E-readers and other Devices

[Jason, Walking Allergen]

My parents surprised me with a Nook tonight for my birthday. I haven't given a lot of thought to e-readers, to be honest, and didn't think I'd own one for a good long time. Anybody with tips for use, worthwhile apps, good free books, etc, for the Nook or any device with which you're familiar, post 'em here.

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

I had to look up the Nook. Looks sweet. I find myself being more and more into avoiding hard copies of things. First it was music (except for beautiful vinyl), then movies, and now books seem increasingly silly to horde and clutter my life. Hmmm.....

[Jen]

I have a Nook Color myself - very handy for reducing the number of paper copies of books you add to your house. I also like the Nook because it's not as restrictive in what formats you can read as the Kindle is. For example, you can read ePub book formats on the Nook (not so on Kindle). I have an iPhone, so I haven't really gotten into the apps on the Nook at this point, but I do have a couple of book tips.

1 - If you are a library person, check and see if your library checks out e-books. Ours does, and it's such a popular service that you have to ask to be on the waiting list for almost any book you want to read that way. But it's a pretty awesome way to be able to read e-books for free. You get a specified period of time (I think ours is 3 weeks) and then the book just kind of stops working on your device. This is one place where the Nook is better than the Kindle - most library e-books are in ePub format.

2 - Not sure if you have a Facebook account, but if you do, "like" the Nook on Facebook (not just B&N, but the Nook has it's own FB page). They have a free book every Friday, and they announce it there. I think it may also be in the Nook blog, so if you're not on FB, maybe check in with the Nook blog every Friday.

You can also download the first chapter of most books for free as a preview of the book - if you're not 100% sure you want to read a book, that's a good way to make your decision. And if you go to the B&N website, click NookBooks on the left-hand menu and scroll down a bit, there are some links on the left under Customer Favorites that are useful - in particular, the Free NookBooks and NookBooks Under $5 links.

That's all I've got for now. Off to nurse a headache and a sore throat.

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

Jen wrote: "it's such a popular service that you have to ask to be on the waiting list for almost any book you want to read that way..."
I have checked out audiobooks from the library this way and was surprised and then amused by this. It seems, on some pure, conceptual level, that the digital and infinitely replicable format would make it easy for libraries (the stores of human knowledge) to share information with the public, but we've managed to make that a byzantine system of rules and limits and virtual waiting for virtual copies. Stranger than fiction...

[Jen]

Well, it has to do with the licensing, rather like software. The library pays a license fee for one book, which means it can only be used by one person at a time (like installing Photoshop on only one computer with one license key). And since the libraries are publicly funded, high-profile and likely under close scrutiny because of the fact that their purpose is to lend books to people, they have to be very strict about playing by the rules. And also because they're publicly funded, they can't afford to buy an unlimited number of digital licenses.

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

Jen wrote: "Well, it has to do with the licensing, rather like software. The library pays a license fee for one book, which means it can only be used by one person at a time (like installing Photoshop on only ..."
Oh, I completely understand the practical side of it. I do.
I was just saying that it amused me that we humans make something that seems, on the surface, sci-fi utopian and into such a snarl of rules and such. I'm also the kinda guy who sees a mentally ill person sleeping under a bridge and thinks it can't be that hard to get people like that some help...but we shut down our mental hospital years ago and turned everyone out onto the streets. I'm just a dreamer. :S

[Jen]

Haha, me too. I was the kid who, upon first learning about the basic principles of communism, thought, "Hey, that sounds like a really good idea!" And then I grew up and realized it doesn't work because so many people are greedy for money and/or power. Which makes me sad when I dwell on it, so I don't.

[Dave Alluisi, Evolution of the Arm]

Stinkin' hippies.

Congrats on the Nook, Jason... Jen loves hers (just saw her using it today, even). I wish I had more information on it myself, but I'm pretty sure that if I were to touch it, it would instantly dissolve. Such is my effect on any technology newer than the toothbrush.

