How big is that e-book anyway? - Page 6

delphidb96 · 09-02-2009, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zero9

For the record, some of the best novels out there have some less interesting parts that may or may not contribute to a big pay off later. Personally, if I only read books that I never got bored with, I would have missed out on a lot of GREAT novels.

There's 'less interesting parts' and there's so stultifying and obtuse as to make counting the pages read *more* interesting than the book.

Unless the author has made the cardinal mistake of making the first chapter the 'less interesting part', I rarely have a problem distinguishing between the two.

Derek

msundman · 09-02-2009, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daithi

Word Count is like the metric system for Americans.

When someone refers to a book with a 100,000 word count or a 40,000 word count we don't really know what that means. What is the word count of The Old Man and Sea? 20,000? 40,000? How about Atlas Shrugged? 100,000? 200,000? I don't have a clue.

If we used this system all the time we would get used to it, and it may be better than the current system, but right now it would be like asking me to use liters, grams, and millimeters when I think in terms of gallons, ounces, and inches.

Correct. However, you don't have to use it "all the time" for very long until you get used to it, and meanwhile you can convert it in your head. E.g., if the average number of characters on a line is 40 (not counting spaces and punctuation) and there are 25 lines per page on some platonic (pocket) book, then the average page has 1 kchars. This makes for very easy conversion. A 314 kchar ebook would have approximately 314 pages on paper.

And as for the SI units, they are extremely simple to learn. We're talking minutes here, not months or weeks or days or even hours.
There are not many relevant prefixes, and only a handful would become popular, so just learn that k=1,000 and M=1,000,000 and you're at least halfway there. (I assume people already know how to multiply by powers of 10, e.g. 314*1,000 = 314,000. If they don't, then it's absurdly simple to learn.)

jupstin · 09-02-2009, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jellby

Something like what I use in my PDFs (like this one)?

Very nice. This is more or less exactly what I was thinking, but the addition of some actual number would be good for people who prefer a non-visual method. However, having only the bars is a more elegant solution. Very nice PDF, by the way. I think I will steal it

astra · 09-02-2009, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by msundman

"Medium"?? Are you kidding?! Your medium or my medium? With your font or with mine? On a big reader or on a small one? With your margins or with mine? With your line spacings or with mine? Etc, ad infinitum.

I do not care what font size, type, etc., you are using.

I need page numbers for myself only. For my own reference. As long as I know what I use, that's the only thing that counts.

msundman · 09-02-2009, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astra

I do not care what font size, type, etc., you are using.

I need page numbers for myself only. For my own reference. As long as I know what I use, that's the only thing that counts.

You seem to be a bit confused... The original quote was:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ellimist

"check out pages 24, 25 (medium font setting)"

Are you saying you're telling yourself to check out some pages? If so, why would you tell yourself a particular font setting, while leaving out all the other relevant settings?

Daithi · 09-02-2009, 02:38 PM

Out of curriosity I went to Manybooks, which has word count and page size on their books, and found that you can easily estimate the page count based on the word count. Just round the word count to the nearest 10,000 then divide by a 1000 and multiply by 3 (easier than it sounds), and close enough for government work.

For example -- stats from Manybooks and Amazon:
Le Fanu's Carmilla -- 29,338 words (89 pages)
30 x 3 = 90 pages (106 on Amazon)

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet -- 25,904 words (79 pages)
26 * 3 = 78 pages (96 on Amazon)

Austen's Pride and Prejudice -- 121,763 words (350 pages)
120 x 3 = 360 (382 Amazon, first book I looked at was 480 Amazon)

Bram Stoker's Dracula -- 160,098 words (419 pages)
160 x 3 = 480 pages (528 Amazon)

Dicken's Great Expectations -- 185,258 words (520 pages)
190 x 3 = 570 pages (544 Amazon)

Tolstoy's War and Peace -- 562,579 words (1306 pages)
560 x 3 = 1680 (1456 Amazon)

ProDigit · 09-02-2009, 02:41 PM

I know my Sony PRS-505 very accurately displays the amount of pages it has.
Only when reading a pdf book,and zooming in on pages, it dares to count one PDF page for 2 or 3 screens.

astra · 09-02-2009, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by msundman

You seem to be a bit confused... The original quote was:Are you saying you're telling yourself to check out some pages? If so, why would you tell yourself a particular font setting, while leaving out all the other relevant settings?

