Have you replaced all your pbooks/HBbooks?

[RWood]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

I'm slowly replacing my pbooks but the problem is that most require scanning by me and that takes a great deal of time. Fiction I have no problem with replacing, most of it is one time use. But I have shelves full of needlecraft books and magazines (knitting, crocheting, cross stitch, needlepoint, quilting, sewing, etc.) that I would like to greatly reduce and that's what I'm concentrating on with my scanning efforts.

I have dust and mold allergies so old books can make me literally sick.

My wife has many, many sewing, quilting, and other needlecraft books that no longer have to be jammed together since many of my pbooks are gone.

The problem for her books is that the diagrams are multicolored and do not reproduce well on the Sony (also too small) in the experiments we have tried.

Please get back to us on the results you achieve with the digitizing of your books. She would be thrilled if there was an (easy) way to do this for her books.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by RWood

My wife has many, many sewing, quilting, and other needlecraft books that no longer have to be jammed together since many of my pbooks are gone.

The problem for her books is that the diagrams are multicolored and do not reproduce well on the Sony (also too small) in the experiments we have tried.

My other half knits and crochets, and is a gourmet quality cook. She'll have similar issues.

I have converted some stuff like knitting patterns to electronic form she can carry around on her PDA, but in those cases she doesn't need the illustrations. Something like

Row 1: Slip 2 stitches to cable needle and hold in front. Purl 1, then knit 2 off the cable needle. Slip 1 stitch onto cable needle and hold in back. Knit 2 and purl 1 from cable needle. Repeat the front cross.
Row 2: Purl 2, knit 2, purl 4, knit 1.
Row 3: Purl 1. Slip 2 stitches onto cable needle and hold in back, knit 2, knit 2 from cable needle. Purl 2, knit 2.
Row 4: Purl 2, knit 2, purl 4, knit 1.
Row 5: Cross back as in row 1, then cross front and repeat cross back.
Row 6: Knit 1, purl 4, knit 2, purl 2.
Row 7: Knit 2, purl 2. Slip 2 stitches onto cable needle and hold in front, knit 2, knit 2 from cable needle. Purl 1.
Row 8: Knit 1, purl 4, knit 2, purl 2.
Repeat these rows for pattern.

is all she requires.

For cooking, while she has a recipe database on the desktop, printed versions are a lot easier to work with "on the stove".
______
Dennis

[MaggieScratch]

I have thought of scanning some old crochet magazines I have (and then probably sell them on eBay) but I'll keep most of my craft books, most likely. Some I buy like art books for the pretty pictures.

I doubt I'll use the Cybook for the patterns, though--just PDF them, save them to CDs or a thumb drive (and I've got my eye on an external hard drive, too), and then print them out as I use them. I usually make photocopies of patterns while I'm working with them anyway, because they get really banged up when you carry them around. A photocopy can be folded, spindled, mutilated, highlighted, scrawled upon, etc. as necessary and then tossed when I'm done.

I already have a pretty nice collection of PDF public domain pattern books, especially of 19th century tatting and crochet books.

[Patricia]

Maggi, I too crochet, tat, embroider and occasionally try needlepoint lace etc.
I do the same as you - make a working copy of a pattern, so that I can mark it. I have scanned some patterns for personal use.

If you like antique crochet and tatting patterns then there is a free site of PD patterns at:
http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/

Mrs Beeton's Book of Needlework and Therese de Dillmont's Encyclopedia of Needlework are both available at Project Gutenberg in HTML with illustrations. There are pdf and djvu versions at The Internet Archive.
(It would be silly to put these on a Reader because the illustrations are often several pages apart from the instructions, which would be very frustrating if you were working from them.)

Iam keeping all the needlecraft books that I intend to read, or will read again. But I have plans to scan some of the ones which I use for reference only, because I can then just print off a pattern whenever I need it. This should save some space. The 'Golden Hands' and 'Stitch by Stitch' partworks of the 1970s and 1980s take up about 2 and a half feet of bookshelves and are crying out to be scanned.

[solitarywolf]

My reader has enabled me to read books that I never would have bought in the paper/hard version. I have opened my mind to a whole new world with my reader. There are still some books that when I read the digital version I have to go buy a hardcover. Sometimes they're just trophies on my reading shelf. There is something that still satisfies me about owning a real book. So far it has not made me want to go out and sell my book friends. Not to mention there is a LOT of books that I know will never see the digital life.

Seth Williams,
San Francisco, CA

[TallMomof2]

Most of my craft books will scan fine in B&W, but the ones that require color I will scan in color. Many of my cross stitch books/patterns require color in order to render the patterns. I don't plan to use all on my grayscale eInk readers but more as an archive. Currently, I would have to print color charts but who knows what the future holds for readers?

[pilotbob]

There's no option here:

"I want to convert all my pBooks to eBooks, but don't want to pay for them all again."

I would be willing to pay $.10 a book to convert them all.

This is sort of like wanting all my Super NES games on my Wii, but not wanting to buy them all again.

BOb

[RobbieClarken]

For the pbooks I own and refer to often I would gladly pay $2 - $5 a book to get them in a ebook format. For books some I would pay much more than the pbook cost to get them as an ebook but alas no-one has digitised them yet.

At the moment I hold onto all my pbooks because sometimes it is easier to grab them off the bookshelf rather than find and load the file on my computer. And with textbooks I sometimes need to refer to two or three books at once and I can't afford to buy that many ebook readers (I know I could 'ALT-TAB' between ebooks or whatever but that's too slow sometimes).

[moz]

Having just ripped my first pbook I'm starting to increase how much I'm willing to pay for the ebook version... a lot. I have spent probably 10 hours doing it (500 page novel) which according to my boss would be worth paying more than $500 for. It seems kind of odd to say I'd only pay $1 to avoid that 10 hours. Especially now that I'm reading it and discovering mistakes that I missed when proofing in the OCR program. It's so annoying not being able to annotate the ebook!

So yeah, give me the "giant collection of science fiction" as a (legal) download and I'd happily pay $2 a book... in installments.

[Puddytat purr]

I have several hundred books - I can't afford to replace them all digitally. I think it would be great if you could send photographic proof to the publishers which would then allow you to download the book for a dollar or two - like most other people, I wouldn't mind paying a small amount for a replacement.

Here in the UK, I can buy books from Fictionwise for around $6 - that's only about £3, but multiply that buy around 500 and it'll be £1500

Whereas, a £1 a book, well, I wouldn't mind that quite so much - especially as I can sell the hardcopies for about that anyway

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Puddytat purr

I have several hundred books - I can't afford to replace them all digitally. I think it would be great if you could send photographic proof to the publishers which would then allow you to download the book for a dollar or two - like most other people, I wouldn't mind paying a small amount for a replacement.

But how are the publishers going to know that the photographic proof is really from your collection and not your friend's just so you can try to get cheaper eBooks?

[Puddytat purr]

I haven't quite worked that one out yet

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Puddytat purr

I haven't quite worked that one out yet

i'm interested to know, when you do...

[Puddytat purr]

talk about pressure!

I suppose I could always invite them round for a cuppa

[DocHamm]

Interesting poll, but missing an option. I have books in both formats and while I hope to one day be mainly in electronic format, and part with some of my hardcopies, I will probably never part with my autographed or first edition copies. I imagine there are others who fall into this category.