I bet I have the most unusual reason for buying a reader :o)

[jamesbeat]

I recently had what I initially thought was a horrible choice to make.

I'm emigrating soon, and have thus had to pare down my belongings to the bare essentials. It's amazing how much stuff you are prepared to part with when you discover how much it costs to ship it to another country!

All of my cd's are ripped to mp3, all the cases for my dvd's have been discarded and the disks put into folders, but what about my books?

Luckily I mostly read classic fiction and I already knew about the Gutenberg project, but although I have used my PDA phone to read books I found it to be less than ideal. Good for reading on the move, not so good for your main source of reading material.

I started to do some research and decided on the Sony 505 over the Kindle before I was even aware that the Kindle isn't available in the UK through the usual channels.

I bought the Sony yesterday and I haven't put it down since
I find it just as easy to read as a conventional book, and don't feel in any way that I'm making a compromise because of my situation.
I'd say that even though I thought I was going to lose all of my books, I have in fact kept them and gained several thousand others into the bargain, by virtue of the fact that I have found a comfortable way to read the Gutenberg texts.


The reasons that I chose the Sony above the Kindle were:

It looks nicer in my opinion. The Kindle looks plasticy and cheap.

It's a bit smaller and lighter from what I can gather

it comes with a cover. Emigration means I can't go spending my savings buying accessories no matter how trivial.

It takes SD cards, which I believe the Kindle 2 does not, and which I have several of.

It doesn't have a keyboard. I want the device for reading books only. They Kindle's keyboard looks bad, makes the device bigger and is of no use to me.

It's easier to use with Linux, OS of the gods.

It's more versatile in the types of files it will read.


After using it for a day or so, I am extremely happy with it. The software is a little clunky but not enough to worry about.

My only gripe is the lack of a charger.
Being able to charge from USB is all very well, but unfortunately the device won't let you read a book when it's hooked up to a USB port. I can almost understand that, but even when I hooked it up to my USB phone charger it still behaved as if it was connected to a computer.
Fortunately I have found out that I can use a PSP charger, so I picked one up on ebay for about £3

[F1Wild]

Yah for you and happy for your exciting move (from where to where?)! My husband made the big move to the USA from the UK (I had lived there with him for years) and we are both thrilled to be here. I only wish we had ereaders when we made the move - although we had already both our entire cd libraries ripped we still couldn't part with the discs...and cases (what a mistake). I must say though our initial move from the UK to Las Vegas was a piece of cake compared the nightmare of a move from Vegas to Phoenix. Hope your entire journey goes smooth as silk, with only a few hiccups to add to your adventure list.

Cheers!

[ladyjane]

Hi Jamesbeat and welcome to this site,free books ,great ppl, and all the information you will ever need..I see you are the proud owner of a sony 505 and a PSP charger I to have a silver one and same as you can't put. it down. Congrats on your new best friend and the best of luck. Happy reading

[desertgrandma]

Welcome to MobileRead, JamesBeat.

Congratulations on your new 505, and be sure and check out the free books available here for you to download.

They've all been lovingly hand formatted by our own members.

Continue to read the forums for more help with your 505, and don't hesitate to ask questions.

[lilac_jive]

I don't think that's strange I bought mine for traveling, and let me tell you that it was a big helped when I moved! Congrats on your new Sony! I love mine!

[toomanybooks]

Congrats! I love my Sony, but like you I don't like the software. Luckily you can download Calibre to manage your e-books. It's much better and even has news downloads from the internet. It can be downloaded here, http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/download.

[jamesbeat]

Thanks for all the words of encouragement

I'm moving from the UK to the States (NY). My fiancée is over there right now trying to find us a place to live while I wait for my visa.

F1Wild, I know what you mean about not wanting to part with the disks, but I realised that after having kept them in a box for ages I didn't actually miss them so I gave them away.
I got sick of my dvd's taking up so much room (I have about 400 or so) so I dumped the cases some time ago. I keep my collection catalogued so that I know where to find them, and I'm so glad I got rid of those bulky cases.

Having the reader has enabled me to do the same with my books now, I'm not losing any 'data', I'm just moving it from a bulky storage medium (paper) to a more efficient one.
It's incredible to think that all of those thousands of books fit on a tiny sd card!

