Thread: Future proofing: Books vs. eBooks
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Old 04-15-2013, 08:21 PM   #43
Rev. Bob
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Quote:
Originally Posted by taustin View Post
Apparently, you have never used Calibre. yes, Joe Averageguy, Grandpa Oldtimer, and pretty much everybody else can handle Calibre. Really. I could teach a cat how to use Calibre, if I could find one interested in ebooks.
Apparently you have never dealt with someone who just wants to read their books, and has zero interest in learning Yet Another Program so they can do so.

Quote:
Originally Posted by taustin
So, you're saying Calibre isn't good enough for conversions, because you didn't use it? Really? Seriously?
Either clean your screen or learn to read. I said this is how the file came to me, and that I didn't do anything to it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by taustin
You're blaming Calibre for something you acknowledge it didn't do?
Are you seriously claiming that that file wasn't run through Calibre, and that all the class="calibreXX" attributes are just coincidence? I seriously doubt that...

Quote:
Originally Posted by taustin
I have a nook color, and buy nearly all by books from B&N. I routinely run books from the manufacturer of my device through Calibre's EPUB to EPUB conversion, optomized for my specific device (not supported by B&N any more already), for the very reason you mention. I've had two books so far (well, five, really, one was an omnibus of four books) that I had to for them to be readable at all.
Like I said, this isn't a problem for those of us geeky enough to feel comfortable tinkering. However, we're the minority, not the majority - and you just admitted that compatibility and support are valid issues. Welcome to my world; I work here.

Quote:
Originally Posted by taustin
The bottom line is that an ebook library is a lot easier to maintain than a paper book library, in terms of time, money, trouble and necessary expertise. And making archival copies are orders of magnitude easier on every count than even the simple maintence.
For the average reader, the hard part about maintaining a dead-tree library is finding room on the shelf. They don't have to worry about whether the new book is only available at Store X, or whether it'll work with their glasses. You buy it, you read it, you put it on a shelf - or a pile, or in a bag to resell, or in a fireplace if you want to. There's no configuration to deal with, though, and no concerns about whether you'll still be able to access and read it in twenty years.

With ebooks, you have to worry about that sort of thing. You may consider it a negligible hassle, but it is a hassle.
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