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KNI · 02-22-2011, 12:56 PM

I read a lot - and it is virtually all fiction. I read about 100 books a year. In a past life I was a small but successful publisher; two different firms and eventually sold both.

There have been some truly wonderful novels published in the last 200 years, and great numbers of them are available free on the various Gutenberg sites. The biggest problem is finding out which are the good ones - but if nothing else there are lists of best sellers available from earlier days. And there are more and more sites with lists of classic books and reviews of same.

I refuse to buy DRM'ed e-books when I can buy the same in a discounted hardback for about the same price, and when finished lend it out or take it to a used books shop and get half my money back. And if I buy a book and find it is a disaster, I can usually return it and get my money back as long as it is quick and the book is as new.

Frankly, few of the modern works will ever be considered classics. A lot of books published today from "name" authors are trash; badly written, completely un-edited and not at all entertaining, uplifting or whatever they were bought for.

My biggest complaint is all the great books of the last 50 years that simply are not legally available as e-books; yet most can be bought at book sales for a buck. Big publishers are going to go the way of Borders - and richly deserve to. They have EARNED it.

One recurring theme in Kindle versus Sony discussions is admiration for the Kindle font. This mystifies me - I think it is one of the ugliest book fonts I have ever seen, absolutely lacking grace and style. Although a lot of people would disagree, I am a big fan of Times-Roman. If you want maximum readability and efficiency of space use, you use Times-Roman as a publisher. Most of the other fonts in use are there partially to make the printed book look bigger because they take up more space for the same text. (And there are a lot of other tricks to making a short book look bigger and longer so you can charge more for it.) And of course, book designers don't get paid for specifying Times Roman. So they use something else, with a couple paragraphs at the end of the book to justify themselves.

I love my Sony PRS-650. And I love my money, at least enough that I refuse to throw it away in $10 increments to find out five minutes later I hate the book and I am STUCK. Can't send it back, can't get my money back, can't resell it. No thanks. No Kindle.

02-22-2011, 12:56 PM	#33
KNI Connoisseur Posts: 51 Karma: 31226 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Oregon Device: Sony PRS-650	I read a lot - and it is virtually all fiction. I read about 100 books a year. In a past life I was a small but successful publisher; two different firms and eventually sold both. There have been some truly wonderful novels published in the last 200 years, and great numbers of them are available free on the various Gutenberg sites. The biggest problem is finding out which are the good ones - but if nothing else there are lists of best sellers available from earlier days. And there are more and more sites with lists of classic books and reviews of same. I refuse to buy DRM'ed e-books when I can buy the same in a discounted hardback for about the same price, and when finished lend it out or take it to a used books shop and get half my money back. And if I buy a book and find it is a disaster, I can usually return it and get my money back as long as it is quick and the book is as new. Frankly, few of the modern works will ever be considered classics. A lot of books published today from "name" authors are trash; badly written, completely un-edited and not at all entertaining, uplifting or whatever they were bought for. My biggest complaint is all the great books of the last 50 years that simply are not legally available as e-books; yet most can be bought at book sales for a buck. Big publishers are going to go the way of Borders - and richly deserve to. They have EARNED it. One recurring theme in Kindle versus Sony discussions is admiration for the Kindle font. This mystifies me - I think it is one of the ugliest book fonts I have ever seen, absolutely lacking grace and style. Although a lot of people would disagree, I am a big fan of Times-Roman. If you want maximum readability and efficiency of space use, you use Times-Roman as a publisher. Most of the other fonts in use are there partially to make the printed book look bigger because they take up more space for the same text. (And there are a lot of other tricks to making a short book look bigger and longer so you can charge more for it.) And of course, book designers don't get paid for specifying Times Roman. So they use something else, with a couple paragraphs at the end of the book to justify themselves. I love my Sony PRS-650. And I love my money, at least enough that I refuse to throw it away in $10 increments to find out five minutes later I hate the book and I am STUCK. Can't send it back, can't get my money back, can't resell it. No thanks. No Kindle.