It really is a shame that my e-reader doesn't have an SD slot

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Shades

As for Kindles being mentioned before... I don't like them for reasons other than SD card support, like the sub-par range of supported file types.

That's an irrelevance for me. I manage my eBook library with Calibre, and it does whatever format conversions are necessary. I can send any of my books to any of my readers in either Kindle or ePub format.

[Shades]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's an irrelevance for me. I manage my eBook library with Calibre, and it does whatever format conversions are necessary. I can send any of my books to any of my readers in either Kindle or ePub format.

Calibre is a great piece of software and usually conversions go smooth as silk, but I always prefer to have the book in the original container/file type. Mainly to avoid the headaches associated with finding what went wrong, which settings were incorrect, etc.

[pwalker8]

I keep all my ebooks on my device. I keep them in Marvin, then I also have the ones purchased from Amazon in the kindle app for those ebooks that don't convert well (there are a few). Having 128GB is a good thing.

As was said earlier, my reason is because I'm never sure what I'm going to want to read or what books I may need to check. I have a mix of fiction and nonfiction. Since I'm not always in a place that has high speed internet (or internet at all), it's good to have them available locally.

[Apache]

I keep all of my books in Calibre and on my Nook HD+. When I finish a book I may not know what I want to read next. I like to read good books multiple times too. Having all my books available, along with a Cailbre Catalog, makes it easier to pick my next read.
Apache

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Shades

But then you have to ask why some people have libraries in their study? It's not because they want to read everything there, but because if they do need any one book, it's there for them to pick up and read.

The same can apply to an ereader. I doubt people expect to read say 4k in books, but it's nice to have your whole library with you because who knows what book you'll want to read or will need to reference.

Let us not forget, pbooks have to be stored somewhere. ebooks can go on the hard drive.

I can have a couple thousand books on my Kindle at one time. If I cannot find a book I REALLY want to read,... then having extra storage is probably not going to help. That is a slippery slope that will lead you to archive the Internet, Just In Case.

Note: Thus far, I hve never failed to find something I wanted to read among my 180-item TBR (current) and 800-favorites emergency reserve.

Let's also not forget other media which can be stored like audio books and such, which take up a lot more space.

An ereader is not an MP3 player, stop pressuring it into acting like one.

As for Kindles being mentioned before... I don't like them for reasons other than SD card support, like the sub-par range of supported file types.

to converting with calibre. I have never had a conversion sour on me unless there was something deeply wrong with the original.

[crossi]

If I could figure a way to get browse my library by author, series, or genre from my kindle then get the book I want from my Calibre library in Dropbox while not at home I wouldn't care if my kindle was only a book display device and could only hold one at a time. Since I haven't found any way, much less a simple way to get my books from Calibre to Kindle without being close enough to use a usb cord I'd rather keep at least my favorites (all 2 or 3 thousand of them) in my kindle. Memory is so cheap and small in size so why not? If I had a choice between chucking memory or whispernet (any version) I'd toss the whispernet. I bet it costs more than a couple gigs of memory does and takes up more room in the device.

[bobstro]

I'm not planning on reading everything on my device back-to-back, but a lot is reference material, and I like to jump around when or wherever inspiration hits me.

Sure, I'd survive with less, but it is nice simply popping in a $10 card and never worrying about it. I don't recall ever being glad that I didn't have extra storage available.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by crossi

If I could figure a way to get browse my library by author, series, or genre from my kindle then get the book I want from my Calibre library in Dropbox while not at home I wouldn't care if my kindle was only a book display device and could only hold one at a time. Since I haven't found any way, much less a simple way to get my books from Calibre to Kindle without being close enough to use a usb cord I'd rather keep at least my favorites (all 2 or 3 thousand of them) in my kindle. Memory is so cheap and small in size so why not? If I had a choice between chucking memory or whispernet (any version) I'd toss the whispernet. I bet it costs more than a couple gigs of memory does and takes up more room in the device.

See my sig.