Desertgrandma, I have already discovered the vast wealth of books on this site, and have been downloading feverishly

Toomanybooks, thanks for the recommendation, but I'm afraid I wasn't clear in my first post. I was actually referring to the software on the device itself. It's not bad, but I think it could be a bit better. Having said that, I haven't looked at the manual yet and I seem to have figured out most of the features.

You're right about Calibre. I use Linux so Calibre was really the only choice I had, but it works well. I shudder to think what the Sony software is like.

[rhari79]

Originally Posted by jamesbeat

I got sick of my dvd's taking up so much room

Hi jamesbeat, congrats on your sony.

1-TB harddisks are really cheap these days. and 2TB has just started coming out. You could save a lot of space by putting your data(dvd images or data) into these hdd.
I use a 1tb hdd to store my data. Their price have dropped over 50% in 6months since i first got them.

I sail in a similar boat, with me being in japan temporarily. Herein my iliad(at home), and n95&itouch(while commuting) really help satisfy my appetite for reading. I really brought the iliad to ensure i dont have to buy hard-books while i am here.
But till yesterday was dissappointed with its pdf zoom. it just seemed to have a full-page display(very small font) and a macro zoom(only small part of a page is visible) and no level in between.

Yesterday i discovered that by dragging my pen just diagonally across the page, i can selectively eliminate the corners and zoom to a more useable, readable level. So now off to more reading at home..

And in the mean time, I also discovered itouch/Stanza/Calibre and Feedbooks. Wonderful combination...

--hari

[jamesbeat]

Yes, I have an external HDD, although mine is only 500gb.
I've got a backup of all of my data on it, but I haven't gotten around to ripping my dvd's yet simply because it takes too long. I'd love to do it one day, but ripping and encoding 400 dvd's would take forever!
I'm going to keep hold of the disks for now until technology speeds up the process.

Thanks for the Feedbooks tip, that was one I hadn't found and it looks very interesting.

[Sweetpea]

I personally think my reason for buying one is even weirder...

As I don't have a reason

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I personally think my reason for buying one is even weirder...

As I don't have a reason

Well, that means you have to buy two

Dale

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by jamesbeat

Yes, I have an external HDD, although mine is only 500gb.
I've got a backup of all of my data on it, but I haven't gotten around to ripping my dvd's yet simply because it takes too long. I'd love to do it one day, but ripping and encoding 400 dvd's would take forever!
I'm going to keep hold of the disks for now until technology speeds up the process.

Thanks for the Feedbooks tip, that was one I hadn't found and it looks very interesting.

"only 500gb" heehee, remember when harddrives were measured in MEGAS ? hee ! my first internal one was 15go and it seemed enormous to me ! (oh, and at the time, it cost as much as i just spent recently on a 1to drive !!!!! ) now that's not even big enough for my system partition alone !! and i haven't started putting my dvds on there but i'm really tempted, because sheesh, those boxes take up a lot of room... maybe as a first step (until i figure out how to rip them) i'll get rid of the boxes and just put them in a binder or something... would definitely save me a lot of shelf metrage !!

jamesbeat, i think you have a great reason to get a reader ! i didn't get mine to move across an ocean (i shudder to think what it was cost to send all my books to a different continent...) but i definitely am happy to transfer my books to digital media because it will make moving one day so much easier, and simplifies storage in the meantime ! of course, i still have quite a few i can't get rid of yet or want to keep indefinitely, but i'm trying to avoid getting any new ones and replace the ones i can. i'm glad you've found the right device for you (and plenty of books to fill it with ), the sonys are great devices (i have a 700) and while i'm sure there are always ways to improve the interface i think they actually did a pretty good job of it, i find mine very ergonomical and easy to use, even without reading the notice.

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Well, that means you have to buy two

Dale

i'm convinced.

[pilotbob]

James....

Welcome to the ereader club. Your reason is actually prefectly reasonable.

Most of your Sony vs Kindle stuff is true, except...

Originally Posted by jamesbeat

It's easier to use with Linux, OS of the gods.

That is just flat out wrong. The Sony requires Windows to update the firmware and also if you want to Sony .lrx files or Adobe Digital Editions DRM you need to register the Sony which you can only do using Windows.

BOb

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

"
j the sonys are great devices (i have a 700)

WHAT DID SHE JUST SAY???

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

WHAT DID SHE JUST SAY???

what ? despite what you loonies seem to believe, it's not a secret.