After buying my used KK, I realized how much I prefer paper. Conversion suggestions?

[FauxTaimer]

So I got my Kindle and love it. I bought it for all the wrong reasons, but have found other reasons that make me want to keep it.

Originally, I purchased it because the free 3G web browsing and text-to-speech feature which can only be found on the Kindle. Before purchasing it, I already knew that the web browsing would be slow and clunky, so I wasnt really expecting to use it except for those emergency moments and having that peace of mind that I have it if I ever needed it. Turns out, once I had it, I felt that I could live without it. As for text-to-speech, I knew it would be pretty bad and robotic as I've heard samplings of it but I felt it was good enough, however, having to listen to an entire chapter with it is impossible for me.

I did read a book on it and found it very pleasurable though. I like reading lying down, and I mean actually lying down... not just sitting up in bed or reclined. It's probably bad for my eyes but I like being completely relaxed when I read. The problem with lying down on your side and reading with books is that books have the left side and right side, which equates to either having the thickness of the book being in sight as you read one side or having to hold the book a few inches up to read the other side. When lying on your back, the issue comes from holding the book in the air. The Kindle (or any ereader for that matter) solves both issues by being both light weight and having a single surface.

My problem, and ultimately the reason I prefer buying books instead of digital copies, is when I decided to buy a few books. Everyone says that the big selling point to the digital format is that it's cheaper than paper books... except that I've found they are not... at least with the books I buy. When I see that I could buy a used version for $5 post shipping price vs $10 for the Kindle edition... there's no reason for me to choose a Kindle edition. I have no need for the book to be delivered RIGHT THIS SECOND, and I like to have my books on a shelf. Books are as much of a conversation piece as they are reading material and having the digital version removes that. In addition, purchasing a book can always be converted to a digital format later. So it seems that, to me at least, purchasing actual books is the way to go... the only issue I have is that having digital versions is just so much more convenient.

While having books on a shelf may create a wanted conversation in controlled settings, having a book out in public may draw unwanted conversation from strangers when all you want to do is read. An ereader fixes that. In addition, I mainly read educational non-fiction so it's advantageous to have multiple books with me at once in case I wanted to reference anything outside of the current book I'm reading. So there in lies my dilemma. I have reasons for wanting both formats, but there is no way I'm willing to buy a book twice. If only there was a voucher of some sorts that allowed new book purchasers to buy the Kindle edition for an addition$1 or $2... I would definitely go for that.

So I've come to the conclusion that my only solution for obtaining both versions is to purchase the paper book used, and digitize them on my own. While perhaps the extra cost in time and money that come from this path may outweigh the cost advantages of purchasing the Kindle version, it does not in my opinion outweigh the cost of buying every book I own and want to own in the future twice every time. So does anyone have any experience on the best way to do this? It would also be nice to be able to digitize my existing books too.

[iansoady]

Although I appreciate this will not be a popular view, I believe that if I have bought a book (or CD or vinyl record) once then I have the right to use it in any other format. I therefore have no problems with downloading from unauthorised sources.

As most of my (several thousand) hard copy books came from charity shops anyway, neither the author nor the pubisher have benefited from my ownership of them.

[booklover6]

I feel the same way, ian. I almost always buy print books from used sources. I am probably supporting authors more now than I ever did, when I do actually buy an ebook. I have thousands of print books and am constantly on the lookout for e-copies of them. I am not in the position to afford to re-buy them in another format.

[blue_skies]

I like reading lying down, and I mean actually lying down... not just sitting up in bed or reclined. It's probably bad for my eyes but I like being completely relaxed when I read.

That's how I read, and I find it's much better for my eyes. I can read for many hours on my side with no problem, but a short while reading sitting up really messes up my vision if my kindle or book is significantly lower than eye level. My vision actually gets blurry when I try to focus on something else after reading looking down.

I read on my Kindle in landscape mode with either the top or bottom sitting on my bed so that the text is precisely the way my eyes track left to right with no strain at all. And it's so much easier compared to holding a book trying to get it in the right position. I usually lean my Kindle against a piece of foam so I don't even have to hold it. I will probably get one of these http://www.amazon.com/Tuff-Luv-Multi...=22CB3RZOQDEBV at some point or a book stand like this http://www.amazon.com/Bookgem-Book-H...=22CB3RZOQDEBV to make it even easier.

I totally relate to what you wrote about the price of ebooks. I find it very frustrating also when I can buy a used book much cheaper than the paper version. I also have at least 500 paper books that I would really prefer to read on my Kindle.

Converting paper books to ebook format is a daunting task, however. The pages have to be scanned and then the hard part is converting the jpegs into text. If you leave them as jpegs and create a pdf from it, the text will probably be too small to read on a 6-inch ereader. There is OCR software that will help you convert it into text, but I think even the best OCR software will tend to create a significant amount of errors... so you have to go through and proofread and correct the whole thing. That ends up taking a lot of time and effort.

