01:27 PM by CommanderROR in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Hello dear mobilereaders,

I think it is time to tell a story, a story about ebooks and how they change the world...for every one of us.
I'd like to collect your stories here, how you found out about ebooks, when you started reading more and more digital content and whether you made the switchover to ebooks completely or still read pbooks on a regular basis.

I'll start with my story:

I was always a heavy reader, eating through loads of books, some from the library, but many from my local bookstore and later from amazon. When I started studying and move away from my parent's place I soon found out that my shelf-space could never keep up with my book-supply. I tried to get more books from the library, but most of the time I could not find what I wanted (it's not easy to get English books in a German library, especially relatively new ones) and so eventually gave up on the library completely.
I also tried to sell many of the books I had already finished, but found that nobody really wanted them (they are mainly paperbacks) and the fes I could sell went for a price that was probably far below the "heating value" of the paper they contained (no, I never burned books, don't worry).

About 6 years ago I started hearing about ebooks more and more, but the books I wanted were never available in digital form and so I did not take the plunge but kept watching the development.
Approximately four and a half years ago I bought a cheap PDA in a closing sale that I wanted to use for ebooks. The supply of legal ebooks was still dismal, but the Darknet and PG offered enough reading material. During that time I still read many pbooks but gradually started reading more and more on the little PDA. The low battery life and small (320x240) screen frustrated me from the start, but it was all I had. While I was searching the web for alternatives, I stumbled on mention of the "Librié" and when I searched for more information on that device I discovered mobileread.com
That was somewhere between 3.5 and 4 years ago.
At first I browsed the forums passively, searching for information on the Libiré at first which I discounted quickly because of the fact that it was hard to get in Germany, expensive and not really very user-friendly.
Not much later however, the first rumours of the iRex Iliad and the Sony Reader (Librié 2 bascially) started to surface.
Fired by my curiosity about eink and the possibilities it held for the ebook market I decided to join mobileread.com and actively take part in discussions to find out more about this upcoming technology.
About half a year later I owned my first eink device, the iRex Iliad and could finally get rid of my crappy little PDA reading machine and enjoy the benefits of a large, nicely contrasted and eye-friendly reading machine.

The Iliad was rather expensive, 650€ plus shipping, and that heavy price was part of the reason for a vow I toot there and then...a vow to never buy a paper book again. To be entirely honest, I have broken that vow a few times over the last few years, mainly for books from a series that I had started and could not get the next volume as ebook, but paper books moved from nearly 100% of my reading material to nearly 0.
I wrote that the purchase of the Iliad was the big turning point, and in a way it was, however, in those early days there was still a lot of hassle associated with ebooks, you had to convert everything to PDF because that was the only working format on the Iliad back then and that was manual work, no predefined templates, no helpful tools from iRex.
Saying that I spent as much time preparing books than I did grading them would be overdoing it, but it sure sometimes felt that way...
Also, back int hose days a good amount of my reading materials came from the darknet since the Iliad could not read any of the popular DRM format and the supply of books in these formats was also still rather weak.

Along the way I got the STAReBOOK as a review device (having risen to Editor status on mobileread.com by then) and was very fascinated by that device because it was a lot faster and slimmer (in both shape and function) than the feature-rich but also slow,battery-weak and cumbersome Iliad, however, the company vanished without a trace shortly after launching the STAReBOOK and the promised firmware update for the device which should have fixed many of the bugs and intruded new features and support for more ebook formats never happened. So I soon returned to my trusty old Iliad...

The biggest step (in my opinion) happened later that year, when iRex offered a firmware update that added mobipocket support to the Iliad! Thanks to this move, I was finally able to get almost al my books in ebook format...and I could get them legally. This was the biggest step forward...

Many things have happened since, the Cybook Gen3 was launched, the Kindle flickered it's way into existence and brought ebooks even closer to mainstream, my STAReBOOK found a new function as a Cybook Gen3 (same hardware, different firmware...nice...^^) and I can now comfortably browse online stores like booksonboard, choose what I want to read and have it on either of my reading devices in a few minutes, faster and easier than going to the bookstore and buying it there..and cheaper too most of the time...

I have not pirated an ebook for a long time, there is no need anymore, I have not bought a pbook for a long time either (if it's not available as ebook I don't read it...that'll teach the narrow-minded publishers...) and I'm a happy, fully-converted ebook lover.
Of course there are things that could still do with some improvement, many books are still not available as ebooks, the eink devices still have their shortcomings, but all in all I think ebooks are finally (after amyn fals tries) ready for prime-time and the mass market!

THE END!

Please excuse my lengthy ramble, if you are still awake then now would be the right moment to sit back, think back to your first encounter with ebooks and tell us all about it!
Thanks!

