eBook Readers - similarity with other hobbies

HarryT · 07-03-2007, 09:53 AM

The random thought occurs to me that the eBook reading community is much like that of any other technical hobby. There are those who buy devices that are on the market now in order to actually use them, and there are those who are more interested in the technology of the devices than their actual use, and for whom the "next generation" device will always be more interesting than what's available now.

Thinking about it, every "technical" hobby I've ever been involved with - fishing and astronomy to name but two - has been much the same. They are those who buy the equipment to use it, and those for whom the equipment itself is the "be all and end all", and who never actually seem to get around to using it despite sometimes spending vast amounts of money on "gear" which lies lies around unused

.

I'm not sure that this means anything, but it struck me as being vaguely interesting.

I very definitely fall into the category of those who enjoy the actual reading. I'll buy a new device if it makes reading a more enjoyable experience, but I'd rather be reading on something than waiting 6 months for that elusive "next generation" device which somehow always seems to be just beyond our grasp

.

I wonder how many people would admit to being in the "more interested in the equipment than in using it" camp?

JSWolf · 07-03-2007, 10:03 AM

I bought my Sony Reader to read. But, any other reader I would buy in the future would be because of the technology due tot he fact that my Sony works fine as is for what I use it for.

mogui · 07-03-2007, 12:14 PM

Here I am in China, where I can't easily buy books. So the Reader fills a need for me purely as a reading device. I read much more now than I did with my Palm devices. This is simply due to the comfort of the Sony Reader.

But I am one of those who will take off on the equipment too. I am so tempted to re-flash, and get into that whole trip. I have been involved in Linux since the mid 90s. It is another important source of enjoyment for me.

However, with this Reader, I am being very cautious. If I break it I am almost compelled to hand-carry it to the US to solve the problem. I think if I had two of them, one would become a development toy.

But now I just happily read and read and read.

HarryT · 07-03-2007, 12:35 PM

I suspect that of all us outside the US share your caution, mogui. I've not applied any of the "hacks" to my Reader for exactly the reasons you describe. It's such an important part of my "life" now that I'd be petrified of breaking it.

Adam B. · 07-03-2007, 02:33 PM

I'm afraid I fall (mostly) into the second category. I love technology. I eat up each new device I buy like it's candy. Most of the electronics I own, I don't actually "need". But I do use my iLiad daily. Much more than my Nokia 770, Sony PSP, Apple iBook, MP4 Watch (Yes, I'm a geek), 2nd Desktop PC, and whatever other gadgets I've forgotten. For me, it's more of an addiction than a necessity. I'll probably buy the next generation ebook device. But I will get use out of it.

NatCh · 07-03-2007, 02:55 PM

I eat the tech up, always wanting to know about the next gadget, but I'm fairly good about not actually buying the ones I don't have a use for. Having a wife who's a penny-pincher helps, obviously.

yvanleterrible · 07-03-2007, 03:31 PM

I don't have a techie wallet but I do have the gadget appetite. This reader will be used till it busts, although when colo(u)r eink shows its pretty display... I might be... unfaithful!

Bob Russell · 07-03-2007, 03:55 PM

I love both sides of it - simple reading and the tech side - but time constraints and fear keep me from trying anything daring with the Sony Reader other than the simplest of format conversions.

Like many others, I won't jump on tech just for the tech lust alone. It needs to have a purpose because I don't have the budget to get tech just for tech's sake.

Similarly, when young and full of free time, I would jump on the development side of a computer or calculator or one of those old Radio Shack / Sharp one line "pocket computers", or design and build various kinds of electronics circuits. But I would only do it for those things that I cared about. To improve something, or do something that you couldn't do "out of the box", or do something that I couldn't afford to buy commercially.

bigumpah · 07-03-2007, 05:08 PM

Oh yes there are people who buy gadgets or equipment in any domain for the novelty factor or bragging rights. My future father-in-law has a saying "He who dies with the most stuff, wins..."

My kryptonite like most others here are electronics. I can fairly say that I've only succumbed twice in my adult life. The first purchase was a Swatch Spot watch. I fancied it for the nearly a month and naively thought it would that it would revolutionize my life. My second and last folly was the Archos AV500 PVR device. It cost me $500 US dollars.

A fantastic device to be sure, providing one actually uses it during commuting instead of constantly napping.

I can say with confidence that I will heavily use my Iliad, as I'm a voracious reader. I will also be able to conveniently keep my work pdf documents when visiting clients, instead of pulling them out from the intranet only to print and discard them not long after.

Hmm... Perhaps I will also have to buy a scanner for home?