I haven't done it, in part because I'm nervous about such things, but I can see why one might want to look for an e-copy of a paper book one has already purchased. It's cost prohibitive to re-buy books you've already bought, and a daunting task to convert a large personal library yourself.

[abookreader]

exactly. Scanning isn't too bad, especially if you have a machine with a document loader that can scan to PDF. But -- that only works if you are willing to destroy the book into separate pages, which will negate your goal of having paper + digital.

From a PDF file you can convert it into several different file types - .doc, html, etc etc and then convert to ePub or mobi to display on your readers. But you will still have to proofread and make corrections for all the conversion errors - especially if the original book had a fancy type where all the L's turn into I's or 1's and all that. If you leave it as a PDF it's kind of okay on a tablet-like device (iPad) etc.

I've done a couple of out of print books and it is hours of work per book. If I did something like that for all my books, I would never have time to read.

[vigna04]

Hmm base on your "review" (I guess), I might have to rethink about getting an ebook reader. I was under the impression ebooks arec heaper too (it would make sense that they are but ??).

[mayoi]

Originally Posted by abookreader

I've done a couple of out of print books and it is hours of work per book. If I did something like that for all my books, I would never have time to read.

Same here. I tried going that route when I first got my Kindle. While the free OCR program worked very well, I spent way too much time cleaning up the text since I couldn't lay the book down flat and the image was distorted. Not worth the effort.

[emalvick]

Originally Posted by vigna04

Hmm base on your "review" (I guess), I might have to rethink about getting an ebook reader. I was under the impression ebooks arec heaper too (it would make sense that they are but ??).

I think it really depends on what you read. I find that E-Books are generally cheaper, but not always. There are other advantages too. My wife and I have too many books on our shelves and I like the idea of cutting down on the clutter that an ebook affords (no dust or musty smells).

My suggestion for you is to look at books you might buys and compare their prices. The biggest plus for me has been the books on this forum (classics, out of copyright). I've finally been reading classics that I never got to but have always been on my reading list. My reader has probably paid for itself.

As for the idea of scanning. I do think you are probably better off grabbing a copy of the book online than going through the hassle of scanning. You will likely find that scanning one book is more effort than its worth.

[pidgeon92]

Originally Posted by vigna04

Hmm base on your "review" (I guess), I might have to rethink about getting an ebook reader. I was under the impression ebooks arec heaper too (it would make sense that they are but ??).

It surprises me that people are under this impression. For years already people have been complaining about ebook prices, and it's gotten that much worse since the beginning of the year with the agency model coming into effect. This has been the topic of dozens upon dozens of threads on this forum alone.

[montalex]

Without getting into the debate about ebook prices (the books I buy are always far cheaper in ebook than in paper), I'd like to make a suggestion about scanning paper books. If you can obtain a copy of ABBYY Fine Reader, you can scan directly to html or rtf without losing most layout features. You can make correction in ABBYY Reader or in html. Then you can easily convert the html to mobi with Calibre. Once you have scanned a book to pdf, you are stuck with a format that doesn't always convert well to mobi.

[NicholasV]

The labor of digitizing a book is fairly large, unless you have an automated process like Google Books. You are thinking like an a wannabe archivist, collector. Really you just read most books once or not even(since it easy to buy several books for very cheap, especially used but harder to find time to read them all) and most often you never reference it physically again. Ultimately it would be easier to just buy a ebook if there is one available instead of spending the time to archive a given title, despite what you may mistakenly think about how easy it is to digitally render a book.

[blue_skies]

Originally Posted by montalex

If you can obtain a copy of ABBYY Fine Reader, you can scan directly to html or rtf without losing most layout features. You can make correction in ABBYY Reader or in html. Then you can easily convert the html to mobi with Calibre. Once you have scanned a book to pdf, you are stuck with a format that doesn't always convert well to mobi.

Does that depend on the scanner? I was thinking of getting a VuPoint handheld scanner or the Ion Book Saver if it ever comes out, and I thought they automatically save as photos or PDFs. I could be wrong though since I haven't looked at those scanners very closely.

[montalex]

Originally Posted by blue_skies

Does that depend on the scanner? I was thinking of getting a VuPoint handheld scanner or the Ion Book Saver if it ever comes out, and I thought they automatically save as photos or PDFs. I could be wrong though since I haven't looked at those scanners very closely.

I think that I wrote something misleading. There is a button in ABBYY Fine Reader that allows you to import from your scanner. Obviously, what you import is an image, which ABBYY then does an OCR on, allowing you to correct and save the results in several different formats. ABBYY has excellent multi-language OCR.

But, in the end, NicholasV is right -- it is simply not worth your trouble to scan a paper book. Shop around. There are many free ebooks out there, and there are sometimes significant price differences between vendors.