Dedicated e-ink device or mobile app?
I've had a kindle Paperwhite for about 3 years. I use it for one thing, which is reading through my massive amount of pirated Discworld/Haruki Murakami books while traveling. All I want it to be able to do is carry a shit ton of books, and allow me to read them for a long time. The e-ink display is very visible and its low energy impact lets me use it for a ton of time. I like it a lot for this specific task. I think the problem that I will always have with Kindles (or any e-reader, for that matter), is that there is no good way for me to share a copy - specifically, my copy - of a well loved book with a friend. Reading is and has always been a largely social activity for me, in that I get more joy out of discussing a book with a friend who has read it than simply reading it on my own. I love sharing an unknown book with a friend, especially if they really enjoy it. E-readers tend to actively discourage that, if not sterilize the process. I like having to explain why my copy of Invisible Cities has bite marks on it, or talking about which short stories I have dog-eared in Palm of the Hand Stories. My copy of Emerson's collected works is at least 50% underlined/highlighted at this point, and I wouldn't want to read it any other way. I think that there is so much about e-readers that is better - on paper, at least. If I viewed reading as a more isolated activity, I think I would like it more.
Invisible Cities was the first book I put on my Kindle Paperwhite. I remember I got the actual device for ludicrously cheap on ebay, and it felt like a magical device that would change my life. I dreamed about the possibility of keeping an entire stash of comfort books on the device. I mainly kept the device in the car, for days parked alongside the Alaskan highway reading in the sun, because I am a person who enjoys possibilities more than experiencing things. There is a line from a story by Camus where a bookshop owner says "History shows, that the more people buy books, the less they read." I don't think I ever read in the car, or even used it for the first year I had it. I had a lot of fun using Calibre and using Google-fu to try to pirate the books I wanted to read- I didn't have a private tracker invite or anything special, and it feels as though the pirate world for epubs and mobis is the least developed and the most treacherous. I'm pretty sure it's because libraries already do a good job of filesharing. Here's when I finally read with it: while in trains, greyhounds, and airplanes. It's the only place where reading is an isolated activity, and the perhaps the only time when I don't feel guilty about enjoying my time. I'm always surprised at how quickly time passes. It just occurred to me that this is probably the part of traveling that I enjoy the most, and I should probably embrace this. That said, I am someone who has trouble reading books, period. I joke to myself that I only read to fuck interesting people, and the longer I think about it the better I get at convincing myself that it's actually true. I am a person who enjoys possibilities more than experiencing things.
That first paragraph is kinda my experience. If you aren't picky you can find a ton of stuff. Classics of course and just odds and ends in volume you can sift through. There's an open directory search Google hack I can't remember the syntax for. Would probably work well to Ok. Issuu is a site I use. Kinda. It's hit or miss. I don't entirety grasp their goal but it's an interesting idea if nothing else from what I've seen. Thank you for reading Tacocat's tips for digital theft. Epub edition.
Every few weeks, I keep re-reading the first 5 pages of 1Q84 (which, as an aside, I have always pronounced as kyew-teen-eighty-four, which seems to be wrong?). I've read the whole book once before, and I want to re-read it, but it's just so much book. The book that I last finished of his was Wild Sheep Chase, and the book that I started reading on my plane ride back here was Kafka on the Shore. In all honestly, I probably won't finish it until the next time I travel.
I never read one queue eight four. I read the wind up bird chronicles years ago and decided that was probably the only really long murikami I needed in my life. I did just finish Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, which was good, but my favorite is still Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.
I don't think this is exactly what you're asking about, but I use my iPad mini for a large majority of the reading that I do. I don't use any fancy reading apps; however, I find that the small size of the tablet is perfect for reading because it fits nicely in my hand and its incredibly portable without being intrusive. The big plus to e-readers, at least as far as I've found, is the incredibly expansive library of (illegally downloadable) reading options ranging all the way from scientific papers to high fantasy novels (although I mostly stick to philosophy essays and math proofs cause I lack imagination). All in all I'd say that my iPad certainly fills a niche that regular books or my computer can't, and it's become a pretty integral tool in my technology arsenal!