Studio717 · 07-03-2007, 05:31 PM

I'm a tech junkie from way back, but at the same time, I read a lot on my Sony Reader and love it. On Sunday I read two and a half books on it and yesterday, when waiting for a friend's appointment to finish (I'd driven her there), I was able to read more of the one I hadn't finished yet.

When the SR first came out, I wanted one in the worst way but am usually not a 'first adopter'. The price also made me hesitate. However, when the price dropped $50, I snatched it up right away and I've been thoroughly enjoying it ever since.

I like to keep up with tips and techniques for optimum use, so read the posts here as often as I can. The conversion utilities are top-notch (and one of the main reasons I didn't hesitate to buy when the price came down).

The Sony instructions for creating Reader readable PDFs from Word also work just fine and I've been converting quite a few HTML books into PDFs that way. The PDF converter available here is also wonderful and I use it for a lot of PDFs I already have, especially ones that are scans only.

The combo of features on the Reader itself, plus the tools available here, have made the Reader something I reach for often. I use it more than I ever thought I would (and I've been reading ebooks on my Palm for years).

I should mention that my husband thinks it's much better for my eyes, too, so he's very happy I have it. (Yeah, I read a lot.

)

wgrimm · 07-03-2007, 07:26 PM

Back in the 1980s, my perfect vacation was sitting on the beach under an umbrella, a book in hand and a bikini-clad pretty girl next to me to mix the martinis. In the 1990s, I still had the pretty girl but 2 young daughters also, and vodka bottles were ditched to make room for baby bottles. And the heavy bag of books was replaced by a Rocketbook.

I have tried most of the e-book readers- Palm, Rocket and REB, HieBook, etc. The only complaints I have had are short battery life and the work it takes to convert a publication (readable on PC) for e-book reader use. The Sony Reader is nice, but the same old conversion hassle exists (I bought UNPDF, so hopefully when the Reader-compatible version is released, conversions will be easier). By far, the easiest method of reading e-books for me has been to buy from ereader.com and read on the Palm. Downside is that many technical books are not available there (only the CodeNotes publications).

Copyright law says that once I buy a publication (or music or whatever), I can convert to other formats for my own use- this is why I can legally rip a cd I own to an IPOD format. But book publishers seem to think that I should be forced to buy an electronic version of a paper book I already own- no publisher makes it easy. For example, I bought Singh's OS X Internals a year or so ago- the publisher tells me I have to BUY a PDF version to read on my computer. That's $65 (list 80 or so) for the printed, another $45 for pdf. And the PDF is DRM'ed; what am I going to do- pay the cash or start looking around the torrents or newsgroups for the pdf?

E-Books are great, and convenient, but it is the users and hackers that will bring the book publishers kicking and screaming into the 21st century. IMHO, a very small segment of the population supports publishers (look up the statistics of how many books the average American reads in a year), and they should be catering to us instead of trying to rip us off. I spend several thousand dollars per year on books- much of that on e-books- and don't like being taken advantage of.

Acataloger · 07-03-2007, 08:55 PM

Quote:

When the SR first came out, I wanted one in the worst way but am usually not a 'first adopter'.

Nor am I, but I was enchanted by an article I read a few years ago in the New York Times which read in part:

"The key is electronic ink -- ... 'e-ink' is composed of millions of microscopic capsules, each of which contains a soup of blue dye and tiny flecks of white pigment. When the capsules are exposed to an electrical charge, the white particles inside move around. A negative charge draws the particles to the top, turning the capsule white; a positive charge pushes them to the bottom, under the dye, so the capsule appears dark. Under a microscope, a sheet of e-ink looks like a bed of sea anemones winking open and shut. Viewed en masse, the capsules -- some black, some white -- give rise to letters and images, like placard-bearing fans in a football stadium."

When the Sony Reader came out, I knew I would not be able to wait for the price to come down. No regrets - I read both books and long articles (using the low tech method of saving the latter in Notepad). The best part has been finding so many authors through the MR book enhancers that I knew nothing about - even after a lifetime of working in bookstores and libraries.

I don't see myself trading up, even for color. To paraphrase the movie buffs, "glorious black & white" is perfect (or is it glorious gray scales?)

JSWolf · 07-03-2007, 09:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wgrimm

I have tried most of the e-book readers- Palm, Rocket and REB, HieBook, etc. The only complaints I have had are short battery life and the work it takes to convert a publication (readable on PC) for e-book reader use. The Sony Reader is nice, but the same old conversion hassle exists (I bought UNPDF, so hopefully when the Reader-compatible version is released, conversions will be easier). By far, the easiest method of reading e-books for me has been to buy from ereader.com and read on the Palm. Downside is that many technical books are not available there (only the CodeNotes publications).

