[QUOTE=ShadowFacts]
I love you.
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:o
A show that really could have gone another season.
I read a ton of books by the pool during the summer. How well does a Kindle work in direct sunlight?
[QUOTE=OpalCat]
I love to read in bed but holding the book in one hand can make my hand hurt, plus if you lay on your side, you have to move the book into awkward positions to read the facing pages.
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I’m trying to read The Count of Monte Cristo in bed right now, and it is proving difficult. This edition is huge.
[QUOTE=Frostillicus]
I read a ton of books by the pool during the summer. How well does a Kindle work in direct sunlight?
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According to Amazon, perfectly. Take that for what it’s worth.
[QUOTE=Helena]
I’m trying to read The Count of Monte Cristo in bed right now, and it is proving difficult. This edition is huge.
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Oh man you ain’t kidding. Edward the Head lent me his copy a few years back to read and it was a whopper for sure.
[QUOTE=Bosstone]
You may not be thinking of it in the ‘right’ way. You may not have had any kind of music player before your iPod or other MP3 player, so you’re going from nothing to a new device. You might be thinking of the Kindle as the same thing, going from not carrying a book reader around to having one. That’s extra space being taken up by another device.
But look at a different scenario. You’re a bookworm. You always have a book in your purse or bag that you carry around with you, so in those quiet moments when you’re eating lunch or waiting for someone, you can flip it open and read. In that case, you’re already making space for a book. The Kindle has roughly the same face dimensions as a book and is thinner, so it’s a net gain on space.
Or say you’re a student, working your way through three different books in three different classes. Those three books may well be taking up space in your backpack already, when the Kindle can hold all three with no problem. In these two cases, the ability to carry a thin e-book reader when you would otherwise be carrying a thick paperback makes much more sense than simply adding a new tech device to your arsenal.
There’s also the difference in manipulation. I like to be able to read at lunch, but I hate books for it. Holding a book open with one hand is uncomfortable and cumbersome, especially as I read quickly and turn pages at a good clip. With a Kindle, I can lay it on the table and just read at my own pace, tapping the Next Page key every so often.
In fact, I got an e-book reader for my Nintendo DS for this very purpose; I set the text to display in the top screen which I can angle as I please, and I only have to hit a key to advance the text. It’s extremely convenient for reading while eating or doing something else that doesn’t require a lot of attention. The only problem is the DS reader only takes books in .txt form, and it’s difficult to get books in that format legally and easily. A Kindle is a very tempting device in that respect.
ETA: I’m aware of Project Gutenberg, but the books it offers doesn’t meet my interests very well.
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Wait, wait… Kindle has textbooks, too? Does it display charts, illustrations, etc. also? In other words, could I get my law school books on Kindle instead of lugging them around?
[QUOTE=Crocodiles And Boulevards]
Wait, wait… Kindle has textbooks, too? Does it display charts, illustrations, etc. also? In other words, could I get my law school books on Kindle instead of lugging them around?
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Honestly, I don’t know. I was thinking more of, like, literary analysis classes where you’ve got to read through a novel or three. Or any of the various lower-level courses that rely on published books that aren’t textbooks. My first level 100 Linguistics course relied on Stephen Pinker’s The Language Instinct, which was a pretty thick paperback. Throw in a couple more easy freshman classes like that, and your backpack’s bulging with paperbacks as well as textbooks. The Kindle would be a good space-saver in that case. Is that space worth $400? Maybe not, but it’s still a darn good selling point.
I would like to hear Alberto Manguel’s thought on this device.
There’s something very intimate about reading a book. I like the idea of holding something between my hands and, like Manguel, I experience that it’s a very neat thing to practically be part of a historical reading movement that have been enjoying litterature for the same way for many hundred years. Each person does it his or her own way.
I have my little reading habits. Each book get its own bookmark, for example. These things wouldn’t translate to a Kindle. But I can’t deny how convenient it would be to store twenty-something-books in the space of one.
Well, I broke mine. And I bought a second one. I suppose that is some sort of compliment. While getting books from Amazon is way cool (especially for me, I live overseas), the most useful thing was using it to “print out” documents I wanted to read, but did not want to waste ink or paper on.
The screen works perfectly in sunlight. Trust me, I know sunlight.
[QUOTE=OpalCat]
That, and I found a booger in a library book once.
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Only once? You’ve been lucky.
I stopped getting library books shortly thereafter. That was in my childhood. Now I only check out books from the library if I’m doing research on something. Never for recreational reading.
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor]
Tell your SO about Interlibrary Loan.
Almost every Library in the US is a member–you can request books from all over the country, often free. And cheaper than a $10 download.
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true, but he can get a new book in 2 seconds while he’s in the or!