12:25 PM by acidzebra in E-Book General | News

Gianfranco is working on an ebook search engine idea to enable consumers to shop for availability and lowest price and such across a range of sites.

The current working name is UESE (Unified Ebook Search Engine), and I thought that maybe this community could come up with a name that rolled off the tongue a little better?

So post your creative suggestions in this thread!

12:23 PM by Steven Lyle Jordan in E-Book General | News

I read with interest this latest News.com article in the music and movie industry's efforts to regulate illegal file transfers. Yes, much of it is the same old stuff: Piracy must be stopped, yada yada. However, of interest in the article are these points (taken from the text)-

• A representative of the recording industry said on Monday that her companies would prefer to enter into voluntary "partnerships" with Internet service providers, but pointedly noted that some governments are mandating such surveillance "if you don't work something out."
• During a discussion at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's technology policy conference here, (Shira Perlmutter, a vice president for global legal policy at the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) said one filtering solution would involve identifying particular files that are (or are not) permitted to be sent to particular destinations. That would be a "very tailored approach," she said.
• Let's say that AT&T and some of its larger rivals start to filter pirated material and demonstrate (at least to a first approximation) that it's possible, but one ISP does not. Look for the RIAA and MPAA and their political allies to ask Congress for a law that would transform theretofore "voluntary" agreements into mandatory ones.

Clearly the pressure is still on to enact direct ISP support of content monitoring and filtering, encouraged by government-supported progress in other countries, and followed up by U.S. government regulations that will cement such relationships. The content industries are working by the numbers, and the ISPs aren't exactly putting up a fight about it... they are just publicly stating that they do not want to restrict their customers' ability to get content, without being any more specific.

This reads like the writing is already on the wall, whether consumers want to face it or not.

09:34 AM by daffy4u in E-Book General | Reading Recommendations

Since Amazon has added the "Please tell the publisher I'd like this book on the Kindle" link, we might be able to help each other get the books we want.

Please add a link to the book(s) you would like to see Kindle-ized, Sony-fied. Hopefully everyone reading this thread will click the link for you and you will click links for them. Win-Win!

Edit: Adding the Sony info provided by JSWolf

As both Amazon and Sony have a way on their respective sites to request eBooks, I've moved this thread and renamed it appropriately. I suggest that for every request for an eBook, that we go to both Amazon & Sony to put in a request. The more requests that are out there, the better chance of getting eBooks.

The Sony thread on requesting
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27720

The Amazon thread on requesting
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27545

The direct link to Sony to request (best make sure the eBook isn't already there first)
http://connect-metrics.custhelp.com/...eys/ws?_133=25

At Sony, if you search for an eBook, found or not, you get on the right hand side...
Title not found?
Request the title.

Sony's eBookstore URL
http://ebookstore.sony.com

After trying the find one of the books already listed below at the Sony store, I'm going to assume that any book submitted will have to use the request the title link. I'm am submitting everything on the list so far to Sony. If they happen to have one of them already... oh well.

Edit: A little maintenance. I'll add everyone's links to this post as well to make them easier for folks to find.

• The Long Walk by Richard Bachman (Stephen King)
• The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
• Edmund Crispin
• Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union

• The Complete Aubrey/Maturin Novels by Patrick O'Brian
• HMS Surprise Patrick O'Brian

• Cimmaron Rose by James Lee Burke
• Debout les morts (Chemins nocturnes) by Fred Vargas

• Ender's Game Boxed Set: Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

• Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition (was listed as "not yet available" for the Kindle since March but has disappeared)
• Not Flesh Nor Feathers and Wings to the Kingdom by Cherie Priest
• Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny

The Harry Potter Party by J.K. Rowling

• The Tales of Beedle the Bard
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)

• Chainfire: Chainfire Trilogy, Part 1 (Sword of Truth, Book 9) by Terry Goodkind
• Confessor (Sword Of Truth) by Terry Goodkind

• Atlas Shrugged - by Ayn Rand
• The Fountainhead - by Ayn Rand
• We the Living - by Ayn Rand
• Perfect - by Judith McNaught

• Doris Lessing's the Golden Notebook ; A Critical Study by Doris Lessing. ISBN-10 006093140X.
• Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap. ISBN-10 0802142346. [already exists for the Kindle, please request from Sony]
• Sigrid Undsets "Kristin Lavransdatter": Kristins religiøse utvikling by Sigrid Undset. ISBN-10 0143039164.