To be honest, I buy my books in LIT, break the DRM, load into Book Designer, and format. It's not hard and takes hardly any time. Most of the formatting is fixing what BD thinks are titles or subtitles that are not.

And formatting some Project Gutenberg books can take some time, but it's worth it. I'm planning on an omnibus starting maybe next week. I won't be home much on the 4th and the weekend. So I won't be doing much formatting. But, I'll be doing a lot more reading.

RWood · 07-03-2007, 10:09 PM

At times I have been on the leading edge, the bleeding edge, and so far behind the curve they thought I dropped out of the race. When I first heard of the Sony Reader I did some investigation (read a few days) and went out to see one at a Boarders. My wife of many years (who sometimes knows me better than I know myself) said after about 5 minutes, "Will you just buy the thing so we can get to dinner." I joined MobileRead the next day.

As for other hobbies, like many here I have far more books than I can lift, lots of music of all sorts of flavors (now mostly on the music server, currently being rebuilt), enough computers (5) to keep the electric company in business, photography, video, and a stamp collection.

Antartica · 07-04-2007, 03:49 AM

Mine is not so black-and-white.

I want gadgets to use them. But sometimes I've failed O:-).

I've been in a quest for having something to read electronic files for a lot of years.

When I bought my onhandpc watch (which had a DOS clone OS and a 102x64 LCD matrix), one of the first things I did was to read PG books on it. I even coded a plain text reader with a pleasant font et al (4-5 words per line, eight lines per page). And I was very happy until my wife convinced me that it surely wasn't too good for my eyes.

I had tried at the office using a pocketPC and was not impressed. I also tried using a tabletpc (compaq tc1000 with linux, using xpdf), but the screen wasn't too good and it was uneasy to my eyes (BTW, reading in the watch was easy on my eyes, lol!). Thankfully, as those test were with borrowed hardware, no problem.

Then I bought a Newton 2100 (it was the lowest priced "PDA" with a large screen that I was aware at that moment -- I didn't knew of the REB). And that was a flop. The screen contrast was not very good, and the backlight whines... I have only tinkered with it, but not read books on it, that was the aim of the purchase.

And then, came the iliad

. In the first 10 months it had intensive use, both from me and my wife, but now it only has casual use, mainly because the long boot times.

That is, I managed to get some months ago a Zaurus SL-5500, and I use that instead of the iliad when the things I have to read are online html, because of the said boot times of the iliad (the zaurus is ready in less than 2 seconds, and that includes asociating itself to the AP via wifi).

Overall: 4 gadgets, "only" one did not get used

07-03-2007, 09:53 AM	#1
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	eBook Readers - similarity with other hobbies The random thought occurs to me that the eBook reading community is much like that of any other technical hobby. There are those who buy devices that are on the market now in order to actually use them, and there are those who are more interested in the technology of the devices than their actual use, and for whom the "next generation" device will always be more interesting than what's available now. Thinking about it, every "technical" hobby I've ever been involved with - fishing and astronomy to name but two - has been much the same. They are those who buy the equipment to use it, and those for whom the equipment itself is the "be all and end all", and who never actually seem to get around to using it despite sometimes spending vast amounts of money on "gear" which lies lies around unused . I'm not sure that this means anything, but it struck me as being vaguely interesting. I very definitely fall into the category of those who enjoy the actual reading. I'll buy a new device if it makes reading a more enjoyable experience, but I'd rather be reading on something than waiting 6 months for that elusive "next generation" device which somehow always seems to be just beyond our grasp . I wonder how many people would admit to being in the "more interested in the equipment than in using it" camp?

07-03-2007, 05:08 PM	#9
bigumpah Member Posts: 23 Karma: 23 Join Date: Jun 2007 Device: Axim 5V, Irex Iliad	Oh yes there are people who buy gadgets or equipment in any domain for the novelty factor or bragging rights. My future father-in-law has a saying "He who dies with the most stuff, wins..." My kryptonite like most others here are electronics. I can fairly say that I've only succumbed twice in my adult life. The first purchase was a Swatch Spot watch. I fancied it for the nearly a month and naively thought it would that it would revolutionize my life. My second and last folly was the Archos AV500 PVR device. It cost me $500 US dollars. A fantastic device to be sure, providing one actually uses it during commuting instead of constantly napping. I can say with confidence that I will heavily use my Iliad, as I'm a voracious reader. I will also be able to conveniently keep my work pdf documents when visiting clients, instead of pulling them out from the intranet only to print and discard them not long after. Hmm... Perhaps I will also have to buy a scanner for home? Last edited by bigumpah; 07-03-2007 at 05:17 PM.