I bought a Kindle 3rd generation forever ago (the one with the keyboard). I got the 3G model, which had free internet all over the world through the experimental web browser, with no contract. I got some good use out of the kindle sometimes when it was the only internet I had. (This was before I had a smartphone.) I broke it a few times. The first time I dropped a belt directly on the screen, cracking the screen. Amazon replaced it for free! A while later it was in my backpack and got the screen crushed amidst the heavy textbooks. This time they replaced it with a Kindle Paperwhite, which I’ve had ever since. I’m pretty sure their reasoning was to remove the 3G web browser. I used to do quite a bit of reading on it, but I’ve found myself reading less and less on my Kindle. I think my attention to reading is less constant with a device with a screen than it is a physical book. It’s not nearly as bad as trying to read something long form on my computer or an iPad - that’s pretty much hopeless. I think it’s because my brain knows that there is so much other content immediately available, so I have a harder time concentrating deeply on what I’m reading.
That's actually what got me using my kindle again; I started using Instapaper and/or Pocket to send #goodlongreads to my Kindle because I knew I didn't stand a hope's chance of reading them at my Desktop. It’s not nearly as bad as trying to read something long form on my computer or an iPad - that’s pretty much hopeless. I think it’s because my brain knows that there is so much other content immediately available, so I have a harder time concentrating deeply on what I’m reading.
I had this set up at some point in the past, and I should set it up again. It was a pretty good system.I started using Instapaper and/or Pocket to send #goodlongreads to my Kindle because I knew I didn't stand a hope's chance of reading them at my Desktop.
I ask because I've got a 3rd gen Kindle right now. The kind with the physical keyboard. If I had to choose one word for it, that word would be serviceable. Getting less so, though, as the USB port is starting to experience the death wiggles. Page turns are also pretty slow if you read at the smallest font size. Thus the question. I'm currently lusting after a kobo aura one, but I have my doubts I'd be willing to pay sticker price for one. That screen size, though.
I have a Kobo Glo. It has a back light that can be turned on and off, and that is very useful. I use it mainly to read articles I save on Pocket, because it has Pocket integration. Sometimes I read books on it, but I do prefer physical books. Nothing beats paper. :) I've had this device for some years and I'm very happy with it.
Mobile app: google play books. Just use dark mode so the screen is black and the letters are white. What I use to read GoT. Currently on Harari's Sapiens on and off. I've been interested in kindles though. Screens small for even a nerd like me.
I have an OG Kindle but I moved to just using the Kindle app on my iPad mini about 2 years ago and I've never looked back. I only ever used either while travelling, so the sacrifice in paper-ness and storage space is far outweighed by the ability to also listen to music & podcasts.
For me, the main appeal of an e-reader (I still prefer physical books above all) is being able to read in bed at night if I'm up later than my wife. Plus e-books are cheaper. My wife has one of the older Nooks, which is e-ink based, but also has a backlight. She likes it quite a bit. I used to have one, and I also really liked it. It's small (fits in a back pocket) without being annoying to read on, and is extremely light so that holding it up when I'm lying down doesn't wear on me. I personally read mostly on my Galaxy Tab S2. I particularly like the Google Books app, because it has a "night light" (meaning it puts a reddish cast over the screen, which is important when reading before bed so I don't screw up my internal clock). The advantage to one of these is that I can get books from all over the place -- there are apps for B&N and Amazon, and Google also sells books. I got a bunch of ePubs from a Humble Book Bundle, and those I just upload to my Google Books library and there they are. Plus I can wander reddit or whatever if I want something a little easier on the brain. Years ago, when I had an iPad 3, I did really enjoy reading on that. The higher resolution compared to my Android tablets made text easier to read, and iBooks was definitely the most aesthetically pleasing and polished-feeling of all the apps. But there too, you could get apps for Amazon, B&N, and Google. It's since given up the ghost. I don't really read on my iPad Pro, only because it's giant (I got the 12.9" version), so not exactly easy to hold for long periods. But on my lap or whatever would be fine, and there too lots of screen space + high resolution makes for a pretty good reading experience.
