net, but there is one story in particular that I LOVE over there, so I'll be trying it. Thanks for the tip about writing to the author, that hadn't occurred to me.
Re: P.S.
Date: Tuesday, November 9th, 2010 03:47 am (UTC)I highly recommend finding a copy of WordPerfect X4 it's great for converting docs over to HTML without adding too much extra html that's not needed. I kind of use a combination of programs. WordPerfect for converting to HTML and then MS Word 2007 for the Macros. The part that takes the longest is getting the word doc prepped for conversion. If that is done well the macros can do the rest of the work. But honestly, if you're not picky about how the story looks on your device you can import a word doc into calibre and hit convert. It does an okay job. I can't use it for the Ebook Library because I actually like everything to look as professional as possible. And for some reason I never could figure out why some of my Table of Contents would convert in Calibre (from the Word Doc) but not others. It about drove me nuts.
To have true control over the elements in the conversion you'll need to deal with HTML. But if you're comfortable with that then you'll have more control. :)
Re: P.S.
Date: Friday, November 12th, 2010 11:31 pm (UTC)Thanks for the tip on WordPerfect. I wouldn't say I'm really comfortable with HTML, but I have some experience and I'd be willing to try it for my favorite fics. Honestly, I'm not sure how picky I'll be about paragraph formatting, but I need a table of contents for anything of any length. That's not negotiable. I'll probably try the Calibre thing first to see how it goes, but then try HTML.
Re: P.S.
Date: Saturday, November 13th, 2010 09:23 am (UTC)deleted post
Date: Monday, November 8th, 2010 06:19 am (UTC)Sadly, I haven't really found a faster way to make ebooks that have cover art and artwork embedded as well as a table of contents. However, macros have taken a 30 minute process and now I can create ebooks in short amount of time.
I also download a lot from the Archive of Our Own, they have created export to mobi and epub...it's nice.
Re: deleted post
Date: Monday, November 8th, 2010 05:58 pm (UTC)How do you like your Sony reader? The one i saw in the store was nice, and with the bigger screen I think it could be great. How is the battery life? It also costs more than the Kindle, do you feel it has more features than the Kindle?
Re: deleted post
Date: Tuesday, November 9th, 2010 03:41 am (UTC)For me the touch screen was worth it because I don't buy ebooks often and I don't mind buying them on my computer, so I wouldn't have much use for the wireless but I use the touchscreen all the time. The touchscreen is quieter than clicking the button.
I love organization features on the device. For example, I have over 1100 ebooks/fan fiction stories on my device and I have everything sorted into collections. My Supernatural collection has over 300 stories but I can within the collections sort by date, author, title, and etc. And once I have the title or author selected it gives me a list A-Z so I can jump to the author at the end very quickly. From what I hear not many other devices have that capability. But for me it's a necessity.
I also love the 1.4 gigs of space.
So far the battery has lasted long to me, but I read about 3 hours a day on it so I recharge about once a week. Sometimes more because I do add a lot of stuff to my device throughout the week.
I'm not sure what features you're looking for or what would be a deal breaker for you? But for me I could not get the Kindle because for the longest time it did not support user created tags/collections. (I think it has it now but I'm not sure how it's implemented) You also have to hack your Kindle if you want to add your own screensavers. On my sony I just dragged and dropped the pictures I liked into the image folder on my device and within the settings selected the new images as my screensavers.
no subject
Date: Saturday, November 13th, 2010 01:16 am (UTC)The collections feature on the Sony sound fantastic! You're right, that's a pretty crucial thing for fanfic. I heard the new Kindle does that too, but I have no way to confirm it. I thought of posting a thread in the fanfic_ebooks comm asking other members with a Kindle and nook if that is a feature, but honestly I'm a ways away from actually buying one so I thought I'd wait until I was ready to buy.
Also, I checked out the nook today. They can take a microSD card, which allows for a large amount of memory and a huge number of books. I got really excited about that!
I'm still not exactly sure what I'm going to go with, but it's fun figuring it out. :)
no subject
Date: Saturday, November 13th, 2010 08:00 am (UTC)The good news is that I've never heard anyone that was unhappy with their device once they got it and started reading fan fiction. It's still 100X better than printing fan fiction to read while traveling. :)
no subject
Date: Sunday, November 28th, 2010 03:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, December 19th, 2010 09:48 pm (UTC)I heard the new Kindle does that too, but I have no way to confirm it.
The newest version of Kindle does support collections, and Nook just rolled out a software update within the last month that allows collections too. Unfortunately the Nook collections feature isn't compatible with Calibre; you have to add the collections on the device itself. I don't know if Kindle's collection feature is compatible with Calibre or not (I have an old Sony PRS-505 for reading fic and a Nook for real books).
Re: deleted post
Date: Sunday, December 19th, 2010 04:47 pm (UTC)My Supernatural collection has over 300 stories but I can within the collections sort by date, author, title, and etc. And once I have the title or author selected it gives me a list A-Z so I can jump to the author at the end very quickly.
Re: deleted post
Date: Sunday, December 19th, 2010 08:11 pm (UTC)