Selecting an ebook reader

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Hrafn

The problem with this analogy is that soap is a consumerable, eBooks aren't. You have no need whatsoever for last week/month/year's soap to work with today's dispenser or dish, because that soap doesn't exist any more. However you do have a need for your prior eBook purchases to work with your current eReader. In a worst case scenario, the eBook retailer may have closed up shop (or for other reasons not allow you to download it in a new format) and your old eReader may have stopped working.

Soap and eBooks aren't so much an analogy as a massive disanalogy.

That's why I have a Kindle; it's God's format and will always be here

[voracious71]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

That's why I have a Kindle; it's God's format and will always be here

Lol! Although, with my gadget addiction, I probably have an ereader(or two) from each company or close to it.

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by voracious71

Lol! Although, with my gadget addiction, I probably have an ereader(or two) from each company or close to it.

Same here. That way I can select whichever one I feel like using at the moment

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Hrafn

The problem with this analogy is that soap is a consumerable, eBooks aren't. You have no need whatsoever for last week/month/year's soap to work with today's dispenser or dish, because that soap doesn't exist any more. However you do have a need for your prior eBook purchases to work with your current eReader. In a worst case scenario, the eBook retailer may have closed up shop (or for other reasons not allow you to download it in a new format) and your old eReader may have stopped working.

Soap and eBooks aren't so much an analogy as a massive disanalogy.

I assume you have never stocked up on something because it was on sale or bought a rather expensive dispenser and found the product that you thought was God's gift discontinued.

Soap came to mind for me although I wasn't thinking analogy probably, (does kind of imply analogy?) because I purchased a soap dispenser for my antique dishwasher which works wonderfully except it no longer dispenses soap reliably. It is perfect but I can no longer buy the refills. Anyway not analogy but perhaps vaguely similar situation

I actually have not experienced any need my previous book purchases to work with any specific ereader as I have computers and tablets that allow me to read them again and I have a TBR list as long as my arm and at least two other peoples. Still for the technologically challenged who have a very short list of books they want to read the concern is understandable. No one wants to have to rebuy an item they don't have to whether it is an ebook, or a consumable or say a paper book that has been lost or destroyed.

Helen

Edit:Ps I have also stocked up on soap or other items on sale and had the dispenser break. And my sister stocked up on inkjet cartridges for a princely sum and her printer broke and she was unable to get a replacement that used these cartridges.

[Hrafn]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I assume you have never stocked up on something because it was on sale or bought a rather expensive dispenser and found the product that you thought was God's gift discontinued.

I've certainly never had a 'stock up' (at most for months of a product) last longer than my book collection (which I fully expect to last for decades). So no, I still don't see much of an analogy.

I actually have not experienced any need my previous book purchases to work with any specific ereader as I have computers and tablets that allow me to read them again and I have a TBR list as long as my arm and at least two other peoples. Still for the technologically challenged who have a very short list of books they want to read the concern is understandable. No one wants to have to rebuy an item they don't have to whether it is an ebook, or a consumable or say a paper book that has been lost or destroyed.

No. The problem is at its greatest when the person has a very long list of books they've already bought (and presumably read) that they expect to re-read. Converting a large collection is a pain, and a potential pitfall (due to the potential for irregularly-coded eBooks to yield screwed-up conversions), regardless of the technical expertise of the reader.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Hrafn

I've certainly never had a 'stock up' (at most for months of a product) last longer than my book collection (which I fully expect to last for decades). So no, I still don't see much of an analogy.


No. The problem is at its greatest when the person has a very long list of books they've already bought (and presumably read) that they expect to re-read. Converting a large collection is a pain, and a potential pitfall (due to the potential for irregularly-coded eBooks to yield screwed-up conversions), regardless of the technical expertise of the reader.

I agree it is a pain and do not wish it to happen to anyone. I also don't see it as much different to the situation of paper books being lost, sold, borrowed or destroyed or disposed of because they took up too much room or moving costs too high. I am not intending an analogy here any more than I was with the soap. Don't try and understand either as an analogy that is/was not intended, just saying that stuff happens.

And it has happened in the past to a very few people I gather, as I have not read much about it, or seen a big uproar when Microsoft abandoned their lit reader as one example of abandoned formats. Of course you can still get the Microsoft reader or something that will work, but some may not know enough to be able to. Most who were able to get it when it was supported are probably still able to though.