I have a nook Simple Touch and I definitely like it but I don't use it very often and when I do it's because I pirated books or I have BN credit for some reason. I prefer actual books in general and enjoy finding worthwhile things at thrift stores. If there's something I want to read but am not sure about I might pirate it. Either way the author doesn't get paid. 😐 I got it because it reads multiple common formats. Even pdf. But I wouldn't recommend putting a pdf on one. It reads them in theory more than practice. Also I hate Amazon.
It's easy to compromise your convictions when you're poor so I buy from Amazon. I hate Walmart, worked there far too long and know pretty well the shit they put their employees through. But I shop there unless I feel like avoiding large crowds or people who shop at Walmart. Amazon is just scary. They're not really any better to their employees than Walmart. You just don't see what they do to them. And they have way too much power in the publishing industry. They abuse it too. They're bad for the industry no matter what bringing down the gatekeepers self-publishing libertarian free market democratization bullshit you want to throw at me. When the biggest ebook publishing success is 50 Shades of Grey it should raise some red flags about the quality of literature that could be produced without professional editors and publishers to screen the shit out of the stream. And the Kindle, no matter how good it gets, is approaching, if not, a monopoly. And that gives Amazon further power. It's fucking insane that Apple was forced to pay for ebook price fixing when their market dominance is like nil and their interest in it is about the same. Free market democratization optimism is great for software over the internet that one guy can write because he wants his computer to do something. But when it expands to a store that sells everything at a loss, in part, to punish vendors or competitors, well then, wait and see why capitalism needs oversight by some damn body. If Jeff Bezos could grind up workers in an industrial sausage maker and make money somehow I doubt he'd think about anything other than the investors' willingness to buy his fucking stock as a result. I obviously have passing interest in the general topic of Amazon.
My first e-reader was an old Kindle Keyboard. I still have it for reading at the beach, since I can actuate the physical page buttons through a waterproof case. Needing an external source of light to read in bed was a big downer, so I bought a Kindle Paperwhite when it first came out. I owned the Kindle Paperwhite for a few months, and it was decidedly OK. I didn't use or appreciate the chains to Amazon's services, and resented that it couldn't play standard EPUB files. I sold it, and bought a Kobo Aura HD. The screen was larger and higher resolution than the comparable Kindle at the time, and the light can be turned completely off, unlike any Kindle. I also love that it supports many standard formats like EPUB out of the box, and I can simply drag-and-drop my files onto its internal storage. I haven't touched clunky ebook library management software (like Calibre) in years. At this point, I'm thoroughly impressed with the reading experience on my Kobo. I hope to use it for many years to come.
I have a Kindle Paperwhite. I like it, but I haven't got a chance to use it much lately. It's nice for reading in bed with the lights off because of its backlight. I can turn it down low where it's a gentle glow that doesn't keep me up. Lately, though, I've been doing 99% of my book consumption through audiobooks. PSA: Studies show that comprehension is lower with e-readers vs. real books. I have no idea why. It might be worth it engineering a personal study to see how it affects reading comprehension in you specifically. Edit: Wow, that Kobo looks amazing! That blue-light feature is really cool.
I have a kindle and I like it for a few reasons - Amazon is a powerhouse of books and book deals, everything just works. I have a backlight so I can read at night and not wake up the wife I can rent books from the library on my kindle Large screen size seems like a downside to me, I take it for travel a lot and I have several pairs of pants where I can slip the kindle into a pocket (it's not pretty but it works). Oh, and I don't have the will power to read on a phone or tablet. There's too many other things that are way quicker and more immediately ingestible. If I'm going to read I have to have the separate device that can't do anything else - which is why I never got one of the google e-readers, it just became a device I tried to install android on.
Back in 2011 it looks like the situation was "ok, not great". Weirdly, I can't find any recent conversations on it. So either: it is fine and not worth talking about, or everyone has given up.While it's here, could anyone tell me if e-book readers are capable of displaying mathematical symbols? If so, is the result readable? I would not be using it only for maths stuff, but it might be a fencesitter-tipping selling point.
I think this is more app-dependent than reader-dependent. After all, the screen can display whatever it's told to, basically (contingent on size, resolution, and color gamut obviously).