I am telling myself how thick my book is. If I have 900 sony reader pages it is equal to 600 pages of hardback edition.
When I go to TOC and see that I have 15 more pages left until the end of the chapter, I know it is 10 pages.

msundman · 09-02-2009, 03:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astra

I am telling myself how thick my book is. If I have 900 sony reader pages it is equal to 600 pages of hardback edition.
When I go to TOC and see that I have 15 more pages left until the end of the chapter, I know it is 10 pages.

OK, so you're confused, since nothing of that has anything to do with what you replied to. That's OK, everybody gets confused once in a while.

astra · 09-02-2009, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by msundman

OK, so you're confused, since nothing of that has anything to do with what you replied to. That's OK, everybody gets confused once in a while.

Especially those who are quick to judge.

ahi · 09-02-2009, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProDigit

I know my Sony PRS-505 very accurately displays the amount of pages it has.
Only when reading a pdf book,and zooming in on pages, it dares to count one PDF page for 2 or 3 screens.

Bad books work badly.

Good books* work... goodly.

- Ahi

* See ePub here.

Abecedary · 09-02-2009, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ahi

Bad books work badly.

Good books* work... goodly.

- Ahi

* See ePub here.

Ahem! I believe that should be well-ly.

ahi · 09-02-2009, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abecedary

Ahem! I believe that should be well-ly.

Does HTML support the triple-L ligature though?

- Ahi

HappyMartin · 09-02-2009, 04:24 PM

And one day in the future someone will be reading a book and will wonder. "What the hell is a page and why is my book measured in them?" A bit like cars and horsepower.

It might not be accurate but I use file size as a guide. I like books of around a MB.

ahi · 09-02-2009, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HappyMartin

And one day in the future someone will be reading a book and will wonder. "What the hell is a page and why is my book measured in them?" A bit like cars and horsepower.

It might not be accurate but I use file size as a guide. I like books of around a MB.

Either that... or this fad of pretending page numbers are not fundamentally useful constructs will pass.

I'm no more of a futurist than you though, so we'll just have to wait and see.

- Ahi

09-02-2009, 02:38 PM	#81
Daithi Publishers are evil! Posts: 2,418 Karma: 36205264 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Rhode Island Device: Various Kindles	Out of curriosity I went to Manybooks, which has word count and page size on their books, and found that you can easily estimate the page count based on the word count. Just round the word count to the nearest 10,000 then divide by a 1000 and multiply by 3 (easier than it sounds), and close enough for government work. For example -- stats from Manybooks and Amazon: Le Fanu's Carmilla -- 29,338 words (89 pages) 30 x 3 = 90 pages (106 on Amazon) Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet -- 25,904 words (79 pages) 26 * 3 = 78 pages (96 on Amazon) Austen's Pride and Prejudice -- 121,763 words (350 pages) 120 x 3 = 360 (382 Amazon, first book I looked at was 480 Amazon) Bram Stoker's Dracula -- 160,098 words (419 pages) 160 x 3 = 480 pages (528 Amazon) Dicken's Great Expectations -- 185,258 words (520 pages) 190 x 3 = 570 pages (544 Amazon) Tolstoy's War and Peace -- 562,579 words (1306 pages) 560 x 3 = 1680 (1456 Amazon) Last edited by Daithi; 09-02-2009 at 03:21 PM. Reason: Had trouble multiplying 160 x 3 -- duh

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09-02-2009, 02:41 PM	#82
ProDigit Karmaniac Posts: 2,553 Karma: 11499146 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Miami FL Device: PRS-505, Jetbook, + Mini, +Color, Astak Ez Reader Pro, PPW1, Aura H2O	I know my Sony PRS-505 very accurately displays the amount of pages it has. Only when reading a pdf book,and zooming in on pages, it dares to count one PDF page for 2 or 3 screens.

09-02-2009, 04:24 PM	#89
HappyMartin Martin Kristiansen Posts: 1,546 Karma: 8480958 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Johannesburg Device: Kindle International Ipad 2	And one day in the future someone will be reading a book and will wonder. "What the hell is a page and why is my book measured in them?" A bit like cars and horsepower. It might not be accurate but I use file size as a guide. I like books of around a MB.