![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
More thoughts on ebook readers
A lot of very helpful comments are helping me to focus in on what I want.
1. Touch screen - a definite for me now - I hadn't realised that you can turn page with a gentle stroke - and that's ideal for me, less difficulty than a button.
2. Easy way to prop it up - would be very handy - I'm told the case for at least one of the Kindle models folds back like a notebook and means it props itself up. That could be very handy for me as I can't hold things in my hand for long. What other models have this?
3. Font size. I like being able to adjust font size, mainly in case I have the wrong pair of glasses with me. (Is it true that you can't adjust the font if a book has DRM?)
4. I can see Calibre as potentially being a very useful tool both for storing ebooks in the cloud and for converting formats. They also make it easy to find ebooks for sale without DRM
5. Fictionwise and Baen Books are good places to purchase DRM free books. Baen have an interesting selection of free books put up by the authors to allow you to try their work. Project Gutenburg is probably the best place for books that are out of copyright.
6. MOBI is the format for downloading fan fic.
7. The big problem. I currently buy most of my books from Amazon. It seems to be that you have to pretty much decide to either go the Kindle route and buy DRM-locked from Amazon or go DRM free and be unable to buy from Amazon. Have I got that correct? (Or a similar issue with Barnes and Noble) If I go DRM free, will I be able to get the books I want? (format conversion seems to be a bit messy where DRM is involved and I'm not geek enough to enjoy the process) How have people found availability of books they want?
(I think I'd still get my non-fiction in paper form - I like to be able to flick back and forth between sections)
8. I like multiple bookmarks, to be able to record where I am in each book I'm reading and also to have easy access to the books I'm currently reading (the Kobo has a nice feature of moving whatever book you last opened to the top of the list). How do different ebooks compare on this front?
How do touch screen ebooks that you own compare with the thoughts above?
1. Touch screen - a definite for me now - I hadn't realised that you can turn page with a gentle stroke - and that's ideal for me, less difficulty than a button.
2. Easy way to prop it up - would be very handy - I'm told the case for at least one of the Kindle models folds back like a notebook and means it props itself up. That could be very handy for me as I can't hold things in my hand for long. What other models have this?
3. Font size. I like being able to adjust font size, mainly in case I have the wrong pair of glasses with me. (Is it true that you can't adjust the font if a book has DRM?)
4. I can see Calibre as potentially being a very useful tool both for storing ebooks in the cloud and for converting formats. They also make it easy to find ebooks for sale without DRM
5. Fictionwise and Baen Books are good places to purchase DRM free books. Baen have an interesting selection of free books put up by the authors to allow you to try their work. Project Gutenburg is probably the best place for books that are out of copyright.
6. MOBI is the format for downloading fan fic.
7. The big problem. I currently buy most of my books from Amazon. It seems to be that you have to pretty much decide to either go the Kindle route and buy DRM-locked from Amazon or go DRM free and be unable to buy from Amazon. Have I got that correct? (Or a similar issue with Barnes and Noble) If I go DRM free, will I be able to get the books I want? (format conversion seems to be a bit messy where DRM is involved and I'm not geek enough to enjoy the process) How have people found availability of books they want?
(I think I'd still get my non-fiction in paper form - I like to be able to flick back and forth between sections)
8. I like multiple bookmarks, to be able to record where I am in each book I'm reading and also to have easy access to the books I'm currently reading (the Kobo has a nice feature of moving whatever book you last opened to the top of the list). How do different ebooks compare on this front?
How do touch screen ebooks that you own compare with the thoughts above?
no subject
Not true on the Kindle at least.
5. Fictionwise and Baen Books are good places to purchase DRM free books.
I think some Fictionwise books might have DRM, depending on the publisher? Otherwise I agree - Baen also sell books from Night Shade Press through their website as well as their own books. I also recommend Wizard's Tower Press and Weightless Books as good sources of DRM-free SF&F. Angry Robot do direct DRM-free sales, as I think do Solaris Books (they sold me some DRM-free files in the dealer's room at Bristolcon by loading them straight onto my Kindle, which was ace).
The big problem. I currently buy most of my books from Amazon. It seems to be that you have to pretty much decide to either go the Kindle route and buy DRM-locked from Amazon or go DRM free and be unable to buy from Amazon. Have I got that correct? (Or a similar issue with Barnes and Noble) If I go DRM free, will I be able to get the books I want? (format conversion seems to be a bit messy where DRM is involved and I'm not geek enough to enjoy the process) How have people found availability of books they want?
I think if you want ebooks from Amazon, you need a Kindle. It is possible to DRM-strip them, but I don't know if you can do it without a physical Kindle? It's not something I've tried, and it may be more effort than you want to put in. I buy the occasional DRMed ebook from Amazon, but what tends to happen is I get those books which are available as DRM-free books from the above stores, and generally buy the ones which aren't available as hard copy or as DRMed ebooks if they're cheap.
8. I like multiple bookmarks, to be able to record where I am in each book I'm reading and also to have easy access to the books I'm currently reading (the Kobo has a nice feature of moving whatever book you last opened to the top of the list). How do different ebooks compare on this front?
Kindle moves books you've just read to the top of the list, and remembers where you are in each one.
no subject