Article: 7 Reasons Why eReaders Make Great Gifts This Year

[LDBoblo]

Ahi's point of view isn't as contentious as people like to make it out to be.

There are many lifetimes worth of reading in English ebooks, and if one is reasonably flexible, it's easy to have a constant flow of text available, but that does not make their reach comprehensive. There is still a significant amount of nontrivial work that is simply not available, even in English, through conventional sources. The situation is far, far more bleak in other cultures/languages, and multilingual works that are highly valuable in their respective spheres of influence are pretty rare. Even with modern commercial literature, there are quite obvious gaps and it irritates a lot of users, even on these boards.

For many people here, this is a non-issue, just like the crippled hardware concerns of mine or the discussion of typography and file format limitations. If 2 different people buy a piano with a few broken keys, one may complain loudly about the broken keys and the other may quietly play around it, not wanting to make a fuss or bring their purchasing justification into question. That's great, and very noble of the second person to be so forgiving of a problem. However, to deny the flaw's existence when recommending broken pianos to other people...that's another thing altogether. That's Craigslist.

[dmaul1114]

I agree with that entirely.

But he doesn't have to insult people's reading taste by implying that people who find everything they want have crappy and limited taste in books.

As other's noted, what's a good book is totally subjective. And besides that, not all of us take literature all that seriously. Some just read casually to unwind. Others stick mainly to non-fiction and don't delve much into literature and so on and so forth.

No need to be condescending towards others with different reading interests or habits.

[Superlucky]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

Ahi's point of view isn't as contentious as people like to make it out to be.

There are many lifetimes worth of reading in English ebooks, and if one is reasonably flexible, it's easy to have a constant flow of text available, but that does not make their reach comprehensive...

His point of view just grossly overstates the availability problem. There is a pretty big chasm between "very limited" and "comprehensive". I agree that ebooks are not a great boon to those who don't speak English, but for those of us who do I think you would have to have pretty specific tastes to be too frustrated with the selection.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

For many people here, this is a non-issue, just like the crippled hardware concerns of mine or the discussion of typography and file format limitations. If 2 different people buy a piano with a few broken keys, one may complain loudly about the broken keys and the other may quietly play around it, not wanting to make a fuss or bring their purchasing justification into question. That's great, and very noble of the second person to be so forgiving of a problem. However, to deny the flaw's existence when recommending broken pianos to other people...that's another thing altogether. That's Craigslist.

Or that second person may just take a course, or haunt piano tuners and find a way to fix that piano.......I don't call that noble.

I call it wanting to play music badly enough to find a way to do so.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by ahi

More nonsense.

Unless your reading needs are either very limited or very flexible, it really isn't out there. That's a fact, and an uncontroversial one at that.

exactly WHAT in your oh so infinite wisdom countenances the proper reading material? I haven't found a genre unavailable as of yet

The prospect of having to scan it yourself is what more objective individuals might consider a proof of eBook availability being limited, if not downright poor.

every project has to start somewhere. if you don't think things are available, do it yourself just like a lot of these hardworking folks have. it's called volunteering. something that communities do to help each other out.



- Ahi

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

No need to be such an elitist snob about people's reading interests.

Oh you're French-Canadian. That explains it then.

he also appears to be a superior cut of tuna. sushi anyone?

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Limited or flexible according to whose standards?

I suppose if my reading needs were very esoteric or pretentious, I might have a problem finding the books I want. As it is, they aren't, and I don't.

As for your second comment, arguing with individuals like you is useless. I always feel like I've stepped in something nasty.

yeah, it's kind of like pig wrasslin' everyone gets dirty and only the pig is happy

Originally Posted by Sonist

"Stir the pot" is exactly what makes forums like this interesting and informative. As they say, the truth is born from an argument.

Ironically calling someone you disagree with a "troll," does in fact constitute "insulting people" and hardly wins the argument.
Whether one agrees with ahi or not, he has shown a great amount of knowledge and insight on many topics, and adding him to some sanctimonious "ignore list," may just make one miss much valuable input.

