We're starting to explore the brave new world of
purchased ebooks. It's for all the standard reasons (replace books whose fonts is now too small to read, save space, get rid of several bookshelves, buy some books and series we haven't read yet, etc.).
I thought it would be fun to start with getting a bunch of old science fiction stories by Ray Bradbury and Ben Bova, to have a full or nearly full set on our i-devices. But there's the rub... which format to buy them in? And which ebookstore to get them from? (Our ereaders of choice are the Stanza and eReader apps.)
I've read lots of discussions about ebook formats (ePub, etc.) and understand that things are a morass of competing, incompatible formats but, as an exclusively free ebook reader, I hadn't really focused on what the best, future-proof, buying choice was. (OK, "future-proof" might be tough, so how about
decent longevity?!
)
I really see things changing rapidly in the next couple of years, with bookstores going by the wayside or certain formats discarded. I really don't want to get locked into a particular bookstore or ereader...or buy a bunch of books that won't be readable in the future on some new device!
So, what's a person to do? What's the advice these days?
I have the suspicion that the answer will involve ePub and Calibre and lots of manual effort! (Keep in mind we're e-couch potatoes!
) We live in the Mac world, if that matters.