Newbie to EReading advice please

[fjtorres]

Or if you live in a place where you can sit in the cool breeze to read in the balcony or the back yard for at least part of the year. Not everybody freezes to death if they go outside in the winter.

Wishing eink devices to vanish in a puff of smoke and brimstone is as futile as wishing amazon away. It ain't gonna happen any time soon.

[Hellmark]

Personally, I'd have to say, go with a Sony, Kobo, Nook, since Adobe's ADEPT ePub variant is more widespread, you're not tied to just the one store. There are other readers that also support that, such as BeBook and EzReader, but they may be harder to find.

Kindle's are nice, but you're much more limited, pretty much just tied to Amazon.

Either route you go, Overdrive (which most Libraries use) now supports Adobe and Amazon's DRM, so you can check out books for free from your library.

Try messing around with your LCD device first, but once you go eInk, you won't regret it. It is much easier on the eyes, and works in more light settings. For instance, LCD in low light settings messes with your eyes quite a bit.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

Personally, I'd have to say, go with a Sony, Kobo, Nook, since Adobe's ADEPT ePub variant is more widespread, you're not tied to just the one store. There are other readers that also support that, such as BeBook and EzReader, but they may be harder to find.

Uh, he's in the UK so Nook is no option.
BeBook just got liquidated and EzReader has been history for a while.
Kobo and Sony are options along with the Kindles but, in his case, because of the hardware more than the ebookstores.

Since the OP seems fluent in DRM issues, buying from the better stocked and generally cheaper Kindle UK store doesn't limit his hardware choices and, for him at least, they are independent choices.

One reason I pointed out that location makes a difference is that, for all the promise of Adept interoperability, in NorthAmerica, at least, people don't actually *buy* interoperable ebooks. Amazon gets 50% share, Nook another 30% and Apple about 10%. Which leaves 10% total for Kobo (which uses a proprietary Kepub format at least part-time), Sony's ebookstore, Fictionwise and the rest of the Adept client states. (And Kobo has hinted they run in the high single digits, which leaves Adept with crumbs.)

Different regions will have different breakdowns, which is why I suggested looking at the source of the content first.
In theory file interoperability should be a major concern but the reality to date is that for most people, Ebook availability determines their content source, which in turn determines their DRM and hardware choices, rather than the other way around.

The OP's intended methodolody will let him choose the hardware last and that's not a bad way to go.

[taosaur]

I like how the thread devolved from recommendations on what to use on his tablet and PCs to "You should get e-ink device X, Y and Z."

Personally, for the brief stint I had an e-ink device handy, I still found myself reaching for my tablet because it is faster, sharper, has better contrast, and doesn't rely on ambient light. On Android, I'm a big fan of Mantano for epub and PDF. For Amazon books, I just buy and read them via Kindle for Android, rather than go through the separate downloading, stripping and converting to merge them with my library. Yes, I run the risk that if Amazon decided to kill my account, I would lose access to the books (well, in reality, only one book so far).

Calibre probably is the best cross-platform manager, though it's so complex it can cause a lot of headaches, too. It becomes worthwhile when your library passes about the 800 book mark and you want to organize everything using metadata and push different collections to different devices. Prior to that point, if you just want to convert a couple of files or drop this or that book on a device, it's like using a front-end loader to hang a painting.

A simpler option for DRM-free epubs (and a few other formats) on Windows and Linux is FBReader. It won't copy everything to a new location or rearrange your folders when you add books to its library, and it's a much better reader than Calibre, though if you have a tablet I doubt you'll actually do much reading on the PC or laptop.

[LuvReadin]

Originally Posted by cliver

I don't want to go up any blind alleys and have no way back

Because of your location, one thing you should know about Kindles; you can't use them to borrow books from any UK library, because the two systems used (Overdrive and Adobe Digital editions) won't work with Kindle in the UK, so that might affect your choice.

[cliver]

Originally Posted by LuvReadin

Because of your location, one thing you should know about Kindles; you can't use them to borrow books from any UK library, because the two systems used (Overdrive and Adobe Digital editions) won't work with Kindle in the UK, so that might affect your choice.

Good point thanks for tip.
I now have my galaxy note and am using with DB Reader and have been pretty impressed so far. I use calibre to manage my books and copy them to phone though its built in server. Works pretty well

[Filark]

Hi cliver!

If you get a chance and feel like it, hop over to the Android forum here on MobileRead and write a little about your Galaxy Note. I would love to hear what you think, and I doubt I'm alone in that!

Sounds like you are well on your way to a full enjoyment of ebooks.

[cliver]

Originally Posted by Filark

Hi cliver!

If you get a chance and feel like it, hop over to the Android forum here on MobileRead and write a little about your Galaxy Note. I would love to hear what you think, and I doubt I'm alone in that!

Sounds like you are well on your way to a full enjoyment of ebooks.

Hi Filark I'll post on the android section soon, let you know how it's going ;-)