Kindle Irritation — Not opened at cover

[rcentros]

I know it shouldn't be that big of a deal but I find it irritating that — unlike every other eReader — Kindles do not open new books to the front cover. I always try to back up to the cover (and over the author's dedication, intro etc.) and almost always end up hitting an entry in the Table of Contents that sends me to somewhere in the middle of the book.

Maybe I'm weird, but I like to read an eBook the same way I read a printed book, from the cover in. Why does Amazon assume that their readers will want to ignore all the information that often comes before the first chapter, including the cover?

I know that, in the world of gripes, this is a tiny gripe but I sure would like Amazon to offer the option to "Start at Cover."

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I know it shouldn't be that big of a deal but I find it irritating that — unlike every other eReader — Kindles do not open new books to the front cover. I always try to back up to the cover (and over the author's dedication, intro etc.) and almost always end up hitting an entry in the Table of Contents that sends me to somewhere in the middle of the book.

Maybe I'm weird, but I like to read an eBook the same way I read a printed book, from the cover in. Why does Amazon assume that their readers will want to ignore all the information that often comes before the first chapter, including the cover?

I know that, in the world of gripes, this is a tiny gripe but I sure would like Amazon to offer the option to "Start at Cover."

This has been complained about for a long time in a lot of threads by a lot of people including a lot of authors. The consensus seems to be: "That is just the way it is."

It doesn't bother me that much per se, but what really aggravates me, is that, even if I got to the cover by going back one page at a time, it royally screws up the "back" stack by inserting the cover page into the "back" stack. What is even more aggravating is that it wasn't always that way. I remember routinely going to the cover on my Kindle 2 and Kindle DX without it screwing up the stack.

[Acataloger]

I make it a routine on opening to pull up the "Go to" button in Options and select Cover or Position 1, depending on the choice presented.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Acataloger

I make it a routine on opening to pull up the "Go to" button in Options and select Cover or Position 1, depending on the choice presented.

That's what I always end up doing after screwing up and hitting something in the Table of Contents and ending up in the middle of the book. (I'm a slow learner. )

Does anyone have any idea why Amazon insists on doing it this way?

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

It doesn't bother me that much per se, but what really aggravates me, is that, even if I got to the cover by going back one page at a time, it royally screws up the "back" stack by inserting the cover page into the "back" stack.

I hate to admit my ignorance, but I don't even know what a "back" stack is or means.

[Acataloger]

Probably the person who set it up in the beginning thought it was an improvement over those clunky old DTBs - a feature not a bug.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I hate to admit my ignorance, but I don't even know what a "back" stack is or means.

Please excuse the intro if you already know what the "back" action is and how to invoke it.

Kindles with physical keyboards have a button labeled "BACK", the K4NT's leftmost button below the screen, and touch screen Kindles have a left pointing arrow icon labeled "back" which take you back to where you were before you did some kind of "goto".

Among the ways to goto somewhere are following links, bringing up table of contents then going to some chapter or elsewhere, going to "home" then some other book. You can go to some large number of places without going "back" and the Kindle will (usually) remember each step. Then you can go "back" one step at a time until you (usually) get back where you started. The list of places you have been can be considered a stack. Going someplace pushes an item onto the stack and going back pops an item off the stack.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Please excuse the intro if you already know what the "back" action is and how to invoke it.

I knew about the back key, but I didn't realize how big the "stack" was (how many steps back it would go). I'm definitely going to experiment with it. Thanks for the explanation.

[patrickt]

A world of problems. The book doesn't open with the cover, you turn pages with a light tap or a short swipe, there's the horrible light that some fools thought was an improvement.

Fortunately, there is a solution. Books. Hardback books. With dustcovers. Amazon will even sell you the books.

I remember my boss, in a moment of misery, saying, "I'd be happy to do what the people want if they could just agree and tell me what that is."

That's life. Terrible isn't it.

Me? I just enjoying having 2,000 available at the nearest WiFi and a million more to buy and read.

Not long ago I was getting some leftover paper books collected to take to the library. On the way to the bathroom where, as I get older, I do a lot of reading I picked up a paperback. My first thought when I opened it was, "I need to enlarge the font a bit."

