Initial Decision

[Deskisamess]

I was clueless about digital books and readers, but in late 2009, I had been using Amazon more and more for shopping. I think I had stumbled across the Kindle forums, and started reading them. At that point I had no idea there were other e-readers.

The fact that I could enlarge font size was the initial thing that made me decide to buy a Kindle. I hardly read for pleasure at that point in my life because paperback fonts were too small, and hardbacks were heavy and expensive, and not that much easier to read for me.

My first Kindle was the second gen, and I was hooked after 20 minutes. I went from reading a few books a year to several a month. That first device also helped us when my MIL had an extended hospital stay in November of 2009. No one had smart phones at that point, and the clunky browser on the K2 allowed me to update her status on Facebook for out of town Family and for looking up medicines.

[crich70]

My first ereader device was a Franklin ebookman. It could read text, html and mobi format books. I liked the mobi format best of the three. And then Amazon bought out Mobipocket and renamed mobi as the Kindle format. I went where I knew I could find books in a format I was familiar with, and of course Amazon also changed their business model so that you could make 5 monthly payments of $20.00 in order to purchase a Kindle ereader (the first one I had was a k3 otherwise known as a Kindle Keyboard). So availability and price also played a part.

[Pizza_Cant_Read]

I was also anti-amazon on principle but passed an airport kiosk just last year selling Kindles. They didn't have anything else. I tried each of them but the screen refresh was a bit jarring. I convinced the saleswoman to let me pull out an Oasis (v1) as they didn't have any on display and I was sold. I was reading Martin Eden at the time which is Public Domain so it was only about the hardware. I bought the v2 for the storage but I never realized how gimpy the UI and management options were until I decided to make it my mission to load my entire library. So I guess I have been becoming disillusioned since purchasing the Oasis v2...but I have to admit, the hardware itself is beautiful and I hate the idea of returning it.

[sakura-panda]

I was looking at Sony and Amazon; the book selection was about the same. I ended up going with the Sony PRS-505 because I thought it was a better design, had more flexibility about where I could buy my books, and was on sale.

[Atunah]

I was probably behind a lot of folks here, as far as ereader technology goes. I had no idea e-readers existed, or ebooks for that matter. Not in a way outside having to read some non fiction book on a computer, which would not only not appeal to me, I wouldn't be able to do it.

I had about given up on reading by 2008. I just couldn't comfortably read paperbooks anymore. Font too small and most of the books I got were used so yellowed. No contrast. As I have always read a lot in my life, this was a hard thing to kind of give up. Kind of came gradually.

Sometime in early or mid 2008, I heard about Oprah's advertising a kindle. I think I might have seen it first on the amazon website, but I can't remember. Since I don't watch Oprah, it must have been so.
I was already a Amazon customer, I think I been since 2000 or so. So my ears perked. They had a Oprah coupon, but then sold out. I had to wait since I had to save up that money, it was a lot at the time. $399.

I had no clue about format, ebooks, or how this would all work. I also couldn't imagine how it would be reading off it. I finally got one the end of 2008, the first kindle, K1 with the magical unicorn bar.

I still remember when I opened it. It had this pretty book like box around it. And then the first look at that screen. I was kind of in awe. I loved everything about that device, buttons, keyboard, ergonomic design. But most of all, that screen. I downloaded my first book and I was off. I hadn't read maybe 10 books in the last few years before I gave up reading. I read 200 books in the first year with the K1. I have been with kindles ever since, have no interest in changing. They have just always worked for me and I am not a fiddler. I do not jailbreak anything, I don't root anything, I wouldn't know how to do any of that stuff. I want something to just work and kindles always have.

So I just keep reading books. I have learned a lot in the years after about formats and such right here, and calibre. But really, technically, I didn't really need any of that.

So for me it was both, the need to be able to read and finding such a thing on amazon. I didn't know any other e-readers existed, I think sony was there? But I had no clue. I saw the kindle first. And it was the first time I had heard of an e-reader.

[Katsunami]

I tried to start reading ebooks in 2007. Because I didn't like the Kindle at that time AND I didn't like to be stuck with their MOBI format (or plain text) as the only option, I purchased a Bokeen Cybook Gen3. (Breaking it by accidentally formatting the e-reader instead of a USB-stick was the original reason for me registering on this forum, as Bokeen just didn't answer my e-mails requesting the firmware files that should be in the internal memory.)

Then I found out that none of the books I wanted to read were available. I decided to use the reader for classics only, and came to the conclusion that Gutenberg was not good enough. I sold the Bokeen in 2008.

Then the 2010 e-book boom happened, calibre was maturing fast, DRM-cracks were developed, and Amazon introduced the Kindle Touch in 2011. I bought it, and read on it for a year, thinking that an integrated light would be very cool, because the e-reader was darker than a normal book.

I started buying e-books like crazy, using Kobo coupons.

Enter the PW1. Sold my Touch to my aunt, got the KPW1 in 2012 at the release date, and used it for four years. Now I have a Kobo Aura ONE because of the bigger screen. The only thing I'd want is an ereader with better build quality (no gaps between screen and housing, and so on).

I stopped buying e-books in 2015, except for some newer releases here and there, because I've almost reached 1000 books (including 58 Delphi Classics). I have everything I ever wanted, could want, would maybe have wanted, and possibly could have wanted if I read all the books I have, so I don't see the need to keep hunting for e-books. Now I mostly buy on recommendation (which are mostly books I've never heard of, otherwise I would have had them already, probably.)