[Jason, Walking Allergen]

Thanks for the feedback, Jen. That's exactly the sort of information I was fishing for.

I'm becoming enamored of it pretty quickly. I'll be reading Never Let Me Go on it, so that will be the first real acid test.

Naturally I had to look to see whether there were any comics reading apps for it. The answer was kinda. You can convert .cbz and such formats to compatible formats like .pdf and it supposedly works pretty well. I was entirely unsuccessful in my first attempt to find a free (legal) comic to download.

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

Jason wrote: "I was entirely unsuccessful in my first attempt to find a free (legal) comic to download."

Dog-pile on the square nerd! ;)

[Dave Alluisi, Evolution of the Arm]

I only download books illegally. And I don't feel a bit bad about it, either, because, until those dumb-head publishers start to offer books day-and-date like I insist, it is perfectly fine and moral for me to steal from them. How else will they learn? ;P

[Jim]

So I got a Kindle Fire for Christmas. Complete surprise -- we had discussed getting my wife a Fire and giving her Kindle to our son, but we jointly decided against it. That woman is devious.

I just got Last Exit to Brooklyn for my first real text-reading test. I got a mess of public domain stuff which I may never get around to, plus the Comixology app with some free legal downloads, and a subscription to The Nation.

Edit: I was also amused when our library wait-listed my wife's request for the ebook of The Girl Who Played With Fire. "What, too many ones and zeros to keep track of?" But I do understand the licensing issue.

[Dave Alluisi, Evolution of the Arm]

Yeah, the licensing of ebooks in libraries seems like a real missed opportunity and the same sort of shortsightedness that's kept traditional publishers on the downward spiral practically since the day the internet became popular. So many continue to show a fundamental lack of understanding for the potential that comes with the spread of ideas and knowledge, or to show any sort of creativity or innovation in how to capitalize on that in a realistic or arguably even a humane way. Sad.

[Luke]

Grats on the ereader dude.

I pretty much only read stuff on the kindle now. I took near all my books to the library.

An e-book manager is the way to go if you like things organised.

I use Calibre for my ebook management. Its good for the Kindle because it will automatically convert all types of stuff to mobi or azw. And its just drag and drop to.

http://calibre-ebook.com/

If your a fantasy reader, the best thing is you can read new releases and not have to put up with the over sized hardcovers and paper backs that they all seem to be released in first.

I do find it frustrating when you can't find some stuff digitally though. But I admit I do not pay for much stuff I read.

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

Jen wrote: "I also like the Nook because it's not as restrictive in what formats you can read as the Kindle is. For example, you can read ePub book formats on the Nook (not so on Kindle)..."
I hadn't actually looked at this thread since I got my Kindle 3 in the fall, but I use the tool Lukeh mentioned (Calibre) and it is wonderful for converting all e-book types to Kindle's format, creating/editing metadata, managing your Kindle library and pretty much everything else you can imagine.
Also, I mentioned this elsewhere, but http://www.feedbooks.com/ offers current titles for sale and a wonderful public domain library for free (usually in several formats).

It was awesome to be talking to the guys last night and have Dave mention a name from the text and be able to find all references to it with excerpts, pages numbers, and hyperlinks to their respective section in 10 seconds.

[Dave Alluisi, Evolution of the Arm]

Matt wrote: "It was awesome to be talking to the guys last night and have Dave mention a name from the text and be able to find all references to it with excerpts, pages numbers, and hyperlinks to their respective section in 10 seconds."

Good point... are you planning to get most of our books electronically from here on out? I was tempted to ask you to do a few quick searches myself last night as I was flipping pages madly. It could be a really cool feature to use this sort of cutting edge technology in new ways on the podcast, and especially to apply the tech to books that weren't written for the electronic age. Who knows, it might even lead to some unique discoveries! :)

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

Dave wrote: "Matt wrote: "are you planning to get most of our books electronically from here on out?"

