ebook reader for use in Australia

[anncb]

Hi, I am wondering what ebook reader is best for use in Australia. I bought the Sony 505 but cannot buy books to read on it as it uses its own software, but I really want an ebook to buy e books and read on planes etc.
Thanks in Advance
Ann

[Xenophon]

You can buy books for the Sony 505 at Fictionwise ('multiformat' books only), at Baen (either use the .rtf versions, or download html or .lit and use libprs500 to convert to Sony's format), and a few other places. Also, you can download a couple of thousand public domain books right here at MobileRead.

Anything from Project Gutenberg will easily convert to Sony's format.

Anything you can purchase in .lit format (also known as Microsoft Reader format) can be converted to Sony's format. If the book is DRM-free you can just convert it with libprs500. If the book has DRM, you'll need a PC with Microsoft Reader in order to get the book set up with your key. Then you use the convert-lit program along with your key to produce a non-DRM version (can't tell you how, as that would violate the US's &^%&^$&^% DMCA law, and I'm here in the US... but a quick google search should find the information). Once you have the non-DRM version, use libprs500 to convert.

You may notice a common theme here -- you want to be using libprs500 to manage and convert your eBooks into Sony's lrf format.

Xenophon

P.S. Fictionwise is www.fictionwise.com. Baen books is a publisher of Science Fiction and Fantasy, and may be the only mainstream publisher that 'gets it' about eBooks. Their web site is www.baen.com (for the publisher); www.webscriptions.net for the eBook store. Or go visit http://www.baen.com/library/ to see the Baen Free Library, from which you can download any or all of about 100 complete novels, free of charge, free of DRM. These are real published stuff, much of which is still available in dead-tree-format in bookstores.

[charlieperry]

I think you're stuck with the Iliad at the moment. It's priced at an extortionate $900 in Dymocks. Dymocks are the only bookshop that currently sells ebooks in Australia. They're really expensive as well.

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by charlieperry

I think you're stuck with the Iliad at the moment. It's priced at an extortionate $900 in Dymocks. Dymocks are the only bookshop that currently sells ebooks in Australia. They're really expensive as well.

...but, of course, if you're using a device with Mobipocket on it (eg. Cybook, Iliad) you're not at all restricted to buying from Dymocks/Ebooks.com or Australia. You can buy books from any Mobipocket seller anywhere in the world. For instance, I recently bought an Iliad, and then bought a Modern Library series from Mobipocket themselves (Dymocks didn't have them), and it cost me, from memory $32 (versus $100-$200 new in dead-tree form). So, that's not what I would call "expensive" in that regard, though my desires at the moment are for older fiction, some of which is now public domain, rather than newer releases which may indeed be "expensive" at Dymocks (whom you are not restricted to, as mentioned).

Note as well that, if you have a Sony device, someone around this place (I can't recall their name) will buy gift vouchers to the Sony Connect store on your behalf, allowing you to buy books from that store (normally US-only I believe). I think that's what other Aussies here have done who bought the Sony.

Cheers,
Marc

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by charlieperry

I think you're stuck with the Iliad at the moment. It's priced at an extortionate $900 in Dymocks. Dymocks are the only bookshop that currently sells ebooks in Australia. They're really expensive as well.

Bookeen sell the Gen3 world-wide. The Gen3 and iLiad are (AFAIK) the only book-readers which are officially sold world-wide; the Sony and Kindle are both only sold officially in the US, and warranty support is effectively void outside the US.

[silvervine]

I already have thousands of books on my pc, I am hoping to buy the Sony ereader next week but most of my books are in PDF. Is this readable on this devise? I live in Australia and refuse to pay Dymocks price for their reader.