A friend of mine recently changed from kindle to Sony. He was a bit taken aback when he realized he could not buy from Amazon on it, but gleeful that he could lend his kindle to his son or daughter who hadn't read a lot of his 300+ books. So far he says he likes the Sony better so wouldn't replace the kindle if it broke. I asked him if he had downloaded his books to his laptop and he just looked at me as if I was crazy and said why?.

So while some look at the vague possibility of losing hundreds of ebooks as a certain to happen event, with an unimaginable catastrophic impact on their lives and future well being, their are probably many more who would just, if they can afford it, shrug and buy another item if one was lost, broken or destroyed or became obsolete.

Three acquaintances of mine recently lost everything when the fourplex they were living in burnt down, including a vehicle. No household insurance. They had to borrow clothes to go to work in. That is a catastrophe.

Helen

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

That's why I have a Kindle; it's God's format and will always be here

That's blaspheme! Jeff Bezos is not god. never has been, never will be.

[Hrafn]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

So while some look at the vague possibility of losing hundreds of ebooks as a certain to happen event, with an unimaginable catastrophic impact on their lives and future well being, their are probably many more who would just, if they can afford it, shrug and buy another item if one was lost, broken or destroyed or became obsolete.

If I ever decided to replace my independent-brand eReader with a Kindle, it would not be a "vague possibility" that I would need to convert my hundreds of epubs to mobis, it would be a certainty. Those I bought from Baen I could simply redownload in the new format. Those from Diesel, not so much.

But given that I like my physical page-turn buttons, the chances of me moving to Kindle are negligible anyway.

[mgbino]

Originally Posted by Hrafn

If I ever decided to replace my independent-brand eReader with a Kindle, it would not be a "vague possibility" that I would need to convert my hundreds of epubs to mobis, it would be a certainty. Those I bought from Baen I could simply redownload in the new format. Those from Diesel, not so much.

But given that I like my physical page-turn buttons, the chances of me moving to Kindle are negligible anyway.

You know, it warms my heart to hear that other people like page turn buttons too. Maybe it's because I grew up with a gameboy instead of an iphone.

[cfrizz]

I either have to have page turn buttons or apps that will use my volume rocker as page turn buttons, which is why I love Aldiko! If there are other reading apps out there that do the same, please let me know.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

I either have to have page turn buttons or apps that will use my volume rocker as page turn buttons, which is why I love Aldiko! If there are other reading apps out there that do the same, please let me know.

Mantano, Moon+, CoolReader, UBReader, PocketBook, AlReader (to name but 6) can all be configured to do that. Naturally, they all have strengths and weaknesses.

[Meka1069]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

I either have to have page turn buttons or apps that will use my volume rocker as page turn buttons, which is why I love Aldiko! If there are other reading apps out there that do the same, please let me know.

Kindle for Android does it.

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Mantano, Moon+, CoolReader, UBReader, PocketBook, AlReader (to name but 6) can all be configured to do that. Naturally, they all have strengths and weaknesses.

Originally Posted by Meka1069

Kindle for Android does it.

Cool, it's always nice to have options, thanks!

[Hrafn]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

I either have to have page turn buttons or apps that will use my volume rocker as page turn buttons, which is why I love Aldiko! If there are other reading apps out there that do the same, please let me know.

Admittedly the page turn buttons on my O/B i62HD feel more like a volume rocker than normal buttons. But then they in turn are at least better than the cumbersome giants on my PB 360 (I ended up wearing out the D-pad doing page turns, in preference to using them). I suppose the moral of this digression is no physical page-turn buttons are perfect, but for myself (and it would appear many others), their presence (in whatever shape or form) is to be far preferred to their absence.

[radius]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

What difference does it make that AZW3 uses a proprietary wrapper, unless you are going the Richard Stallman route... the wrapper is understood by open source tools, which should be the same thing surely.

The openness of the so-called EPUB standard is a myth (because of DRM) and it wouldn't mean anything even if it was true... because AZW3 is just as open.

I don't consider the openness of epub and mobi to be in the same class at all!

For example, I download books from Mobileread exclusively in epub format even if I intend to read on a Kindle. The reason for that is epub, to me, is a far superior archival format.

If I build a book and turn it into an epub, you can get back out exactly the source files I put in. If I then turn it into a mobi and give that to you, even with the available tools, you can't get back the original book source unless you don't strip it and keep the original epub inside, in which case why not just use epub to begin with?