Buy or Wait ?

[medwatt]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Perhaps you might consider switching gears and trying out some other types of fiction.

I started reading novels at 12. An aunt of mine had the entire Agatha Christie collection and I used to read one every week. Of course, I was in school, so I had to read other things too.
By the time I was 17, I had grown tired of reading those types of books. True, my overall vocabulary improved, learned how to expressed my ideas in more descriptive ways, but I discovered I wasn't musing over what I was reading. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was a book that was passionately recommended by a friend called "Kiss the Girls" by James Patterson. It was a terrible book. That was the last novel I read. Since then, I've moved onto philosophy (found it difficult at first), science fiction and popular science books. So, I'm open to suggestions of books worthy of reading that pose an intellectual challenge. As a side note, I don't care for books with religious themes as I don't believe its possible to sway someone's mindset once it has ossified.

[fantasycamp]

Originally Posted by HarryT

As someone who reads a lot of PDFs, if you want to read PDFs, in all honesty I'd suggest using an LCD tablet, not an eInk reader. EInk devices have limited RAM and slow CPUs in order to minimise power consumption. Rendering PDFs well needs a fast CPU and a lot of RAM. I read fiction on eInk devices, but a tablet is way better for PDFs.

So have the tablets caught up with the ereders on eye sensitivity ?

I thought Eink is so superior so that hours wasted are great for eyes?

[HarryT]

What do you mean when you say "eye sensitivity"?

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by medwatt

I started reading novels at 12. An aunt of mine had the entire Agatha Christie collection and I used to read one every week. Of course, I was in school, so I had to read other things too.
By the time I was 17, I had grown tired of reading those types of books. True, my overall vocabulary improved, learned how to expressed my ideas in more descriptive ways, but I discovered I wasn't musing over what I was reading. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was a book that was passionately recommended by a friend called "Kiss the Girls" by James Patterson. It was a terrible book. That was the last novel I read. Since then, I've moved onto philosophy (found it difficult at first), science fiction and popular science books. So, I'm open to suggestions of books worthy of reading that pose an intellectual challenge. As a side note, I don't care for books with religious themes as I don't believe its possible to sway someone's mindset once it has ossified.

Science Fiction & Fantasy is an excellent idea. But you said above "I've stopped reading fiction completely [...]".


As for books with religious themes, I don't really hold with sticking religion into my pleasure reads.
It would be a bad idea anyway, as there isn't a lot of good Jewish fiction around.

One book with "religious themes" (sorta ) which I believe everyone should read, is Terry Pratchett's Small Gods.

[cybmole]

Lots of excellent sci fire has religious themes.
Roger Zelazny - Lord of Light,
Heinlein - Stranger in a strange land,
Frank Herbert - Dune, to some extent.
Also, A canticle for Liebnovitch, some stuff by James Blish...
I could probably think of dozens more if this tablet would quit second guessing my words, and just let me type

[cybmole]

PS. The James Blish sci fi masterwork is A Case of Conscience

[fantasycamp]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What do you mean when you say "eye sensitivity"?

I mean eyes get more sensitive with the lcd display while reading, E ink is supposed to be miles ahead on that department, while reading stuff Eink is said to be the first choice even while only having two colors..

[Apparition B5]

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S 2 eight inch tablet sounds ideal for you. Just put the Twilight app on it for reading at night, and as long as you can minimize the distractions from other apps (e-mail, web browsing, etc.), and don't mind the short battery life (compared to e-ink eReaders), you should be good to go.

[markom]

Originally Posted by fantasycamp

I mean eyes get more sensitive with the lcd display while reading, E ink is supposed to be miles ahead on that department, while reading stuff Eink is said to be the first choice even while only having two colors..