07-03-2007, 07:26 PM	#11
wgrimm Addict Posts: 230 Karma: 334908 Join Date: Oct 2006 Device: multiple	Electronics Use Back in the 1980s, my perfect vacation was sitting on the beach under an umbrella, a book in hand and a bikini-clad pretty girl next to me to mix the martinis. In the 1990s, I still had the pretty girl but 2 young daughters also, and vodka bottles were ditched to make room for baby bottles. And the heavy bag of books was replaced by a Rocketbook. I have tried most of the e-book readers- Palm, Rocket and REB, HieBook, etc. The only complaints I have had are short battery life and the work it takes to convert a publication (readable on PC) for e-book reader use. The Sony Reader is nice, but the same old conversion hassle exists (I bought UNPDF, so hopefully when the Reader-compatible version is released, conversions will be easier). By far, the easiest method of reading e-books for me has been to buy from ereader.com and read on the Palm. Downside is that many technical books are not available there (only the CodeNotes publications). Copyright law says that once I buy a publication (or music or whatever), I can convert to other formats for my own use- this is why I can legally rip a cd I own to an IPOD format. But book publishers seem to think that I should be forced to buy an electronic version of a paper book I already own- no publisher makes it easy. For example, I bought Singh's OS X Internals a year or so ago- the publisher tells me I have to BUY a PDF version to read on my computer. That's $65 (list 80 or so) for the printed, another $45 for pdf. And the PDF is DRM'ed; what am I going to do- pay the cash or start looking around the torrents or newsgroups for the pdf? E-Books are great, and convenient, but it is the users and hackers that will bring the book publishers kicking and screaming into the 21st century. IMHO, a very small segment of the population supports publishers (look up the statistics of how many books the average American reads in a year), and they should be catering to us instead of trying to rip us off. I spend several thousand dollars per year on books- much of that on e-books- and don't like being taken advantage of.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
What ebook readers don't do	Elfwreck	General Discussions	18	09-08-2010 12:47 PM
How many different ebook readers have you used?	ficbot	General Discussions	41	03-29-2010 01:51 PM
Hello there, eBook readers	Chuckyjch	Introduce Yourself	5	12-14-2009 07:46 PM
Ebook readers in the UK?	madmandegge	Which one should I buy?	30	08-26-2008 12:25 PM

07-03-2007, 10:03 AM	#2
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,983 Karma: 128903378 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	I bought my Sony Reader to read. But, any other reader I would buy in the future would be because of the technology due tot he fact that my Sony works fine as is for what I use it for.

07-03-2007, 12:14 PM	#3
mogui eNigma Posts: 503 Karma: 1335 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: The Philippines Device: HTC G1 Android FBReader	Here I am in China, where I can't easily buy books. So the Reader fills a need for me purely as a reading device. I read much more now than I did with my Palm devices. This is simply due to the comfort of the Sony Reader. But I am one of those who will take off on the equipment too. I am so tempted to re-flash, and get into that whole trip. I have been involved in Linux since the mid 90s. It is another important source of enjoyment for me. However, with this Reader, I am being very cautious. If I break it I am almost compelled to hand-carry it to the US to solve the problem. I think if I had two of them, one would become a development toy. But now I just happily read and read and read.

07-03-2007, 12:35 PM	#4
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	I suspect that of all us outside the US share your caution, mogui. I've not applied any of the "hacks" to my Reader for exactly the reasons you describe. It's such an important part of my "life" now that I'd be petrified of breaking it.

07-03-2007, 02:33 PM	#5
Adam B. Addicted to Porting Posts: 1,697 Karma: 7194 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Indianapolis, IN Device: iRex iLiad, Nokia 770, Samsung i760	I'm afraid I fall (mostly) into the second category. I love technology. I eat up each new device I buy like it's candy. Most of the electronics I own, I don't actually "need". But I do use my iLiad daily. Much more than my Nokia 770, Sony PSP, Apple iBook, MP4 Watch (Yes, I'm a geek), 2nd Desktop PC, and whatever other gadgets I've forgotten. For me, it's more of an addiction than a necessity. I'll probably buy the next generation ebook device. But I will get use out of it.

07-03-2007, 02:55 PM	#6
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	I eat the tech up, always wanting to know about the next gadget, but I'm fairly good about not actually buying the ones I don't have a use for. Having a wife who's a penny-pincher helps, obviously.

