meglet

Indeed. The only possible exception could be the Nook Color, the glass touch screen seems much more fragile than my other portable devices, and already has a tiny scratch even though it travels in a good case.

Supermallet

OK, I should amend it to "For ereaders with e-ink screens, a good case totally trumps a screen protector."

Wolf359

Thought this was pretty interesting. Amazon is now selling more e-books than paperbacks.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix....rearn_20110127

marty888

I can believe them when they say "Kindle books have now overtaken paperback books as the most popular format on Amazon.com" because there are so many FREE Kindle books. In the month I've had the reader, I've grabbed about 60 books from Amazon, but only paid for 5 of them (total $7.53).

Wolf359

They aren't even taking the free books into account. Under highlights it says for every 100 paperbacks sold, they sell 115 ebooks.

jack999

I wonder if they still consider it a sale when a customer "buys" a free book. When buying a free book, you still go thru the checkout process.

I also have a kindle and have bought very few books. I have noticed several times the kindle books is less than the hardcover, but more than the pocket-book. I won't buy that book.

$10 is too much for an e-book.

xmiyux

When they were talking about ebook sales overtaking hardback sales several months ago they specifically said they don't count a free book as a sale (for stats purposes). I assume it is the same thing here.

I don't mind paying 10$ for an ebook when it is still in hardback. When it has hit paperback I prefer to pay 5-7$.

xmiyux

Anyone know if Amazon (or some other site) allows you to flag an author or a series and then get an update when a new book by them or in that series is released? I'm reading so much more on the Kindle now and am caught up on multiple series. It would be awesome if Amazon could kick me a message when the next book in one of them was released. Most likely I would impulse buy it.

jack999

I recall seeing something like this on Amazon but not sure where. I think it was when I was looking at a specific book. I can't find it now.

GatorDeb

Fictionwise.

xmiyux

It seems like that site mostly focuses on indie authors? Most of the authors I am wanting to keep tabs on are mainstream published authors who weren't listed on Fictionwise at all. There are some indies I keep an eye out for as well - but it would be nice if Amazon would aggregate that info.

GatorDeb

Well the site went to crap when B&N took over but they used to have all the new releases, what are a couple of series you want to keep up with for example?

xmiyux

I'm an idiot. I assumed the search box was like Amazon and I didn't have to use the drop-down menu to search specifically author/title/ etc.

Thanks for the link, I will look into seeing if it does what I need!

(FWIW I was test searching Laurell K. Hamilton since I can never remember when new Merry Gentry or Anita Blake novels come out).

crazyronin

And then you get ridiculous shit like this. The fact that Penguin makes the e-version cost more than a physical book is nothing but greed. I have a feeling that publishers are shooting themselves in the foot.

jack999

Yeah, this kind of thing really pisses me off. I've seen it several times. Of course, we're still in a transition period and publishers are still trying to figure out how to sell ebooks.

tarfrimmer

I've been using FictFact for this.

You can follow series and mark which books you've read, so that it will display the next books in each of your series that you need to read. Also, you can see a list of the books that are about to be released in your series.

Email notifications go out when a book is being added to a series and I think when a new series is added to one of your authors. If a series isn't on the site, you can request it quite easily.

I've found it quite useful!

Septemberbaby

Tarfrimmer! Great site! Thanks for the link.

I'm enjoying browsing the calendar.

bluetoast

Yeah it would be awesome if they had a subscription service or something with authors.

jack999

I've just tried FicFact and like it except for one glaring omission: apparently it only tracks books that are part of a series. While I agree tracking a series is good, I'd also like to track all books I've read. I'm reading Cleopatra: A Life at the moment and I can't indicate that's my current read.

I'd also like to be able to make notes on my impression of a book, once I'm done. I haven't seen that capability yet.

xmiyux

I use Goodreads for rating and tracking books. I like having a wishlist "shelf" for when I go to the library. Log into Goodreads on my phone to get my list and then check their catalog.

Will have to look into FicFact tonight. Thanks!

jack999

I just looked into Goodreads. On Goodreads you can even add a book they don't know about. There is no support for series books. When you look up an auther they do seem to have the number of the book in a series are part of the free form info about the book.