Kobo is where I buy most of my books because they're cheaper for me than Amazon most of the time (especially if I can use a coupon). Other stores are Feedbooks, ebooks.com, and some stores that are now defunct (BooksOnBoard, etc....)

As long as calibre can convert towards the format used by my device, I don't really care what format that is. Everything I buy is converted to EPUB, cleaned up, provided with a cover 1000 pixels high (maybe I should start using something like 2500 pixels high now, but covers that size are not always available), and then converted to the format I need. AZW3 books are also converted to EPUB first, as that is the base format in my library... even if I'm using a Kindle.

[rem736]

i think that as the response show, the answers are more complex than the poll choices are offering. and even if that isn't the case, one's decision may change at a later point in time. in the early days of ebooks, there was no clear winner in the choice of formats. 10 to 15 years later, amazon's format and epub/pdf are the clear winners. and there are other specialty formats used for graphic novels as well. free books were my initial motivators. my first e-ink device was the first commercially released device in the u.s. by sony, the PRS-500. with this, i was able to read library books and those in the public domain (mainly from project gutenberg). then i got a kindle because of all of the free offerings from amazon. of course, these free offers were part of a series, designed to whet your appetite to buy the rest of the series. so i end up with two readers because each cannot handle the format used in the other.

and then calibre comes along and makes it easier to convert from one format to another. with this, ebook format is much less of a factor than all other features. so how someone decides will change over time.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by rem736

and then calibre comes along and makes it easier to convert from one format to another. with this, ebook format is much less of a factor than all other features. so how someone decides will change over time.

Makes me wonder, how did Kovid come to start building Calibre in the first place? It's one of the most useful ebook related programs I've ever seen if not the most useful.

[Shinryuu]

I've been reading real books for quite a while. This device was on a sale and got my interest. I've seen a friend of mine using a similar device as well. I was surprised that this device won't kill my eyes. I've always had issues reading stuff on the monitor.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by HarryT

When I started reading eBooks in the late 1980s there were no "dedicated" reading devices or commercial ebooks, so it was the availability of handheld devices on which to read public domain texts from PG that was the determining factor. My first ebook reading was done of Psion palmtop devices (a long-defunct British manufacturer of early PDAs), then later on Palm, followed by Compaq/HP Pocket PC devices. The first eInk reader was a Sony PRS-500 in 2006, which I had to import from the US at huge expense.

These days I stick with Kindles, both because I like the devices themselves, and because Amazon make the entire process of buying and reading eBooks so easy.

I am fairly similar. In the beginning, it was mainly larger computers of various types and mostly text.

Then my wife and I were in a Office Depot near Christmas where we went a lot at that time in the next town, and she found on a reduction table a handheld Franklin (dictionary, thesaurus, translator, etc., with a slot for BOOKMAN cards. -MWD 1470)
The screen was 2 1/2 inches by 1 1/4 inches .

There have been many variations over the years and Franklin has a storied and checkered past especially back in the day about 1982 when it made desktops with pirated Apple II firmware. (had an interesting story for the court) It later went strictly to handheld devices. I got my MWD 1470 about 2001 or so. I have it still over by the desk in my work room.

It was $7 new on that Office Depot reduction table, but you can still buy one today from Amazon for $129 or less for used. Mine works like new.

They now make the devices so it will speak to you and translate, but of course these days a handheld phone will do the same and more. The advantage of the Franklin is that a tiny battery will last for 6 or more years and work in the deepest valley, or forest or on the highest hill.

I loved it and my wife also liked because I didn't bother her so much about how to spell words, etc.

(I just downloaded the manual which I haven't seen in years.)

Anyway that was my start, and then the Kindle KB 3G came out for at the time ONLY $189 and I could get books or magazines anywhere and even read email though that was torturous, and away we went down the rabbit holes.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by crich70

Makes me wonder, how did Kovid come to start building Calibre in the first place? It's one of the most useful ebook related programs I've ever seen if not the most useful.

From memory, it started as an easier way to get books onto his Sony using Linux.

Here's the Wikipedia entry.

I think Calibre is responsible for whatever success Kobo currently has in the US.

[GeoffR]

I got started with ebooks five years ago, the latest ereaders available in local shops were Sony T1 and Kobo Glo, with the Kindle Paperwhite still a few weeks away (released but reserved for US customers).

The features that decided it at the time were frontlight (Kobo and Kindle only), expandable storage (Kobo and Sony only), and public library access (Kobo and Sony only), so I got the Kobo.

[cromag]

It's easier to convert data than hardware. I bought the device I liked and I've rarely had a problem getting a purchased ebook onto it. These days I have several ereaders and I still like my first one best, and use that one most.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by crich70

Makes me wonder, how did Kovid come to start building Calibre in the first place? It's one of the most useful ebook related programs I've ever seen if not the most useful.

As I recall, calibre was born as libprs500 in late 2006/early 2007 to work with the Sony PRS-500 and Linux with the BBeB/LRF ebook format. Since then, it has grown and become one of my must-have programs -- for ebooks, Sigil and Calibre and I'm happy. And, yes, calibre is not supposed to be capitalized but my typing reflexes have this need to capitalize proper names.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I think Calibre is responsible for whatever success Kobo currently has in the US.

I would disagree with you. Very few Kobo owners anywhere even know that calibre exists. Much like Kindle or Nook owners, they tend to purchase a few ebooks per year from the corporate store, possibly borrow a few more from the local library and never worry about cataloging, converting, editing, etc. The users here on Mobileread tend to be a much better educated and demanding group.