07-03-2007, 03:31 PM	#7
yvanleterrible Reborn Paper User Posts: 8,616 Karma: 15446734 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Que Nada Device: iPhone8, iPad Air	I don't have a techie wallet but I do have the gadget appetite. This reader will be used till it busts, although when colo(u)r eink shows its pretty display... I might be... unfaithful!

07-03-2007, 03:55 PM	#8
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	I love both sides of it - simple reading and the tech side - but time constraints and fear keep me from trying anything daring with the Sony Reader other than the simplest of format conversions. Like many others, I won't jump on tech just for the tech lust alone. It needs to have a purpose because I don't have the budget to get tech just for tech's sake. Similarly, when young and full of free time, I would jump on the development side of a computer or calculator or one of those old Radio Shack / Sharp one line "pocket computers", or design and build various kinds of electronics circuits. But I would only do it for those things that I cared about. To improve something, or do something that you couldn't do "out of the box", or do something that I couldn't afford to buy commercially.

07-03-2007, 05:31 PM	#10
Studio717 Addict Posts: 208 Karma: 575 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: California Device: Various Kindles, iPhone, iPad, Galaxy 10.1	I'm a tech junkie from way back, but at the same time, I read a lot on my Sony Reader and love it. On Sunday I read two and a half books on it and yesterday, when waiting for a friend's appointment to finish (I'd driven her there), I was able to read more of the one I hadn't finished yet. When the SR first came out, I wanted one in the worst way but am usually not a 'first adopter'. The price also made me hesitate. However, when the price dropped $50, I snatched it up right away and I've been thoroughly enjoying it ever since. I like to keep up with tips and techniques for optimum use, so read the posts here as often as I can. The conversion utilities are top-notch (and one of the main reasons I didn't hesitate to buy when the price came down). The Sony instructions for creating Reader readable PDFs from Word also work just fine and I've been converting quite a few HTML books into PDFs that way. The PDF converter available here is also wonderful and I use it for a lot of PDFs I already have, especially ones that are scans only. The combo of features on the Reader itself, plus the tools available here, have made the Reader something I reach for often. I use it more than I ever thought I would (and I've been reading ebooks on my Palm for years). I should mention that my husband thinks it's much better for my eyes, too, so he's very happy I have it. (Yeah, I read a lot. )

07-03-2007, 10:09 PM	#14
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	At times I have been on the leading edge, the bleeding edge, and so far behind the curve they thought I dropped out of the race. When I first heard of the Sony Reader I did some investigation (read a few days) and went out to see one at a Boarders. My wife of many years (who sometimes knows me better than I know myself) said after about 5 minutes, "Will you just buy the thing so we can get to dinner." I joined MobileRead the next day. As for other hobbies, like many here I have far more books than I can lift, lots of music of all sorts of flavors (now mostly on the music server, currently being rebuilt), enough computers (5) to keep the electric company in business, photography, video, and a stamp collection.

07-04-2007, 03:49 AM	#15
Antartica Evangelist Posts: 423 Karma: 1517132 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Madrid, Spain Device: quaderno, remarkable2, yotaphone2, prs950, iliad, onhandpc, newton	Mine is not so black-and-white. I want gadgets to use them. But sometimes I've failed O:-). I've been in a quest for having something to read electronic files for a lot of years. When I bought my onhandpc watch (which had a DOS clone OS and a 102x64 LCD matrix), one of the first things I did was to read PG books on it. I even coded a plain text reader with a pleasant font et al (4-5 words per line, eight lines per page). And I was very happy until my wife convinced me that it surely wasn't too good for my eyes. I had tried at the office using a pocketPC and was not impressed. I also tried using a tabletpc (compaq tc1000 with linux, using xpdf), but the screen wasn't too good and it was uneasy to my eyes (BTW, reading in the watch was easy on my eyes, lol!). Thankfully, as those test were with borrowed hardware, no problem. Then I bought a Newton 2100 (it was the lowest priced "PDA" with a large screen that I was aware at that moment -- I didn't knew of the REB). And that was a flop. The screen contrast was not very good, and the backlight whines... I have only tinkered with it, but not read books on it, that was the aim of the purchase. And then, came the iliad . In the first 10 months it had intensive use, both from me and my wife, but now it only has casual use, mainly because the long boot times. That is, I managed to get some months ago a Zaurus SL-5500, and I use that instead of the iliad when the things I have to read are online html, because of the said boot times of the iliad (the zaurus is ready in less than 2 seconds, and that includes asociating itself to the AP via wifi). Overall: 4 gadgets, "only" one did not get used

Advert

Advert