Initial Decision

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I appear to have bought my first ebooks back on 27th January 2002. At the time I think I was probably reading on computer rather than with a device.

I think I first bought commercial ebooks when Baen started selling ebooks around 1998 or so. I know I bought a lot from Fictionwise once they started operating in 2000. In both cases, I bought books in Microsoft Reader LIT format, reading on my Compaq Pocket PC. I still have (and read) those books today! I remember in particular I bought a lot of Agatha Christie books very cheaply from FW, and subsequently converted them from LIT to Mobi format to read on my Kindle.

[rixte]

My first ebooks were Project Gutenberg txt files I reformatted to read in word back in the mid 90s.

In '99, Baen ebooks launched their beta program and that made me get my first dedicated 'reader' - and old aeon pda. I discovered PeanutPress and Fictionwise (and amason lit files) so I upgraded that to a color version and eventually graduated to a Treo phone. i went with a different model eink reader at the same time of the original Kindle - the Cybook I believe, because I had so many books with fictionwise. But the original cybooks, at least, were terribly fragile and the screens broke for no reason.

At that point, my love of the eink screen plus amazon's much more generous warranty and return options, made me switch to the kindle (still first generation) and I have stayed with them through multiple versions, although I also own a Kobo. Also at one point I owned an ancient rocket ebook I bought off eBay.

I go for the device but only if I can side load if necessary, and I won't buy formats I can't strip the DRM from - I have gone through too many devices and defunct formats!

[Amaryllis]

I bought a Kobo as my first ereader, and I've bought 2 more Kobos since (the mini because of the size, and the Aura which has become my main ereader due to the size ofthe device & memory & the ability to put in a memory card). At the time of my first purchase, Kindle devices really weren't easily obtainable here, and the main contenders were Sony and Kobo. Kobo was a bit cheaper at the time, and much more readily accessible since I could walk into any major bookstore or small store in the local mall & pick one up. Family members could do the same if they wanted to give me gc etc.
I do use my laptop, tablet & smartphone all on occasion to read books, and I use the kindle app on my tablet to get my hands on ebooks that I want but can't get on kobo.

[booklover6]

My first ereader was the ebookwise 1150, a back lit dedicated reader. I wanted the newly released 1st generation Kindle, but it was way too expensive for me. After that I had a number of cheaper readers, the Jetbook, the Sony PRS T1, a Nook ST, and finally in 2010 the Kindle Keyboard! Now I have 3 different Kobo readers and a Kindle Voyage. If I could only have one, and had no ability to format shift, I would only have a Kindle, as I buy most of my books there and read a ton of Kindle Unlimited titles. The Voyage is the most expensive ereader I've bought, and TBH I wouldn't spend that much again. Plus getting library books onto the Kindle is extremely easy.

[Sydney's Mom]

I bought the very first kindle, right after the end of the $50 off for Oprah's favorite devices. I probably would have switched to nook, for epubs, but I found Calibre, and so I am happy. I have a paperwhite 2 and a new Oasis sitting under the tree.

[4691mls]

I bought a Sony reader mainly because it had direct Overdrive library access.

[John F]

For me it was the "device". My first reader was the Sony 505, and the Kindke looked clunky in comparison. I also liked that the 505 supported epub.

These days, it is more the reading firmware than the hardware, so I prefer Kobos.

[skb]

I bought a Palm something or other around 1996/97. However, I didn't realise that I could use it for reading until...maybe 1998. But reading on it was a bit of a challenge because everything had to be in text files. And transferred with it connected to a dock. I still have all the reports and such I converted to text to read on it.

A couple of Palm Pilots later, I bought my first ebooks. Bad experience all round because they were DRM'd (or whatever) with my credit card numbers. Card renewed...ebooks dead (although I did find an old LIT file that I successfully imported into Calibre with Alf all these years later. I found I no longer wanted to read it. Sigh).

I now use an ipod touch (with Marvin) and/or ipad (also Marvin). My Kobo was okay but if, like me, you want to put every book onto it at once (3000+), the menus on the Kobo drove me mad. Apple have nobbled the transferring of stuff to i-devices so much that I only transfer stuff now maybe once a year. So I dump my whole collection on the device.

