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speedy611 · 05-26-2009, 09:13 PM

Hi All,

Firstly, thanks for all the valuable info stored here, the wiki, and for Alex for modding. I've lurked for the last month and found a lot of very useful hints here.

I'm in Sydney, Australia. I'm a IT professional, involved in publishing, so I have a professional and personal interest in e-publishing of all kinds.

I've recently had a sort of eureka moment, and am now reading almost exclusively using Stanza on iPhone. Thanks to comments here I'm also experimenting with Calibre, and FBreader on my netbook.

I've always read avidly. Books aren't that cheap in Oz (compared with the US / UK), and whilst that raises the dilemma of fair remuneration for authors, it still means that I think twice before buying. So, I've been delighted to find gutenberg press, and the ebook stores where things are half to a third of the cost of the dead-tree version, plus no shipping costs.

I've been having fun experimenting with devices too: my wife is trying ebooks for the first time on windows mobile using mobipocket, and I set a friend up with a converted book on her classic ipod.

Aussies may have seen a recent debate in the local papers here, about the merits of e-reading, resulting a few letters in the Sydney Morning Herald about the pros and cons. It's good to see this getting discussed.

I'm interested in the conversations I see on mobileread about screen types and sizes: I've not used a kindle or e-ink, but so far I've really enjoyed the intimacy of the iphone - reading in bed is so relaxing, and the configurability of stanza is fantastic. I love having 50 books in my pocket at any time, and I can't imagine that a bigger screen would make that better. As with all these things, each to their own.

Longer term: I'm hoping to run Calibre, or some homebrew web pages to make it possible to run a home 'virtual' library, so that guests, family etc can browse the available books and grab them to read during their stay. As and when ereaders get cheap enough, I'd get a couple for visitors so they didn't have to travel with books. I already do this via itunes for music, so it shouldn't be too hard.

Thanks for reading, see you around.

Mark

05-26-2009, 09:13 PM	#1
speedy611 Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2009 Device: iphone	G'day, my experiences so far, and thanks Hi All, Firstly, thanks for all the valuable info stored here, the wiki, and for Alex for modding. I've lurked for the last month and found a lot of very useful hints here. I'm in Sydney, Australia. I'm a IT professional, involved in publishing, so I have a professional and personal interest in e-publishing of all kinds. I've recently had a sort of eureka moment, and am now reading almost exclusively using Stanza on iPhone. Thanks to comments here I'm also experimenting with Calibre, and FBreader on my netbook. I've always read avidly. Books aren't that cheap in Oz (compared with the US / UK), and whilst that raises the dilemma of fair remuneration for authors, it still means that I think twice before buying. So, I've been delighted to find gutenberg press, and the ebook stores where things are half to a third of the cost of the dead-tree version, plus no shipping costs. I've been having fun experimenting with devices too: my wife is trying ebooks for the first time on windows mobile using mobipocket, and I set a friend up with a converted book on her classic ipod. Aussies may have seen a recent debate in the local papers here, about the merits of e-reading, resulting a few letters in the Sydney Morning Herald about the pros and cons. It's good to see this getting discussed. I'm interested in the conversations I see on mobileread about screen types and sizes: I've not used a kindle or e-ink, but so far I've really enjoyed the intimacy of the iphone - reading in bed is so relaxing, and the configurability of stanza is fantastic. I love having 50 books in my pocket at any time, and I can't imagine that a bigger screen would make that better. As with all these things, each to their own. Longer term: I'm hoping to run Calibre, or some homebrew web pages to make it possible to run a home 'virtual' library, so that guests, family etc can browse the available books and grab them to read during their stay. As and when ereaders get cheap enough, I'd get a couple for visitors so they didn't have to travel with books. I already do this via itunes for music, so it shouldn't be too hard. Thanks for reading, see you around. Mark