From James Clavell

• Noble House
• Gai-Jin
• Shogun
• Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

From Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

• HAWKSONG
• WOLFCRY
• In the Forests of the Night (Den of Shadows)

• On a Pale Horse (Incarnations of Immortality, Bk. 1)
• Bearing An Hourglass (Incarnations of Immortality, Book 2)
• Wielding a Red Sword (Incarnations of Immortality)
• Being a Green Mother (Incarnations of Immortality, Book Five)
• For Love of Evil: Book Six of Incarnations of Immortality
• And Eternity (Incarnations of Immortality)
• Under a Velvet Cloak (Incarnations of Immortality, Book 8)

• The Magic Goes Away Collection: The Magic Goes Away, The Magic May Return, and More Magic
• The Burning City"

• A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr
• Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
• The Gormenghast Novels - Mervyn Peake
• Solaris - Stanislaw Lem
• Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban
• Little, Big - John Crowley
• The Brothers Karamazov - Pevear and Volokhonsky translation
• Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series:

• The First Man in Rome
• The Grass Crown
• Fortune's Favorites
• Ceasar's Women
• Ceasar
• The October Horse
• Antony and Cleopatra

Available in ebook form (Kindle and or Sony):

• Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card Kindle-ized, Sony-fied
• Mind Game (GhostWalkers, Book 2) - by Christine Feehan - Kindle-ized, Sony-fied
• Dark Prince (The Carpathians (Dark) Series, Book 1) - by Christine Feehan Kindle-ized
• Harmony's Way (The Breeds, Book 2) - by Lora Leigh - Kindle-ized, Sony-fied
• Tai-Pan - Kindle-ized, Sony-fied
• From J. R. R. Tolkien - Kindle-ized, Sony-fied but not these specific versions (I don't think so anyway). The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary, One Vol. Edition
• The Hobbit
• Demon in My View (Den of Shadows) - Kindle-ized
• FALCONDANCE - Kindle-ized

10:01 AM by Bob Russell in E-Book Readers | Which one should I buy?

Are all the details about the various e-ink devices overwhelming? Do you just want a simple comparison? If so, jump right over to read The late 2008 E Ink Readers at Dear Author.

Jane provides a very nice summary of devices based on her chance to look at the devices at the recent RWA (Romance Writers of America) conference.

When I was at RWA, I had the opportunity to see the Kindle and the new Sony Reader with booklight and the Asus EEE PC. These are all viable ebook readers that you can purchase today, along with my personal favorite, the iTouch/iPhone...

05:08 PM by RWood in Miscellaneous | Announcements

See Nate’s fantastic collection of reading devices, meet old friends for the first time, enjoy great food and drink in a relaxed atmosphere at MobileRead’s first Meet-up in the Washington area.

Attendees may include the following:

• alia
• bkirchhoff
• cassidym and friend
• DragonRider and friend
• Enola
• Kosst Amojan
• MMascaro
• Nate the Great
• rflagg
• RWood and friend
• Steve Jordan and friend
• TheLongShot (?)

Plus possible special guest appearance by Bob Russell and two (2) friends

These are just the ones that I know about now. Some of them may be bringing their friends (for the sake of brevity, “friends” include wives, husbands, lovers, friends, people you met in the parking lot on the way in, etc. In my case, wife.) There will be space to accommodate all who do show up so don’t worry about bringing that “extra” guest, they are welcome so bring them.

Dress is casual (although one has indicated that they are coming by between a wedding and the reception and will be dressed a bit more formerly.)

There is currently no WiFi at the restaurant and I will see what I can do this week to add that if it is of interest to the attendees. PM me if you are interested in WiFi.

Any general questions, please post them here. Any specific questions please PM me.

I hope to see all of you there on Saturday.

07:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

Another week, another steady stream of e-book goodness here on MobileRead. Our authentic roundup of what's been going on:

E-Book General - News and Commentary

• Kindle coming to Germany this fall (yes, it's a rumor)
• File rot? - NYTime's David Pogue wants to interview you for TV!
• 2008 Hugo Award Winners
• Has Sony lost the e-book battle against Amazon?
• Fictionwise explains ePub delays
• NYTimes: Two lessons from the Kindle's success
• Amazon Kindle Store - simply a filler?
• Beedle the Bard available on 4 December 2008!

Portable Devices - Apple iPhone

• Fictionwise contest for iPhone/iTouch users

Portable Devices - Other Devices

• Asus Eee PC 1000H Unboxing!

E-Book Devices - Sony Portable Reader

• Is your favorite book not available on Sony?

Miscellaneous - Announcements

• Reminder: MobileRead meetup in Edinburgh, next Monday!

07:29 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

I was just at my local Borders bookstore, and I came across a sign advertising the upcoming release of The Tales of Beedle the Bard (aka HP and the Quest for More Money). You can preorder your copy here. You can also find it on Amazon.

I'm sure you're wondering about the ebook edition. Due to the author's paranoia about digital piracy, there will be no legal ebook of this work.