Do you actually NEED a dictionary on your reader?

[doreenjoy]

Another way to word such a poll would be, When you read a book for pleasure, do you also carry a dictionary? I'd bet most people don't.

[jes1]

From my point of view, I don't need a dictionary on my reader, but I would like one. There are times it would come in handy.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by doreenjoy

Another way to word such a poll would be, When you read a book for pleasure, do you also carry a dictionary? I'd bet most people don't.

I wouldn't because it would be cumbersome but if I could have one conveniently, I would use it. I do use my Kindle dictionary if I'm even remotely curious about a word and I find it adds a great deal to my experience.

@Jon

If the PRS600 had been out when I was initially looking for a reader, I would have bought it even without the price drop on books. If I were looking to replace my reader now, it would be a strong contender. It has all my high-priority features which the 500 and 505 did not. It's not enough to get me to switch since my current Kindle fills my needs nicely. I also like the convenience of the sample chapters and Whispernet delivery. I wouldn't be surprised if Sony brings out something like that soon. I'm excited about what the next year will bring. If I were a newcomer to readers, it would be a tough choice.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by doreenjoy

Another way to word such a poll would be, When you read a book for pleasure, do you also carry a dictionary? I'd bet most people don't.

let's put it this way...three degrees, and about 3 semesters and another freaking dissertation away from a fourth, all in hard sciences and I still need a dictionary, several in fact. Something that reading taught me as a kid, it is OK to admit you do not know something, so look it up rather than fake it.

Hard to understand anyone who reads enough to really justify a $400 device dedicated to reading yet feels they have no need of a dictionary. How disappointing.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by doreenjoy

Another way to word such a poll would be, When you read a book for pleasure, do you also carry a dictionary? I'd bet most people don't.

Well... It is too inconvenient to carry around, but since I do most of my reading at home, I have access to both a pbook and an online English-Danish dictionary, and it's nice to have. I can make do without, but I'd rather hava dictionary when reading foreign languages.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Since most of the voters voted for a dictionary, if the new Sony PRS-600's dictionary works with ePub, will you buy one since it will be the only ePub capable reader to have ePub and a dictionary?

No, I'm not especially tied to epub as a format, and I wouldn't buy the 600 because of the epub capabilities. However, it looks like it might be easy and nice to use, and if I can get a good dictionary for it - that would make it very interesting for me.

[doreenjoy]

Originally Posted by brecklundin

let's put it this way...three degrees, and about 3 semesters and another freaking dissertation away from a fourth, all in hard sciences and I still need a dictionary, several in fact. Something that reading taught me as a kid, it is OK to admit you do not know something, so look it up rather than fake it.

Hard to understand anyone who reads enough to really justify a $400 device dedicated to reading yet feels they have no need of a dictionary. How disappointing.

Not sure why the sarcasm, but whatever.

With all due respect - and I mean that sincerely - degrees in the hard sciences don't necessarily build a vocabulary. Personally, with my lousy one degree and another in progress, I rarely need to look up English words while reading. And I read enough to justify plenty of $400 dedicated reading devices.

Also, since the poll is nearly a tie, I appear to have plenty of company.

[Tuna]

I voted no... I don't like to interrupt the flow of reading by looking up words unless I really can't work them out from context. In which case, there are a host of dictionaries online, and a couple sitting on my shelves, or the person sitting next to me to ask.

I guess the background question is what sort of reading you do on your e-book? Leisure, technical, reference, English as first language, second etc.? The requirements for people reading the classics is completely different from those reading modern fiction, academic literature and so on.

My impression is that people on this site are biased towards 'serious' reading (reference/ academic/ technical). Those who just want to read the current fiction bestsellers probably don't care enough to start discussing the intricacies of their e-reader on a forum.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Alisa

I wouldn't because it would be cumbersome but if I could have one conveniently, I would use it. I do use my Kindle dictionary if I'm even remotely curious about a word and I find it adds a great deal to my experience.

@Jon

If the PRS600 had been out when I was initially looking for a reader, I would have bought it even without the price drop on books. If I were looking to replace my reader now, it would be a strong contender. It has all my high-priority features which the 500 and 505 did not. It's not enough to get me to switch since my current Kindle fills my needs nicely. I also like the convenience of the sample chapters and Whispernet delivery. I wouldn't be surprised if Sony brings out something like that soon. I'm excited about what the next year will bring. If I were a newcomer to readers, it would be a tough choice.

