buying a sony reader

[nutsy]

Hi all
Just after a bit of advice, I have the chance to buy a new Sony reader in the US in acouple of weeks. I want it to just download ebooks and read them not bothered about mp3 or pdf. I have just learned that i cannot buy ebooks from the Sony connect site (US residents only). So can anyone tell me if I buy the device in the states can i download books from other sites ( I saw someone mention Fictionwise) successfully or should I not bother buying it t all.

Any advice appreciated as I havent a clue just love the idea of teh digital book.

Thank you

[MickeyC]

Hi nutsy, welcome to the Forum. Don't know why Sony has that idiot rule about US residents but there are ways for US rezies to get books. One is to buy Sony giftcards.Other, more knowledgeable members on this site will have lots of advice.

[Ervserver]

Lots of good books on this site nutsy

[Scarpad]

Is there anywhere you can buy .lit books from and convert them? That's the route I'd take.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by nutsy

Hi all
Just after a bit of advice, I have the chance to buy a new Sony reader in the US in acouple of weeks. I want it to just download ebooks and read them not bothered about mp3 or pdf. I have just learned that i cannot buy ebooks from the Sony connect site (US residents only). So can anyone tell me if I buy the device in the states can i download books from other sites ( I saw someone mention Fictionwise) successfully or should I not bother buying it t all.

Any advice appreciated as I havent a clue just love the idea of teh digital book.

Thank you

Hi nutsy,

You've got a couple of options.

You can buy books from the Sony site, but you'll have to get someone in the US to buy you giftcards to use. I know a member here, Leaping Gnome, has done it for folks in the past.

You can buy books from Fictionwise in the Multiformat category. These will be books from less know authors/publishers or older books from some well known authors. They also have some short fiction magazines available in this format.

You can buy books from Baen (if you like Sci-Fi) and either download the RTF version and use as is or download the MS Reader (LIT) version & easily convert it using libprs500.

For current & catalog releases from major publishers you can either buy through the Sony store using gift cards or you can buy the MS Reader version from any number of stores (Fictionwise, Books on Board, Simon Says) with no restriction on where you live and then use ConvertLit to remove the DRM protection (not exactly legal) and then convert them to Sony format (LRF), this will also give you a copy you can convert to other formats in the future if needed. Note: to buy MS Reader or Sony books you must be using Windows.



If you want a wide variety of stores for books, but aren't comfortable with breaking the DRM on LIT books you might want to check out the Cybook Gen3 which uses MobiPocket for it's rights protected format. Mobi books are available from many stores online with no restrictions on where you live.