Complete Library Why?

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

Why would you peeps WANT to be depended on you PC ? The way you are doing it reminds me of being Limited by the Local Library for the next read! You guys Are So Old Fashioned!

Welcome Barbara.

I depend on my pc because I KNOW that it isn't going to disappear. I am able to make as many backups of my books as I want in case something happens to my pc or one of my tablets/phone/mp3 player.

We have ALL seen bookstores, and clouds disappear taking peoples books with them when they go!

I am determined not to have that happen to me, and the only way that I can ensure that, is to download my books to devices that I control, the first device being my pc.

I am perfectly content to be old fashioned. I believe in true ownership of the things I buy. If you want to risk your money disappearing into never neverland when whomever you bought it from goes poof, be my guest.

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

Welcome Barbara.

I depend on my pc because I KNOW that it isn't going to disappear. I am able to make as many backups of my books as I want in case something happens to my pc or one of my tablets/phone/mp3 player.

We have ALL seen bookstores, and clouds disappear taking peoples books with them when they go!

I am determined not to have that happen to me, and the only way that I can ensure that, is to download my books to devices that I control, the first device being my pc.

I am perfectly content to be old fashioned. I believe in true ownership of the things I buy. If you want to risk your money disappearing into never neverland when whomever you bought it from goes poof, be my guest.

Actually, I do both. When I buy a book from Amazon (or anyone, really) I download it to my PC, and enter it into Calibre. However, I am quite content to use the online infrastructure for my day to day usage of my purchases. It's too convenient not to do so. BUT! With my offline backup, they can't take it away from me either on purpose, or by accident.

[Hemmi]

My first reader was a Sony. I still prefer to read on my Sonys. Even the ones with WiFi (don't ask me how many of them have it because I really don't know), I don't use the WiFi. Never have.

I got used to downloading books to my computer and then connecting the Sony reader and transferring books there. I like doing it that way, I remove the DRM and get everything nice and pretty in Calibre so I have a backup of all of my books. Many stores I've bought digital books from no longer exist or those stores don't still have the rights to the book any longer. Easy to backup my computer to a portable hard drive for another backup copy.

I'm on my computer all the time. I have 300 books on my favorite reader. I can always find something to read and I load new books onto my reader as soon as I buy them.

[Deskisamess]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

Actually, I do both. When I buy a book from Amazon (or anyone, really) I download it to my PC, and enter it into Calibre. However, I am quite content to use the online infrastructure for my day to day usage of my purchases. It's too convenient not to do so. BUT! With my offline backup, they can't take it away from me either on purpose, or by accident.

I do this also. Not too long ago, our downstairs AIO took a dump and I lost a LOT of books that had not come from Amazon. It was my fault for not looking into how to back up Calibre. Stoopid Windows 10 update that froze up.

Now I know how to do that, and it won't happen again.

But I don't load up my Kobo with every book I have. I don't need 1,800 books on one device. It's an easy process to snag a book or two when I am ready to read them. In a pinch, I can email books that are stored in Dropbox as well.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I seldom remember an author or title but I remember plot or cover.

I'm mystified by readers who don't remember titles and authors. In my retirement home it seems that I'm the only one who does. People as me if I've read a book and when I ask what book or what author they'll say "the main character was called Jim". Often they can't even tell me the genre or if it is a genre book. Most can't tell me what a genre is.

To each his own and all that but it sure makes it difficult to discuss books and authors and since I got old that's the most fun thing there is to discuss. I forget what used to be more fun but even there names were needed. Or measurements.

Barry

[barryem]

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

Why would you peeps WANT to be depended on you PC ? The way you are doing it reminds me of being Limited by the Local Library for the next read! You guys Are So Old Fashioned!

I get most of my books from Amazon. I quickly convert them to mobi and epub for reading on my various devices. I send the ones I'm most likely to read in the next year to Dropbox. Everything goes to my PC.

There's no dependency on any of that. I can use Dropbox to get a book for my Kobo. My Kindles have 3G so I always have access to my complete library. The PC serves mostly as a backup although I sometimes go to it for a book that isn't in the other places. That happens less and less though.

However, if I was dependant on my PC so what? I don't see that as a problem. I have more PC's than I have ereaders.

Barry

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

Welcome Barbara.

I depend on my pc because I KNOW that it isn't going to disappear. I am able to make as many backups of my books as I want in case something happens to my pc or one of my tablets/phone/mp3 player.

We have ALL seen bookstores, and clouds disappear taking peoples books with them when they go!

I am determined not to have that happen to me, and the only way that I can ensure that, is to download my books to devices that I control, the first device being my pc.

I am perfectly content to be old fashioned. I believe in true ownership of the things I buy. If you want to risk your money disappearing into never neverland when whomever you bought it from goes poof, be my guest.