Also, you could setup calibre's Content Server to broadcast over the internet and download from there, although that requires more work to setup. Here are some services that can do it for free: http://lifehacker.com/the-best-free-...dns-1561556205

Also, the idea that any device should put in more storage by getting rid of the WiFi card is frankly ridiculous -- you might buy it, but no one else would, hence the device would be a losing proposition, hence no one would ever make such a device (leaving aside the very first ereaders ever, which were exactly like that; people have changed their expectations as technology matured).

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Let us not forget, pbooks have to be stored somewhere. ebooks can go on the hard drive.

I can have a couple thousand books on my Kindle at one time. If I cannot find a book I REALLY want to read,... then having extra storage is probably not going to help. That is a slippery slope that will lead you to archive the Internet, Just In Case.

Note: Thus far, I hve never failed to find something I wanted to read among my 180-item TBR (current) and 800-favorites emergency reserve.



An ereader is not an MP3 player, stop pressuring it into acting like one.



to converting with calibre. I have never had a conversion sour on me unless there was something deeply wrong with the original.

My first E ink reader had a built in MP3 player. I put my collection of The Shadow radio plays on it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16858242001

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Phogg

My first E ink reader had a built in MP3 player. I put my collection of The Shadow radio plays on it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16858242001

So does my Kindle Touch, but I don't abuse the pooor thing by actually using it....

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

So does my Kindle Touch, but I don't abuse the pooor thing by actually using it....

The Aztak wasn't bad for it.
I also kept all the Shadow novels on it and made epubs of some interviews with Gibson.
The Shadow perfect collection as it were.

I also would compile lyric books for songs I was trying to memorize.
I would gladly shell out for an E-ink machine with decent audio now.

I want an eight inch 300dpi screen and water resistant while I am wishing.

[eschwartz]

Well, if the object is an E-ink audio machine, nothing wrong with that. There are experiments in Android E-ink tablets. (They are NOT "ereaders".)

I just don't see the connection between "dedicated reading device" and "it should have audio".

Keeping in mid that I have hacked my Kindle to death and am browsing the internet on it among other things...
Audio could be a plus, memory could be a plus, I simply don't see why one should choose that as the criteria for selecting an ereader.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

It's not the words that take up the space, it's the images and embedded fonts. I have about 700 ebooks and have already well exceeded the original 2GB storage. (I don't need an external SD slot yet though, as I have expended the internal storage to 8GB).

use Toxaris's ePUBOptimizer to reduce the size of embedded fonts and images. It does a really nice job at font subsetting. Even better then Calibre as it makes smaller font files. The images will not lose any quality when optimized. All the optimization does is optimize the container for the image.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Shades

Let's also not forget other media which can be stored like audio books and such, which take up a lot more space.

But most Readers sold today do not support audio. So that's (overall) not really a consideration.

[Shades]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Let us not forget, pbooks have to be stored somewhere. ebooks can go on the hard drive.

Well that's certainly true, pbooks have never been as portable. Some probably like having their whole library at their fingertips nowadays. Internet can be shoddy at best in some places or extremely expensive.

I can have a couple thousand books on my Kindle at one time. If I cannot find a book I REALLY want to read,... then having extra storage is probably not going to help. That is a slippery slope that will lead you to archive the Internet, Just In Case.

Note: Thus far, I have never failed to find something I wanted to read among my 180-item TBR (current) and 800-favorites emergency reserve.

I have a similar setup for myself that you describe in your sig. I have a Raspberry Pi that I use as a home server running COPS (Calibre OPDS and HTML PHP Server). I have it set up with DDNS, so I have access to my whole library from anywhere I have internet. I don't need an SD card slot myself, but I do need OPDS browsing capabilities on my reader. :P

An ereader is not an MP3 player, stop pressuring it into acting like one.

But why not use your main reading device with audio books too if you consume books that way as well?

to converting with calibre. I have never had a conversion sour on me unless there was something deeply wrong with the original.

I have and it's not fun trying to find the setting causing the formatting, etc. to go haywire.