Biggest satisfaction/happiness vs. biggest disappointment/frustration - Page 2

ebusinesstutor · 06-20-2011, 02:44 PM

Positive
--------
Portability - as a speed reader, I love that I can travel and not cart an extra suitcase of books. Also, that I don't have to keep adding bookcases.

Free Ebooks - love the amazing amount of free ebooks, both classic and from new and established authors. Makes discovery of new favorites a joy.

Night Reading - Love on my iPhone and Android tablet how I can set the screen to night view and read without disturbing my wife.

Negative
--------
Battery Power - phones and tablets use a lot of power, so you have to time charging so you can continue the book.

Availability - disappointed when a title I want isn't available in ebook format.

DRM - hate it when I mistakenly buy a book with DRM without realizing it and have to mess with Adobe.

Pricing - some ebooks overpriced. But this does seem to be improving.

Geographic restrictions - really annoying when a book can't be purchased in Canada

Errors - some ebooks have many formatting and typos. Print books did as well, but ebooks seem to have more.

Overall the positives hugely outweigh the negatives. And I am sure they will get better with time.

CWatkinsNash · 06-20-2011, 02:53 PM

Pros:
Reading much more
Ereader works flawlessly
Discovering & making friends on MobileRead < - can't emphasize this enough
Too many more to list, many of which have already been mentioned by others

Cons:
None that i haven't found a way around

dentymarisol · 06-20-2011, 02:57 PM

dont judge a book by the cover

kindlekitten · 06-20-2011, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dentymarisol

dont judge a book by the cover

thank you so much for that sage piece of advice. welcome to the forums

Poppaea · 06-20-2011, 03:20 PM

Never in my life have I bought something that made me happier than my Sonys do! There is absolutly no drawback and I found a ton of interesting people and new friends here on MR on top!

FatDog · 06-20-2011, 03:32 PM

CON:

I miss the beloved browsing through the bookstore for books when I know I wont buy unless I can get it on my Kindle. Reading through page-after-page on Amazon for deals/something to catch my eye is just not the same.
I used to do a quiet survey of what titles people were reading on BART (commuter train) but you cannot read titles with ebook readers.
Frailty - My wife cracked her Kindle during a trip somehow (but Amazon replaced it for free). I switched from soft-covers to nice leather covers for both of us - but she is now extra careful.

PRO:

People cannot see what I am reading if I decide to read SciFi, YA or some other guilty-pleasure book.
Library is hosted on Amazon. Unlike iTunes - Amazon remembers my books and Android apps so breaking or loosing or up-grading my ereader does not affect my library.

kindlekitten · 06-20-2011, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FatDog

CON:

I miss the beloved browsing through the bookstore for books when I know I wont buy unless I can get it on my Kindle. Reading through page-after-page on Amazon for deals/something to catch my eye is just not the same.
I used to do a quiet survey of what titles people were reading on BART (commuter train) but you cannot read titles with ebook readers.
Frailty - My wife cracked her Kindle during a trip somehow (but Amazon replaced it for free). I switched from soft-covers to nice leather covers for both of us - but she is now extra careful.

PRO:

People cannot see what I am reading if I decide to read SciFi, YA or some other guilty-pleasure book.
Library is hosted on Amazon. Unlike iTunes - Amazon remembers my books and Android apps so breaking or loosing or up-grading my ereader does not affect my library.

embarassed about scifi!!!???

Poppaea · 06-20-2011, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

embarassed about scifi!!!???

I for one would be for sure!

FatDog · 06-20-2011, 05:58 PM

Well.. I read both fantasy and SciFi. Many of the book-covers feature young things wearing black leather versions of Victoria's Secrets battle armor and carrying big blades in a rather suggestive fashion. (Do a google search on Julie Bell)

Note: I just noticed the next Stephanie Plum book is due to come out tomorrow. So I went to Amazon and tried to order. They stopped me telling me I have already pre-ordered the book. (Would not be the first time I bought a second copy of something.) Thank you Amazon.

jgaiser · 06-20-2011, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gronk

DRM plugin doesn't work at all for me. Therefore I am unable to buy a book from Amazon unless I want to read it on my desktop. That's a pretty big negative for me.