(IMHO), the Kindle has built-in obsolescence due to it's AZW and lack of ePub. So buying a Kindle is like buying a singe core CPU based computer. I cannot see how Amazon will survive without adding ePub support. They won't make it outside the USA for one. By adding a dictionary to the 600, Sony has just upped the stakes and take away the biggest objection to ePub.

[alecE]

I too voted no, because I cannot say that I *need* a dictionary on my reader. However, what I would really really like is a dictionary and thesaurus combined.

My reservation about putting a dictionary/thesaurus on an ereader stems from my experiences of reading footnotes on my 505 - highlight the relevant footnote number, hit the button, wait, formatting, formatting, formatting, at last, footnotes page appears, read note, highlight footnote number again, hit the button, short delay, back to text again.

One of my colleagues who is from Poland has bought himself a rather nifty electronic dictionary & thesaurus based on one of the OED editions (plus crossword solver, hangman, etc), for a mere £35. I'm very tempted to follow his example. That would satisfy my wants, without too much interruption of the reading process.

On a related thought, when I was at school, we had a lot of items that were printed as parallel texts - Shakespeare/Chaucer/Beowulf/Homer etc., on the lhs with explication/translation on the rhs. Is this feasible in ebooks?

[jankovicgood]

I really need a dictionary in my ereader beacuse most of ebooks are in English and thats not my firts languange.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Since most of the voters voted for a dictionary, if the new Sony PRS-600's dictionary works with ePub, will you buy one since it will be the only ePub capable reader to have ePub and a dictionary?

Actually, if I'm not mistaken the latest firmware for the jetBook enables dictionary support for ePub. But then I guess non-DRM ePubs don't count.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by doreenjoy

Not sure why the sarcasm, but whatever.

With all due respect - and I mean that sincerely - degrees in the hard sciences don't necessarily build a vocabulary. Personally, with my lousy one degree and another in progress, I rarely need to look up English words while reading. And I read enough to justify plenty of $400 dedicated reading devices.

Also, since the poll is nearly a tie, I appear to have plenty of company.

I think poll is tied because it asked if we need a dictionary rather than whether we think its a good feature to have in a reader. It's a poll designed to get a particular answer. I don't need a reader. It's lovely to have. I don't need a dictionary. It's lovely to have. Personally, I can almost always work out a word from context but sometimes when I think the author is using it in a more nuanced way, it adds to my experience to be able to quickly explore the word. I think a better question would be, "How much is a dictionary worth to you?" That's the question the manufacturers are asking.

I also consider it a bit of a no-brainer feature to have in a device, like content search. You have processing power and content. You can use that to do more than just display books. You can make the reading experience better and easier. Besides, as these devices move into the educational market, features like dictionary, search and annotation will be mandatory.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

(IMHO), the Kindle has built-in obsolescence due to it's AZW and lack of ePub. So buying a Kindle is like buying a singe core CPU based computer. I cannot see how Amazon will survive without adding ePub support. They won't make it outside the USA for one. By adding a dictionary to the 600, Sony has just upped the stakes and take away the biggest objection to ePub.

As per your assessment, ePub would be trivial to unseat from its current alleged rise.

Who knows... maybe in a year from now ePub devices will seem as future-proof as eReader format supporting ones.

- Ahi

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

(IMHO), the Kindle has built-in obsolescence due to it's AZW and lack of ePub. So buying a Kindle is like buying a singe core CPU based computer. I cannot see how Amazon will survive without adding ePub support. They won't make it outside the USA for one. By adding a dictionary to the 600, Sony has just upped the stakes and take away the biggest objection to ePub.

But for folks deciding what to buy right now, Amazon still has better content selection and the great combination of sample chapters and wireless delivery. That's pretty compelling. The DRM is strippable on AZW so I'm not concerned about preserving the books I buy now. Besides, most consumers don't know anything about ePub. It's like Ogg Vorbis. It has so many advantages but not much market traction.

If they'd had this thing out a couple years ago, they might have grabbed a lot of the folks that now have Kindles. Now that they have Kindles, they likely won't switch. Us MobileRead geeks aren't like most people. We're really comfortable stripping DRM and shifting formats. Most people who have Kindles will stick with them because Amazon has their library and their books will just work. The best format doesn't always win. I really do hope ePub becomes the standard but I won't hold my breath. If it actually becomes necessary, though, you can bet Amazon will indeed switch. They don't seem to be a company that will stubbornly stick to a non-working strategy.

[Kris777]

Originally Posted by jankovicgood

I really need a dictionary in my ereader beacuse most of ebooks are in English and thats not my firts languange.

You can buy jetBook . It has dictionaries for different languages (Spanish,German,Russian,Polish and English-English)