Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
LOL yeah.
To be honest, e-reading is *hard* compared to reading a paper book, if you want to keep control over your purchases, and have a library worth searching.
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First world problems, my friend.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
Paper book: Go to store, buy book, go home, read. (Or order it online and wait for it to arrive, then read.)
E-book: Buy a book at Kobo/Amazon directly from the reader, and read.
E-books seem to be simpler, but you lose all of your control. If I want a library at home, as I had with paper books and make sure it's in good shape and future proof, these are the required steps:
- Install the correct version of ADE, K4PC, or Kobo Desktop.
- Install Calibre
- Install DeDRM tools
- Buy a book, and download it in the correct application
- Import it into Calibre
- Convert it to EPUB if its something else
- Fix the metadata, give it a cover if it has none
- Fix the book's internals (which, fortunately, became less necessary)
- Put the book onto your reader
With a paper book, you just shelve it at the correct spot.
I've spent SO much time the last five years getting my library into shape, it's just unbelievable. Did I have to? No, but e-books offer me many advantages over paper books. They take no space, font sizes can be set, readers have lighting, a 1400 page book doesn't weigh 3 pounds, and so on. Because of the unbreakable DRM threat, I bought hundreds of books during the huge 80-90% Kobo sales of 2013-2014, and acquired thousands of public domain books and 56 Delphi Classics, and ferreted out all of the Baen Free CD's and more. Basically, I bought/acquired everything I ever wanted, everything I thought I wanted, and everything I thought I might maybe possibly ever want.
I now have a little over 900 e-books (with the Delphi Classics often containing 10-20 books in one volume), and I paid somewhere between €0 and €3 for each one.
I did so to be able to own my own library, under my own control, for the rest of my life. So yeah, if you want to keep your own library, e-reading is hard and an unsure business compared to paper books.
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Are you sure you spend more time organizing your library now than you spent driving to/from the store?
And when it's time to move, that My Passport drive that's about the size of a pack of cards will be much easier to pack than bookshelf after bookshelf.
For me, e-books with Calibre are SO much easier (and cheaper) than paper books. And once Calibre is set up, it really doesn't take much time at all.
I dunno. Maybe I'm less diligent. Maybe it's because (for now) I buy all my books from a single source.