This.

All that "Cloud" crap, that is the old fashioned stuff. We had "clouds" in the 60's, 70's: dumb terminals connecting to a big computer that provided the CPU-power and the storage, because it was just unfeasible to own one yourself, both with regard to cost and needed space.

In the late 70's and early 80's, owning a computer became possible for hobbyists, and since the 90's it's almost a given that a household has a single computer. Since the 2000's, most people have their own computer, or even more than one.

And now we'd need to throw out all of that, and go back to the old-fashioned way of storing all of our stuff off-site, having books, audio and games streamed to us from platforms we have no control over, just as it was in the 60's?

Not in my lifetime. If I can't store it on my own computer, back it up, and use it as long as I want even after the publisher/producer of the product ceases to exist, I don't want it. When in a nostalgic mood, I'll still play computer games whose creators and publishers have been gone for 10-15 years or more.

Even though I've only been present in the e-book world, I've already experienced an e-book company bankrupt: Diesel. If that had been cloud only, I would have lost over 200 books.

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

This.

All that "Cloud" crap, that is the old fashioned stuff. We had "clouds" in the 60's, 70's: dumb terminals connecting to a big computer that provided the CPU-power and the storage, because it was just unfeasible to own one yourself, both with regard to cost and needed space.

I don't think of it as 'crap', I think of it as convenient. As a retired DBA, disaster recovery has been hardwired into my DNA. I have backups of backups. But I'm also not the sort to refuse a more convenient workflow, just because I remember the way things used to be!

So bring on the Amazon drive, Microsoft's OneDrive, and Box.com! (no Dropbox for me! And Google plays merry hell with my photos.) Backups to an external drive guarantees I can have the convenience and safety.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

Backups to an external drive guarantees I can have the convenience and safety.

Exactly. Too many anti-cloud people seem to think "cloud" means "cloud-only". I'm not an idiot. It's "cloud and..."

If I've already taken "ownership" of my files (including physical backups), why on earth should I NOT take advantage of the convenience of online storage/availability as well? At the very least, it's another offsite backup.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Exactly. Too many anti-cloud people seem to think "cloud" means "cloud-only". I'm not an idiot. It's "cloud and..."

If I've already taken "ownership" of my files (including physical backups), why on earth should I NOT take advantage of the convenience of online storage/availability as well? At the very least, it's another offsite backup.

+1

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by barryem

I'm mystified by readers who don't remember titles and authors. In my retirement home it seems that I'm the only one who does. People as me if I've read a book and when I ask what book or what author they'll say "the main character was called Jim". Often they can't even tell me the genre or if it is a genre book. Most can't tell me what a genre is.

To each his own and all that but it sure makes it difficult to discuss books and authors and since I got old that's the most fun thing there is to discuss. I forget what used to be more fun but even there names were needed. Or measurements.

Barry

When you read many books they all start to run together. I know people who read 400 books a year. No way I could do that. My average is about 50-75 novels. There is no way I could remember them all. I may remember one or two but if you ask me what I read last year other then one series I couldn't recall much at all. I don't remember half the books I read because they are not worth remembering. I can't tell you even all the books I've read this year. This is why I use Goodreads to keep track.

Sent from my XT1528

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Life is too short to use the library view for anything other than typing in a random page number and seeing what pops up on that page. If only the box you type the page number into would hold more than two digits.

I've seen you say this before, but I've only just realised what you mean. You can type as many numbers as you need. The display is messed up so that you only see two at a time, but if I type "123" and press "Go", it displays the 123rd page in the list.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Exactly. Too many anti-cloud people seem to think "cloud" means "cloud-only". I'm not an idiot. It's "cloud and..."

If I've already taken "ownership" of my files (including physical backups), why on earth should I NOT take advantage of the convenience of online storage/availability as well? At the very least, it's another offsite backup.

I agree, I have my books on the cloud, the PC, the laptop and three externals. I want to get a thumb drive but I lost my last one so I think it would be a waste of money.

If you only keep books on your PC and that PC dies or a natural disaster occurs such as fire, flood, tornado, toddlers....then you will lose all your precious stuff. If you only have it on your device and it dies well same scenario.

The cloud is a pretty smart backup of my backup of my backup. I'm grateful for that option.



Sent from my XT1528

[gbm]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why is it that a lot of people feel the need to have their complete collection of eBooks on their Reader? It just seems a bit unwieldy to me. I have somewhere around 100 eBooks on my H2O and if I find I want to read something that's not on there, I'll add it when I'm next at my computer.

Because I can.

bernie

[drjd]

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

Why would you peeps WANT to be depended on you PC ? The way you are doing it reminds me of being Limited by the Local Library for the next read! You guys Are So Old Fashioned!

Old habits die hard.