E-book Complaints Thread

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by VaporPunk

I like to try and finish at the end of a chapter, if at all possible. When I'm nodding off with a paper book, I can easily flip ahead and see how long it is till the end of the chapter. I would kind of like a quick function on my kindle that would do the same.

Ah, I see. That would have never occurred to me; I'm perfectly willing to accept the more random (not to mention more frequently occurring) stopping points of "Where I Fell Asleep" most times—paper OR pixels.

You'll probably get your wish someday. But right now, I imagine the issue is related to the fact there's really no "this is exactly what a new chapter is" (programmatically speaking) in all of the various formats. Self-awareness of their own individual, internal structures might be a ways off.

Out of curiosity, what kind of feedback would you be looking for: "pages" left? "screens" left at the current font size? It seems to me that whatever you get (and I can't ever see it being anything but a number of some kind) is going to be fairly esoteric, no? Whereas with physical books, you get that very tactile sense of the physical "thickness" of the content left to get through. Which you can instinctively translate to "time left to read," with no real numbers/math involved.

So unless you already know the number of "screens" or "pages" you can read per minute/hour/whatever (and are willing to do math as you're contemplating nodding off), I guess I can't really see the usefulness of an "X relative units of Y left until the end of the unit Z" number. Unless it's purely for comfort/peace of mind.

Sorry for geeking out—and I certainly don't mean to imply yours is an unworthy request by any means—but it's interesting to me. I'm just not sure the "I've got this much left" (holds thumb and forefinger up) feature of physical books is going to be able to be translated (usefully) to the digital medium—at least not until many, many spatial paradigms evolve first.

Sorry again... and back to the thread at hand.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by VaporPunk

I like to try and finish at the end of a chapter, if at all possible. When I'm nodding off with a paper book, I can easily flip ahead and see how long it is till the end of the chapter. I would kind of like a quick function on my kindle that would do the same.

You can do that with a Kindle 3, but I do not know if it can be done with a 4. On the Kindle 3, if the book has chapter markers, you can click the right arrow in the square/select button and it will take you to the beginning of the next chapter. Click Menu and see what page its on, then click back and you're back to where you were reading.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by JohnMorris

I've more or less given up on the Kobo store (and the Kobo), partly for this reason: many supposed previews consisted of the title pages, some copyright blurb, and then - nothing. Not a single word of the actual text.

Problem solved...Don't give up on the Kobo store. Just get your previews from B&N. Then if you want to buy, go back to Kobo and buy.

[tecweston]

On my Nook STR, it tells you how many pages are left in the current chapter. Pages don't necessarily translate to screen-refreshes, I think it's a certain number of bytes per page. So the page number changes every two or three page-refreshes, depending on the size of the font.

I think it's very useful, because I do like to know, before I read a chapter, how long it is and whether I can reach the end of it in the time I have. Like, if I have fifteen minutes to read, I might not want to start a 35-page chapter. A 5-page chapter, on the other hand, is fine.

[Rob Lister]

Originally Posted by VaporPunk

I like to try and finish at the end of a chapter, if at all possible. When I'm nodding off with a paper book, I can easily flip ahead and see how long it is till the end of the chapter. I would kind of like a quick function on my kindle that would do the same.

Thus far, this is the worthiest whine.

The paper book scenario has always been:

Wife: We're going to be late. When are we leaving?
Me: A little over three pages.

There is no ebook-equivalent response. "In a minute," is typically a lie.

As promised, your reward.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Rob Lister

There is no ebook-equivalent response.

Yes there is. "Right now" is the correct response.

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Yes there is. "Right now" is the correct response.

And the winner is.....



Carol

[sadievan]

When the books page gives no description of the book, only quotes from others such as:

'great book'
'loved it'
'author's finest so far'
etc

Nothing about the actual content of the book

Carol

[ebusinesstutor]

Originally Posted by sunnysmiles

I really dislike having to pay more for an ebook than it costs in Pbk or even the same cost in HBK.

+1 This is my pet peeve with ebooks.

[tecweston]

Originally Posted by ebusinesstutor

+1 This is my pet peeve with ebooks.

True. It's really annoying when I see a paperbook at Target that is less expensive than its ebook counterpart. I used to just figure it's the convenience tax, but now I've decided that unless it's a book I really really want, I'm going to stick with library ebooks, discounted Kobo books, and free ebooks. There's so much free/cheap stuff out there, it doesn't make sense to be paying $13 for an ebook.

[DarkScribe]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

That "dead zone" of books which are not public domain but are very old, so no one can seem to secure the rights and get a legal ebook out there! There are a lot of great books in this dead zone!

eP

It is easy to find out who owns the rights to an old, out of print book. Just put a copy of it online and see who sues you.

