Undecided!

[neekee]

I'm thinking about getting the Kindle 2. I've converted my CDs into audio files, so moving my printed books into text files is the next logical step.

I'll only be using it for ebooks, not audio files.The bulk of the file extensions are probably just going to be .txt,.html,.pdf, .jpg,.gif and the kindle format as I use amazon for a lot of my books. Which was my original deciding factor on getting the kindle 2.

But.. I see people keep saying that they filled up the available space already. It worries me as I have a feeling that I am going to be hording ebooks. But I doubt I would be able to bulk up 1000+ books. Although I said the same about my ipod and my original hard drive.

So.. I was wondering if it is possible to have ebooks on my external hard drive and keep the bulk on there, but then when I want to transfer the ebooks from there onto the kindle back and forth?

Also I'm concerned about how there is a lot of talk about not being able to organize the kindle as well as other ereaders. How so exactly? If I have the files organized well on my hard drive does would it still be a pain to not have them organized on my kindle? I think I'd probably only want to categorize by author or book title, not genre types or favorites. I'm just all around confused.

[Renaldo]

Yeah, don't expect the Kindle 2 (or any ereader, really) to be the repository of your entire library. They're made to carry what you want, not necessarily everything you own. 1000 books isn't really a lot of space, and may easily fit on the Kindle 2's 2gb internal memory, depending on how big the files are. Storing them on CD/DVD, thumbdrive or other removable media is what many people with large collections they want to keep do.

Two problems I see that you may run into though: The Kindle 2 doesn't do .PDF's very well, more of a 'if you can get them to work' type of deal, and that's one of the formats you mentioned. The other is with the organization of that many books. There's no categories or folders to use on a Kindle 2, so if you put a bunch of books on it, it's a in a directory with a bunch of books, and they can't be broken down or organized. So, if you've got 1000 books on it, you have to sort through those 1000 books to find the one you're looking for.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by neekee

But.. I see people keep saying that they filled up the available space already. It worries me as I have a feeling that I am going to be hording ebooks. But I doubt I would be able to bulk up 1000+ books. Although I said the same about my ipod and my original hard drive.

I have both Kindle 1 and 2. Kindle 1 can use and SD card (I have an 8Gb card and I've seen some mention using 16GB cards). I never filled up my main memory and very little of the SD card. I'm not a big re-reader but I keep all of my books backed up on my computer (those from Amazon and those from elsewhere).

So.. I was wondering if it is possible to have ebooks on my external hard drive and keep the bulk on there, but then when I want to transfer the ebooks from there onto the kindle back and forth?

Yes, it's just a drag and drop process. Very easy.

Also I'm concerned about how there is a lot of talk about not being able to organize the kindle as well as other ereaders. How so exactly? If I have the files organized well on my hard drive does would it still be a pain to not have them organized on my kindle? I think I'd probably only want to categorize by author or book title, not genre types or favorites. I'm just all around confused.

Kindle 2 has about 1.4GB of storage available to the user. If you put all your books into one folder and the file size is less than 1.4GB, you'll be fine. If it's more, then you'll have to keep some of the books on a computer.

If you only need to sort by title or author, that is a built in sort function on the K2. You can also sort by most recent, so that the books you are currently reading show up at the top of the home page.

On PDF files, there is now a software hack called Savory, which allows PDF and ePub files (without DRM) to be read on the Kindle. It's still in development but so far so good.

I think you'll be very happy with a Kindle 2. Luckily you have 30 days to play with one and if you don't like it you can get your money back.

[Elsi]

The bulk of the file extensions are probably just going to be .txt,.html,.pdf, .jpg,.gif and the kindle format as I use amazon for a lot of my books.

Note that PDF files are not natively supported by the Kindle, they'll have to be converted to another format.

I see people keep saying that they filled up the available space already.

That may be true, but the one posting that I have read on it, the person deliberately tried to put so many books on the Kindle that it was maxed out.

So.. I was wondering if it is possible to have ebooks on my external hard drive and keep the bulk on there, but then when I want to transfer the ebooks from there onto the kindle back and forth?

That's exactly what I do. I download into my Kindle and upload back into my PC. I keep a master of every book -- whether from Amazon or another site -- on my main PC in my home in Texas. I keep about 60 books on the Kindle, and that includes about 20 samples that I've downloaded. I keep a few books which aren't on the Kindle on my laptop and then I have a 120-Gig portable USB drive that travels with me which contains about 500 books. At any point in time, I have too many books to choose from!

Also I'm concerned about how there is a lot of talk about not being able to organize the kindle as well as other ereaders. How so exactly? If I have the files organized well on my hard drive does would it still be a pain to not have them organized on my kindle?

I've not found the lack of folders or other organization on the Kindle to be a big problem. That may be because I have organization that makes sense to me on my computer. I also maintain a spreadsheet where I correlate the filename and source to the book title and author.

[neekee]

Thanks everyone!
Your responses were very helpful. I just placed the order for the Kindle 2. xD