Which version of Kindle for Windows are you using? I discovered that the latest (1.5?) indeed doesn't work with the plugins. You need to drop back to 1.4. Works beautifully for me.

Ditchleyportrait · 06-20-2011, 10:15 PM

oh yeah, i see pricing was mentioned. not really frustrated about it but it is ridiculous.

Gronk · 06-20-2011, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Which version of Kindle for Windows are you using? I discovered that the latest (1.5?) indeed doesn't work with the plugins. You need to drop back to 1.4. Works beautifully for me.

I was told that about the 1.5 so I reverted to the 1.4 version. The plugin still didn't work. I get the invalid plugin message.

vxf · 06-21-2011, 12:58 AM

Satisfaction - well, too much to go into detail. Being able to carry a lot of books/magazines/papers, long battery life, handy dictionaries, plenty of free books... etc.

Disappointments:

- ebook pricing - I thought ebooks were supposed to be cheaper than print, what gives?

- ebook quality - I have seen poor formatting, missing pages, missing stories/volumes in collections (such as the Complete Sherlock Holmes... missing half of the stories advertised, as only one of the two volumes of the collection is available in ebook format, contrary to the ad - or the ANNOTATED works of Shakespeare having NO NOTES) and more flat-out mistakes than I have ever encountered in printed books.

- magazine and newspaper subscriptions not being delivered on time, or at all (my SONY misses a lot of FTs and WSJs, and Zinio on iPad is a disaster, delivering NatGeo with months of delays).

In other words... I have been happy with the hardware, somehow mixed on the software (depending on devices) and often disappointed by the content delivered.

Solicitous · 06-21-2011, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

embarassed about scifi!!!???

Some of us SciFi readers hide what we read not through embarrassment, but because of people saying "oh you're reading science fiction. You're one of THOSE people. I can't see how anyone can get into SciFi". I think we intimidate those sorts of people, deep down I think they are jealous of us

Helping them save face.

Anyway, back on topic.

Pros.
- Comfort of holding the ereader vs pbook.
- Can have my books on my phone and read anywhere.
- Far greater variety and selection of reading material (no longer restricted to my local bookshop).

Cons.
- The ease of getting ebooks, one tends to very easily 'hoard' a great collection of ebooks that realistically one will never read. I see people posting about having 3000 ebooks in their collection (and wanting to put them all on their ereader). The 100 books a year challenge is a big one, so these people would spend the next 30 years just to read what they have, not counting what they add to their list.

DMB · 06-21-2011, 08:47 AM

I have had my reader for less than a year and I have over 100 books on it now. Many of them are rereads or for reference. Once I got my reader I had a big purge of dt books. I estimate that I got them down from around 5000 to 1000 now. But regardless of the medium, I am a book addict and I like the comfort of having my old friends around.

06-20-2011, 03:32 PM	#21
FatDog Witless protection Agent Posts: 290 Karma: 1002898 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Los Angeles Device: Kindle	CON: I miss the beloved browsing through the bookstore for books when I know I wont buy unless I can get it on my Kindle. Reading through page-after-page on Amazon for deals/something to catch my eye is just not the same. I used to do a quiet survey of what titles people were reading on BART (commuter train) but you cannot read titles with ebook readers. Frailty - My wife cracked her Kindle during a trip somehow (but Amazon replaced it for free). I switched from soft-covers to nice leather covers for both of us - but she is now extra careful. PRO: People cannot see what I am reading if I decide to read SciFi, YA or some other guilty-pleasure book. Library is hosted on Amazon. Unlike iTunes - Amazon remembers my books and Android apps so breaking or loosing or up-grading my ereader does not affect my library.