[DarkScribe]

I want my Kindle to have a front cover screen as well as a reading screen. That way I could change the cover as I wished. When the local Priest dropped in I could appear to be reading a book on devil worship, when my wife's feminist friends were visiting I could have a lurid cover with a naked woman tied to a bed. When my own friends were visiting I could appear to be reading the Bible. It would have to be a colour screen of course. Such a device would double your reading fun.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DarkScribe

I want my Kindle to have a front cover screen as well as a reading screen. That way I could change the cover as I wished. When the local Priest dropped in I could appear to be reading a book on devil worship, when my wife's feminist friends were visiting I could have a lurid cover with a naked woman tied to a bed. When my own friends were visiting I could appear to be reading the Bible. It would have to be a colour screen of course. Such a device would double your reading fun.

The ePub Fixer plugin for Calibre allows you to easily change the cover. So you could change the cover, load a new copy and there you go.

[Laridae]

Originally Posted by RDaneel54

Publishers who refuse to allow libraries to get/lend their ebooks at any price. Clearly discriminatory towards lower income or home-bound readers. And darned annoying to other readers.

Me too!
I'd like to be able to get ebooks from all 6 major publishers, not just the 2 or so that currently allow it.

This also creates confusion in the reading public since many people just assume that all books are equally available in e-form, as they are in print. You could wait a long time for Stephen King's 11/22/63 to be listed!

[VaporPunk]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Ah, I see. That would have never occurred to me; I'm perfectly willing to accept the more random (not to mention more frequently occurring) stopping points of "Where I Fell Asleep" most times—paper OR pixels.

You'll probably get your wish someday. But right now, I imagine the issue is related to the fact there's really no "this is exactly what a new chapter is" (programmatically speaking) in all of the various formats. Self-awareness of their own individual, internal structures might be a ways off.

Out of curiosity, what kind of feedback would you be looking for: "pages" left? "screens" left at the current font size? It seems to me that whatever you get (and I can't ever see it being anything but a number of some kind) is going to be fairly esoteric, no? Whereas with physical books, you get that very tactile sense of the physical "thickness" of the content left to get through. Which you can instinctively translate to "time left to read," with no real numbers/math involved.

So unless you already know the number of "screens" or "pages" you can read per minute/hour/whatever (and are willing to do math as you're contemplating nodding off), I guess I can't really see the usefulness of an "X relative units of Y left until the end of the unit Z" number. Unless it's purely for comfort/peace of mind.

Sorry for geeking out—and I certainly don't mean to imply yours is an unworthy request by any means—but it's interesting to me. I'm just not sure the "I've got this much left" (holds thumb and forefinger up) feature of physical books is going to be able to be translated (usefully) to the digital medium—at least not until many, many spatial paradigms evolve first.

Sorry again... and back to the thread at hand.

Vaporpunk head hurt bad.

Heh, just kidding and thanks for taking the time to explain this. I'm still relatively new to the world of ereaders. I'm just not sure that it would be that complicated.

Out of curiosity, what kind of feedback would you be looking for: "pages" left? "screens" left at the current font size? It seems to me that whatever you get (and I can't ever see it being anything but a number of some kind) is going to be fairly esoteric, no?

The feedback I'm looking for would be pages left until the end of the chapter. Right now I'm reading "The Magic of Recluse" on my kindle. When I click on the menu button, I get - "Page 455 of 501 * Location 8330 of 9157". So the Kindle tracks what page I'm on already, but that depends on the formatting of the book, right, because not all books have the page numbers? The Kindle also seems to be "aware" where the next chapter is because as Nyssa points out, clicking the right arrow brings you to the start of the next chapter. So its just a matter of combining the two, correct?
It would be nice if the information would be available with one click on the menu button. Using the above example -

Page 455 of 501 * Location 8330 of 9157 * X

where X is the # of pages until end of chapter.

This would all depend on the ebook format, if it has pages or not and chapter markers, etc...but most of the books I've purchased direct from Amazon do.

Then again, I have no idea how difficult all this would be to implement. If it is, is there enough demand to justify the effort? Most people don't seem to mind, its just a pet peeve of mine.

Originally Posted by Nyssa

You can do that with a Kindle 3, but I do not know if it can be done with a 4. On the Kindle 3, if the book has chapter markers, you can click the right arrow in the square/select button and it will take you to the beginning of the next chapter. Click Menu and see what page its on, then click back and you're back to where you were reading.

Thanks, karma for taking the time to help. I posted my "shortcut" for this a while ago in the Kindle section of MR and its pretty much as you explained above. I am however, an exceptionally lazy individual and want it all with just one click.