Oh, Apple. I wish I knew how to quit you.

[DNSB]

The first ebook reading device I had was my computer starting with my S-100 bus sytem back in the late 70's. Most of the content was scanned and OCRed from my collection so I spent quite a bit of time correcting errors. After moving on to IBM/Microsoft systems, I purchased a few commercial ebooks in mobi/PRC and then moved to .lit format since I liked the way Microsoft's reader program display the pages on-screen. I started purchasing ebooks from Baen when they first started selling them and am happy that they later allowed me to download other versions to replace my oiginal downloads.

My first portable "ereader" was a Palm Pilot with it's massive 160x160 screen. I later owned a used Sony which I used for a couple of years. Shortly before I moved on, a firmware update allowed me to move from LRF to epub books. I moved to the original Kobo with it's Bluetooth connection to my Blackberry. I now use a Kobo KA1 for fiction reading and my laptop or iPad for technical PDFs though the KA1 serves as my backup for that purpose.

Along the way, I discovered Sigil and Calibre which pretty much top my current must-have programs list.

After the loss of several ebooks when Microsoft shut down it's DRM servers for the .lit format, I have made the ability to remove DRM a requirement for any ebook format I purchase. If I can't back up a readable copy, I don't buy it.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by DNSB

[...] I have made the ability to remove DRM a requirement for any ebook format I purchase. If I can't back up a readable copy, I don't buy it.

Ditto. For me it was just the irritation of having to re-download new copies of my Mobipocket books when I switched devices, or even just reset and reinstalled.

[Blossom]

I wanted a e-reader as I was reading on a netbook. The first time I saw one was on QVC but it was junk so after doing some research I settled on a Astak EZ Reader a clone Hanlin v5 device. It was a great little reader but when Pearl was released I sold it and bought a Kindle Keyboard. For me it has never had to do with the format or availability of books. It had to do with reading quality. I started out reading non drm books and by the time I learned about DRM I had found Apprentice Alf.

Every e-reader I have bought it had to do with screen quality and fonts. I think e-readers are finally there with 300ppi and now adding font weight controls, creating fonts just for reading, I can read comfortably on many devices.

Sent from my Nexus 7

[issybird]

I had been reading digital books from Project Gutenberg and other public domain sources since my first desktop computer and I was like a kid in a candy store at that. I continued with laptops and handhelds, but I didn't start buying ebooks until I got the original Nook.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Ditto. For me it was just the irritation of having to re-download new copies of my Mobipocket books when I switched devices, or even just reset and reinstalled.

I know I'm in the minority (around here) but I'm the opposite. I had books from this store and that, taught myself calibre and all that, found it cumbersome after awhile and once I went to Kindle I gave up bothering with DRM or any of that. I'm secure enough with that and willing to take the chance of losing ebooks at some point in the future (or just having to go to the trouble of going the calibre route if it's ever needed) for a much easier and quicker time of it now.

Anyway, I rarely re-read and I can't enjoy the look of a nice ebook library on my shelves, so all those ebooks stored away is more a mental abstract to me. Even if I do re-read more in the future and somehow I lose my ebooks, I think I'll be fine. I have a feeling in the distant future (ten, twenty years or more) ebook prices on non-new releases may be considerably cheaper than the premium many are now and others will have lapsed into public domain. Really, I'm more concerned about losing my stored notes and highlights and yet it seems I re-read those about as often as I re-read books.

[Philippe D.]

No "Other" choice in the poll? That's pretty lousy.

I chose a Kobo because I wanted to be able to see the device before I bought it. This pretty much ruled out any Kindle, but Kindle was already out because of its using a proprietary format instead of the open standard - anything that tries to lock me into a specific ecosystem, even one with an alternate way in, is bad in my book.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by issybird

I've moved this to the General Discussion forum so as to involve more members than only those who hang out in the Kindle forum.

Thanks, Issybird.