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06-20-2011, 02:44 PM	#16
ebusinesstutor Star Gawker Posts: 526 Karma: 6944314 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Spruce Grove, AB Canada Device: Kindle Paperwhite	Positive -------- Portability - as a speed reader, I love that I can travel and not cart an extra suitcase of books. Also, that I don't have to keep adding bookcases. Free Ebooks - love the amazing amount of free ebooks, both classic and from new and established authors. Makes discovery of new favorites a joy. Night Reading - Love on my iPhone and Android tablet how I can set the screen to night view and read without disturbing my wife. Negative -------- Battery Power - phones and tablets use a lot of power, so you have to time charging so you can continue the book. Availability - disappointed when a title I want isn't available in ebook format. DRM - hate it when I mistakenly buy a book with DRM without realizing it and have to mess with Adobe. Pricing - some ebooks overpriced. But this does seem to be improving. Geographic restrictions - really annoying when a book can't be purchased in Canada Errors - some ebooks have many formatting and typos. Print books did as well, but ebooks seem to have more. Overall the positives hugely outweigh the negatives. And I am sure they will get better with time.

06-20-2011, 02:53 PM	#17
CWatkinsNash IOC Chief Archivist Posts: 3,950 Karma: 53868218 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Fruitland Park, FL, USA Device: Meebook M7, Paperwhite 2021, Fire HD 8+, Fire HD 10+, Lenovo Tab P12	Pros: Reading much more Ereader works flawlessly Discovering & making friends on MobileRead < - can't emphasize this enough Too many more to list, many of which have already been mentioned by others Cons: None that i haven't found a way around

06-20-2011, 02:57 PM	#18
dentymarisol Banned Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: none	dont judge a book by the cover

06-20-2011, 03:20 PM	#20
Poppaea Lucifer's Bat Posts: 2,577 Karma: 20638583 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Earth/Berlin Device: Kobo Libra Colour	Never in my life have I bought something that made me happier than my Sonys do! There is absolutly no drawback and I found a ton of interesting people and new friends here on MR on top!

06-20-2011, 05:58 PM	#24
FatDog Witless protection Agent Posts: 290 Karma: 1002898 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Los Angeles Device: Kindle	Well.. I read both fantasy and SciFi. Many of the book-covers feature young things wearing black leather versions of Victoria's Secrets battle armor and carrying big blades in a rather suggestive fashion. (Do a google search on Julie Bell) Note: I just noticed the next Stephanie Plum book is due to come out tomorrow. So I went to Amazon and tried to order. They stopped me telling me I have already pre-ordered the book. (Would not be the first time I bought a second copy of something.) Thank you Amazon.

06-20-2011, 10:15 PM	#26
Ditchleyportrait Fanatic Posts: 504 Karma: 780086 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: ny Device: Kindle DX Graphite	oh yeah, i see pricing was mentioned. not really frustrated about it but it is ridiculous.

06-21-2011, 12:58 AM	#28
vxf Guru Posts: 944 Karma: 1490348 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Norman, OK Device: Sony PRS 350, 900, 950; Kindles (ALL of them!); Kobo Aura One	Satisfaction - well, too much to go into detail. Being able to carry a lot of books/magazines/papers, long battery life, handy dictionaries, plenty of free books... etc. Disappointments: - ebook pricing - I thought ebooks were supposed to be cheaper than print, what gives? - ebook quality - I have seen poor formatting, missing pages, missing stories/volumes in collections (such as the Complete Sherlock Holmes... missing half of the stories advertised, as only one of the two volumes of the collection is available in ebook format, contrary to the ad - or the ANNOTATED works of Shakespeare having NO NOTES) and more flat-out mistakes than I have ever encountered in printed books. - magazine and newspaper subscriptions not being delivered on time, or at all (my SONY misses a lot of FTs and WSJs, and Zinio on iPad is a disaster, delivering NatGeo with months of delays). In other words... I have been happy with the hardware, somehow mixed on the software (depending on devices) and often disappointed by the content delivered.

06-21-2011, 08:47 AM	#30
DMB Old Git Posts: 958 Karma: 1840790 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Switzerland (mostly) Device: Two kindle PWs wifi, kindle fire, iPad3 wifi	I have had my reader for less than a year and I have over 100 books on it now. Many of them are rereads or for reference. Once I got my reader I had a big purge of dt books. I estimate that I got them down from around 5000 to 1000 now. But regardless of the medium, I am a book addict and I like the comfort of having my old friends around.