We need to get FicFact and Goodreads together. I think their offspring would be exactly what I'm after.

asianxcore

Just picked up one of those cases and the non-3G Wi-Fi Kindle for my girlfriend's upcoming Birthday.

Even though I had to pay tax, Best Buy had a deal on E-Readers where you can pick any case up to $49.99 for free with the purchase of any E-Reader.

She's been talking about one on and off for a while, so I hope she likes it. I've never seen one operating in person, so if I end up liking it, I might get one for myself

Tuan Jim

Not about to go through the whole thread at the moment....but just wondering. My folks are offering me one for my birthday (3G or non-3G) - would be nice to have a reading tool for my next deployment that doesn't take up a stack of space...just concerned about prices for books.

It's irritating thinking about paying 2x as much again for books I already own in at least one format just to have them on hand (maybe some future editions could come with kindle codes the way new release dvds include digital download coupons for itunes).

I mean, I guess I can justify some new purchases in ebook format, but then I won't have the hard copy on hand either....and that leaves me with some series 1/2 way done (unless I just look for them used in the future).

Any places recommended that have regular coupons for ebooks? Are all ebook formats the same - if I have a kindle can I buy/dl from other sites or just Amazon?

thanks.

xmiyux

1. Amazon regularly has books for free or on sale. Often indie offers will do things like put their book up for free for the first 500 downloads so sometimes a book will be free in the morning and have a price in the afternoon. For those listings the easiest thing is to subscribe to this blog via RSS: http://ireaderreview.com/

He posts the free titles as soon as he is informed about them. I have easily gotten 80 or so free books over the past 5 months or so based solely on his blog. (note: his is specifically a Kindle blog and carries an Amazon bias).

2. No, not all ebook formats are the same. The Amazon Kindle is the most locked down of the various ebook readers. By the same token, it also has the largest catalog of ebooks right now. When the Google Book e-readers hit that might not be the case but some people wonder how the quality will be (since many might be simple unedited scans). So who knows. Right now, the best readers are probably the new Kindle 3 (with the nice e-ink screen), the Nook 2 (if you don't mind reading on a lit LCD screen), or even the iPad (again a back lit LCD screen).

Personally, I hate reading on the LCD screens since it hurts my eyes after a little bit and bothers me even more at night. After 20-30 minutes reading on a screen I start to get a little bleary eyed. The e-ink of the Kindle though doesn't bother me at all. A book light makes it perfect for reading in bed.

It is total personal preference.

Also of note - as of right now - the Kindle can not be used to read e-books that your local public library can check out. I believe all the other e-readers can. That is important for some people. It isn't for me because the library e-book offerings are pathetic here and often have longer hold lists than the paper book.

3. There are sites that you can use to buy books and read them on the Kindle. Basically you can do that for any site that sells books without DRM*. You may need to convert from one format to another but that is mind-numbingly easy when you use the free Caliber software.


*Supposedly there are also ways to deal with DRM but they can't be discussed here. Also of note, I would be no help since even reading summaries of the process let me know it was waaaaaay over my level of technical skills.


edit: Also, in case someone wants to know my bias - I never owned an e-reader till the Kindle 3. Before that I read on my iPod or cell phone using Stanza or the Kindle app. I hated the screen reading. I own a 3G Kindle and it is my best friend ever. I could seriously sing songs and write haiku about how happy the book nerd in me is to have so many books that interest specifically me at my fingertips at all times. It makes me smile just thinking about how I never would have thought as a kid that a future me could have something the size of a book but would have hundreds of books on it. After having mine for a month my wife immediately wanted her own. My 6-year old daughter regularly uses ours to read and probably within the next year I will buy her one of her own. I also can't praise Amazon customer service enough.

HE Pennypacker

I'd say the original Nook, with it's latest firmware and what not, is just as good as K3. Hell, include epub support and library support and Nook trumps it IMO. Sure, library book selection isn't the best and there are waitlists, but I've already covered the cost of my Nook in less than 3 months with the library rentals, something I couldn't do with K3. I'm a user of both, but I've been using the K3 less and less in favor of the Nook. Though the ability to use the browser over 3G is pretty awesome on K3, something Nook cannot do. Haven't tried Nook Color, as LCD does not appeal to me either as far as reading is concerned.