Since e-ink is still far behind tablets in terms of speed at flipping/annotating/multitasking, we can simply use suitable e-ink and tablet simultaneously, getting the best from the two worlds e.g. 8" Onyx with light and some new lightweight tablet e.g. already mentioned 265 gr 8" Galaxy Tab S 2. (about 600 gr together)

E-ink just for plain reading and tablet simultaneously for annotations/scribblings, color recognition, fast flipping through pdf, cross-referencing, better dictionaries, searching, multitasking etc.

We can also make some DIY lighweight pad for holding them easily together when reading outside the house, even hands-free, e.g. by using some strap around the neck with the pad resting on our belly, or we can use some DIY magnetic bracelet for tablet to be situated thereon on our inner forearm, simultaneously holding e-ink in the same hand (also resting on the belly/body when necessary), using another hand just for flipping/annotating or as support.

If we want much better reading experience outside in the sun or even inside the room with many unwanted reflections on the lcd screen, we can use some good ultra matte anti-glare screen protector and DIY (pasteboard paper or similar) sunshade.

[peaceridge]

Originally Posted by Celestial

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S 2 eight inch tablet sounds ideal for you. Just put the Twilight app on it for reading at night, and as long as you can minimize the distractions from other apps (e-mail, web browsing, etc.), and don't mind the short battery life (compared to e-ink eReaders), you should be good to go.

I'm debating between the S2 8" and the S 8.4" - did you compare them and if so, why did you choose the S2 (I've heard it is better than the S for reading as it has the 4:3 aspect.

[pierro78]

Originally Posted by medwatt

If I want to read on LCD screens, I don't see much difference between a tablet and a laptop really. Apart from the fact that e-ink is eye friendly, tablets bring too many distractions. You might be thinking of installing some social media app, some video/audio app, browser etc . . . you'll end up wasting a chunk of your dedicated reading time on these

wise thought ... I hope I won't waste too much time playing with my i86

[BretSingleton]

Before buying something you must read some reviews about the item, and read some comments if the item is worth buying for.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

I'm debating between the S2 8" and the S 8.4" - did you compare them and if so, why did you choose the S2 (I've heard it is better than the S for reading as it has the 4:3 aspect.

I've read in a number of places that 4:3 is better than 16:9 or 16:10 for reading but I can't think of any reason why that might be true. I do most of my reading on my phone or my Voyage and the difference in them, to me, is LCD versus e-ink. For long reading sessions e-ink doesn't give me eyestrain but for short sessions, which is where I mostly use my phone, neither does it. Other than that I really don't care a lot.

I do have an 8" 4:3 tablet, although not as nice as the S2, with a decent screen. Because I keep reading that 4:3 is better I've tried reading with it and it's fine. No better or worse. It is an LCD so I'm stuck with short sessions on it.

I also have a 10" Galaxy Tab S and I tried some reading on it. Again, it's okay. It's too big for my tastes. I'm happy with the 6" screens but the Tab S was okay for reading.

I also have a 7" tablet and I experimented with reading on that and it's the same. It's okay. Neither better nor worse.

Of all of these the screen density is best on the Tab S. My 4:3 8" tablet has the lowest screen density. I can see the difference more when reading on it than on anything else I do. But when I actually start reading and forget comparing it really doesn't matter that much.

By the way, all of these except my 8" 4:3 tablet have a reading mode that increases contrast and cuts blue light and I used that with all these tests. It makes it better but it didn't really effect how long I can read. I usually can read from 15 or 20 minutes to about 30 minutes if my eyes are rested at the start, before they begin to water. None of this seemed to affect that. I can read as long as I like on my Voyage.

Barry

[DaleDe]

This idea behind 4:3 is to make the experience closer to a real book with longer lines. Short lines tend to be choppy on the page, either lots of varying right margin space or lots of space in between words for full justified reading. Otherwise the aspect ratio doesn't matter much unless you are comparing equal sized devices where 4:3 will have more area thus more words per page than 16:9 with the same diagonal size.

Dale

[ou4read]

Isn't it about time for a successor to Boox i86 Plus to come out? Just like they updated Boox M96 Plus with N96