I seem to have missed out on the knowledge and have only caught the sanctimonious bits

Wow, so all the kind people, who actually spent a bit of time formatting a book and posted it here, or on Feedbooks, so you can download it, are just schmucks whose time is worth nothing, is that it?
apparently so. or chopped liver. volunteers get treated that way quite often

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

Further, yes the technology is crippled. Has nothing to do with having "thinking done for me." The devices are excruciatingly slow and the display quality is fairly poor. The Kindle, if unmolested by geeks, displays one font (before PDF support I suppose) badly in terrible text layouts with low resolution and contrast. I won't sweep that under the rug with "but you can resize text!" either. Either you ignore the limitations or you don't. If you ignore them, good for you. Not everyone can. I don't make the assumption that everyone can, and I would not buy a device for people who I suspect would be bothered by those limitations. Not user limitations, mind you, but hardware and software limitations. Next year might be a different story.

I don't get this whole font issue. do you expect to be able to change fonts on a purchased pbook?

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

apparently so. or chopped liver. volunteers get treated that way quite often

Again, I didn't remotely mean it that way. It's great people volunteer to do that stuff.

I just don't read enough to ever want to read something to do it myself vs. just finding something else readily available to read. That's all I was saying.

I'm grateful for others who do stuff to help out the community, even though I've yet to take advantage of it since my reading interests are very mainstream as I'm a very casual reader and mainly read recent material--thus any of that stuff scanned in would be piracy and I'm very opposed to that.

[ravenne]

Speaking of great gifts, why buy an ereading device when you can win one?

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by ravenne

Speaking of great gifts, why buy an ereading device when you can win one?

Attachment 40572

So, you're letting me win one? If you do, I'll come by a few days before christmas!

[LDBoblo]

I don't get this whole font issue. do you expect to be able to change fonts on a purchased pbook?

No. I expect ebooks to be crafted well with decent fonts, like even most cheap paperbacks are (and that's a pretty low standard to fall short of). Since they're not, I make my own PDFs out of whatever file I can acquire.

Of course, font choice is only a small part of the typesetting, and many fonts don't work well on e-ink due to its display limitations anyway.

Now that Kindles support pdf, the single-font thing is only marginally relevant, and more a file issue than a device issue.

[Ea]

I don't get this whole font issue. do you expect to be able to change fonts on a purchased pbook?[/QUOTE]
Why model your options on an electronic reading device on a paper book? I could see the point if it was a nicely typeset and high quality paperbook, but most paperbooks aren't that.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by Ea

I don't get this whole font issue. do you expect to be able to change fonts on a purchased pbook?

Why model your options on an electronic reading device on a paper book? I could see the point if it was a nicely typeset and high quality paperbook, but most paperbooks aren't that.[/QUOTE]

because at all times I consider my ereader just that, an ereader. I don't think of it as a mini-computer, and alternate web browser, something to get coffee for me or a substitute boyfriend. I want to read books, magazines, newspapers, and occasionally a PDF on it

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I don't get this whole font issue. do you expect to be able to change fonts on a purchased pbook?

No, but there are books with a certain font choice that I find hard to read.

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

because at all times I consider my ereader just that, an ereader. I don't think of it as a mini-computer, and alternate web browser, something to get coffee for me or a substitute boyfriend. I want to read books, magazines, newspapers, and occasionally a PDF on it

Yes, I agree with that. But.

I have 3 readers I use regularly. Each device has its own font I prefer on it. The sizes of the screena are different, resolutions are different, technologies even are different. The font I'm currently using on my Mini is next to unreadable on my JE100. Mainly because contrast is completely different (dark on light vs light on dark). So, let's say I bought an ebook and the publisher of that ebook decided to use that certain font. It would force me to read it on a certain reader, because on the other it's not really fun to read.

Which is why I just love the mobipocket reader. I can decide how I want to read my books. What colours to use, what fonts to use, what margins to use, etc.

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by Kindlekitten

I don't get this whole font issue. do you expect to be able to change fonts on a purchased pbook?

I'm not buying a print book though, why should ebooks have their inherent limits?

Now, if you want to provide six basic fonts, let me load additional ones *and* sell extra specialised fonts to me, that's great as well.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by ravenne

Speaking of great gifts, why buy an ereading device when you can win one?

Attachment 40572

Yay! I picked the right thread to check