Fortunately, my only serious disability is insomnia and that really fits with reading, especially on an e-reader with a light.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Fortunately, there is a solution. Books. Hardback books. With dustcovers. Amazon will even sell you the books.

I remember my boss, in a moment of misery, saying, "I'd be happy to do what the people want if they could just agree and tell me what that is."

That's life. Terrible isn't it.

Not much of a "solution" if you want to read eBooks though, is it? There are real solutions however, they're called Nooks, Kobos, Tolinos, Sonys, Ectacos, Pocket Books ... and all the other eBook readers that open at the cover — the natural, common sense way. And there's another possible solution, get Amazon to either change their default or offer the option to start at the cover. Simple, eh? I've never been able to understand "homers" who have the attitude that any complaint about their favorite device (team, product, fill in the blank) has to be met with sarcasm and/or hostility. I never said this was a "deal breaker" with me — I said it was an irritant. An honest gripe. Quite bluntly there was no real point to your post, except (seemingly) for the sarcasm. I like all brands of eReaders but I'm honest about (what I consider to be) their shortcomings and I'm going to mention them from time to time. I hope that's okay with you. (If not, oh well.)

[Tarana]

First world problems (yeah, I have other annoyances, so not downgrading yours). The majority want to open a book to the first page. They actually asked people. Maybe one day, Amazon will have an option that you can set to either cover or first page. That should satisfy everybody.

I personally have no desire to scroll through all the front matter. I just want to start my book.

I've don't recall having a book open to the Table of Contents. It's always the first page.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Tarana

The majority want to open a book to the first page.

Based on what research?

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Based on what research?

"They" was Amazon. Sorry, I guess I was not clear.

I was part of a group who were contacted, long before Amazon put out an ereader, about preferences. Later on, Amazon shared some of their findings (some was published) and one of them was that the majority of people had no interest in the front matter - they just wanted to get started on the books and skip all the advertising and other assorted info at the front. I won't confound you with numbers as I don't remember what they were other than way more than 50% preferred to skip the front matter.

I can't remember when that was, but I'm not sure that there was even a Sony reader yet on the market.

What I don't understand is why the OP gets a lot of books starting at the Table of Contents when I do not experience that. Minor things to ponder.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Tarana

What I don't understand is why the OP gets a lot of books starting at the Table of Contents when I do not experience that. Minor things to ponder.

I wasn't clear, I guess. I run into the Table of Contents when I back up (page by page) to the cover. I always start a new book at the cover, read the intro, author's blurb (whatever is there) and then page through the Table of Contents to kind of get a general overview of the book. There's a lot more than ads there. I've done it this way all my life. If Amazon had asked me I would have said, "Start at the cover, please." Whether it's fruitless or not, I'm going to request Amazon give us the option to start at the cover on their Kindle readers.

[DNSB]

[QUOTE=rcentros;3735912]I know it shouldn't be that big of a deal but I find it irritating that — unlike every other eReader — Kindles do not open new books to the front cover. I always try to back up to the cover (and over the author's dedication, intro etc.) and almost always end up hitting an entry in the Table of Contents that sends me to somewhere in the middle of the book./QUOTE]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Not much of a "solution" if you want to read eBooks though, is it? There are real solutions however, they're called Nooks, Kobos, Tolinos, Sonys, Ectacos, Pocket Books ... and all the other eBook readers that open at the cover — the natural, common sense way.

This is not unique to Kindles. The first time you open an ebook on a Kobo ereader, it opens to the first entry in the table of contents -- not a human readable TOC but toc.ncx or nav.xhtml system TOC. Only if that entry is the cover image will you see the cover.

If I edit an ebook, I will set the first chapter (epigraph, prologue, chapter 1, whatever) as the first entry in the TOC. For the most part, I like it that way since I see the cover image when my ereader sleeps and I really don't need to read through the book synopsis, acknowledgements, list of other books and ghod alone knows what other crap to get to the meat of the book.

Even when I read a deadtree book, I will immediately go to the first page of the book skipping over the pages of filler. When I finish reading a book of any form, I will skip over any filler at the end of the book unless there is some specific reason I want to read 20 pages of puffery for the author (and friends in many indie publications).

Oddly, once you have finished the ebook, the next time you open it, it will open to the cover page.