Looking for advice about reader and/or PDF's

[Joga_Bonito]

Hi all.

Firstly, I'd like to apologize for starting yet another thread asking what I imagine are the same old questions that, no doubt, many of you are tired of answering.

Anyway, I have been looking at e-readers for several months now. I already own hundreds of e-books and research papers (and I have dozens of paper books waiting to be read), so it is unlikely that I will need to purchase anything new for some considerable time. I have been reading those e-books on my computer, thus far, and as I'm sure that you are aware, it isn't exactly ideal. In fact, I've all but given up on it, as I was starting, for the first time in my life, to suffer from severe headaches due to the length of time staring at the screen.

The problem is — at least, that is the impression that I am getting — that the vast majority (~ 95%) of those e-books are PDF's. I would be willing to spend time formatting them for use on an e-reader, but I'd appreciate some advice about just how inconvenient it really is? I've read through a number of threads on here, already, but I must confess that I am still struggling to understand some of the jargon, and I'm still not quite clear just how arduous the task really is. Clearly my ignorance is something that I will have to personally rectify, but the real difficulty is in not being able to learn by experience, due to the fact that I don't own a reader, and it would be fairly annoying to find that I cannot read any of the books that I already own.

I have been concentrating mainly on the Sony PRS-505, to this point. I live in the UK, so the Kindle has not been an option, though it may well be come the end of the year. The only task that I expect to use an e-reader for is reading, but it is the fact that I already own so many PDF's that is really bothering me.

I have noticed that there will likely be two new Sony e-readers in the near future, but as someone has already mentioned, none of the new generation of readers appears to be a great leap forward in either the technology or functionality, and given that I am principally interested in using a reader for reading, I'm not really willing to pay over the odds, simply because something is "new". The Sony PRS-505 is now available in the UK for £150, for instance.

Finally, I'd love to own an e-reader, but I am willing to wait if necessary, largely due to the fact that many of the (non-fiction) subjects that I am interested in (science, religion, history, etc) are not, so far as I can tell, well covered in e-book format — at least, not beyond the popular titles (I could of course be wrong about that). So I will continue to purchase paper books, and I already have a back-log of roughly 40 books that are waiting to be read. However, if some of my fears were allayed, I'd be tempted to purchase one, principally as I have already spent a considerable amount of money on e-books which I'd like to read, but also because it would provide a great deal of choice between paper and e-books.

Any advice about either the readers that I should be concentrating on, and/or the difficulties in formatting PDF's, would be most welcome. Thank you for your time.

[pdurrant]

First, welcome to Mobileread!

Secondly, it sounds to me like you'd be better off waiting for one of the larger ebooks that are due "real soon now", especially the Plastic Logic one.

http://www.plasticlogic.com/

The Sony 505 is an excellent ebook reader for Sony's LRF format and for ePUB. For reading non-PDF, I'd say it's the best buy in the UK right now at £150 because Sony are selling the remaining stock off before they launch the 300 and 600.

Converting PDF into other formats is hard, because PDF is a page based, layout based format, not a text-flow based format like all the others. It can be done, but it's tricky and the results are rarely optimal.

So - in your position, I think I'd wait.

Originally Posted by Joga_Bonito

I already own hundreds of e-books and research papers
[...]
The problem is — at least, that is the impression that I am getting — that the vast majority (~ 95%) of those e-books are PDF's.
[...]
I have been concentrating mainly on the Sony PRS-505, to this point. I live in the UK [...] The Sony PRS-505 is now available in the UK for £150, for instance.

Finally, I'd love to own an e-reader, but I am willing to wait if necessary, [...]
Any advice about either the readers that I should be concentrating on, and/or the difficulties in formatting PDF's, would be most welcome. Thank you for your time.

[DDHarriman]

Hi

What you need is a big screen reader for your non-fiction use.

I advise the Irex Digital Reader or the Kindle DX.

Best regards,