Dunno. I really bought it to prevent having half a suitcase full of books when I travel (because of my fickle reading moods, not 'cause I'm a quick reader). Add to that that many of my to-reads are in the public domain, it seemed like a good resource. I think I'll be getting more of our selections for my Kindle than I originally imagined, for sure.

(I had also bookmarked, starting in the third canto, any reference to: reflections, mirrors, twins, etc., for the show, but didn't have the chance to do the same to the first half of the poem before recording, so it seemed pointless to bring the half-assed notes up.)

I totally agree that it's a very powerful tool, especially for meta-textual stuff like the last book, and one that we should take advantage of often.

However, I could not have read Pale Fire as you two read it, because my e-book did not have links from the poem to its notes. Which seems like a missed opportunity to let the text be all it can be.

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

January's book is available on the Kindle, but it sounds like they still desperately need a proofreader.

I think I'll be picking up a paperback edition.

[Jim]

There is a new ebook edition of The Long Home, just out last month. Same publisher, no reviews of the new version yet. I'm assuming that this new edition might correct the typographical problems -- I hope so, since the error-plagued one only came out 8 months earlier.

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

Dave wrote: "Thanks for the suggestion, but I've tried that. Unfortunately, the drop-down you describe only has the options you list: delete, loan, send to device. What I'd like to do is move everything I've bo..."

Oh, shoot. I didn't understand what you were trying to do. Jason might be on to something; you should be able to transfer the files from Jen's device to your Calibre library and then put them on to your Kindle when it's connected. At any rate, Calibre would strip the DRM from the files, if you can manage to get them off her Kindle. I'll mess around with it today and get back to you.

[Robert]

Recently received an iPad as a Christmas gift, so using this opportunity, I downloaded The Long Home as my first foray into digital books.

I can safely say it has been a pleasant experience so far. The only glaring editorial gaffes (and I'm not entirely positive that they are grammatical errors) I've noticed thus far are how any word with "half" as the prefix have been conjoined with the root word rather than using hyphens. For example, "half-heartedly is halfheartedly". Again, it may be more an interpretation rather than egregious error.

Thus far, it's been an unassuming editorial ride.


For what it's worth, I purchased William Gay's novel through iBooks and it cost $7.00 Pricey, yes, but worth it alone for my virginal foray into digital books.

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

Just checked out a Kindle copy of our July book through my library, which ported me to Amazon for the download/borrowing part. Next time I turn my wi-fi on on my Kindle, the book will be there. Pretty damned nifty.

[Jim]

Just make sure to read it fast. Drawbacks to library e-loans: No renewals, and you can't keep it a few extra days to finish. After 14 or 21 days, that sucka is gone.

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

I just found out mine's due back in three days! So, 10-day check out. Yeesh.

[Jim]

Ten days?!? Blecch. I have two library e-loans right now, so I'm trying to finish Lies My Teacher Told Me and read all of The City and the City in the next 12 days or so. Oh, plus our July selection, Black Swan Green.

Part of why I'm behind on other reading is that Comixology's Kindle app just reacquired DC Comics content for the first time in a year. I picked up and enjoyed Batman '66 by Jeff Parker and Jonathan Case, a campy blast.

[Jen]

Matt wrote: "I just found out mine's due back in three days! So, 10-day check out. Yeesh."

It may be different on your e-reader, or with your library's system, but I've discovered that for my library and e-reader, if I keep the wifi off on the e-reader, the book doesn't actually go away - I can read it for as long as I need until I turn the wifi back on...

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

Jen wrote: "Matt wrote: "I just found out mine's due back in three days! So, 10-day check out. Yeesh."

It may be different on your e-reader, or with your library's system, but I've discovered that for my libr..."

I was wondering if that's how that worked. Thank, Jen!!!!

[Jim]

Jen wrote: "I've discovered that for my library and e-reader, if I keep the wifi off on the e-reader, the book doesn't actually go away - I can read it for as long as I need until I turn the wifi back on... "

Wow, what a great tip! I'd'a never thought of that. Thanks, Jen!