I was very anti-e readers. I thought it would be the death of bookshops. However I saw a Kobo for sale at £30 when I was going on holiday and I bought it specifically for that. My OH, a gadget freak, was always on at me to get one, but I have been resisting until recently. I now use for travel and commuting and think it is genius. I will upgrade to Kindle in about a year.
I had similar feelings, plus couldn't get comfortable with the old Sony e-book. But I read and travel a lot & probably get through 3-4 books a week so the Kindle's very practical. Especially when I'm currently reading Dreadnought by Robert K Massie which is 1,040 pages in paperback form or a click and 4MB on the Kindle.
Also for TelevisionUser, other booksellers are available for reading on a Kindle, eg if you like SF/Fantasy, check-
I had similar feelings, plus couldn't get comfortable with the old Sony e-book. But I read and travel a lot & probably get through 3-4 books a week so the Kindle's very practical. Especially when I'm currently reading Dreadnought by Robert K Massie which is 1,040 pages in paperback form or a click and 4MB on the Kindle.
Also for TelevisionUser, other booksellers are available for reading on a Kindle, eg if you like SF/Fantasy, check-
However, it should be an informed consumer choice so that, for example, customers can make a conscious decision whether to buy cheap clothes in the full knowledge that they were made by child labourers in India. Similarly, those individuals who buy items from Amazon ought to know about how poorly they treat their workers and about their unethical tax avoidance policies which ultimately means fewer police officers, nurses or firefighters.
Just for the record, l do my background checks first so that l avoid dealing with any commercial operations that are truly unethical.
Your aggressive and condescending tone does nothing to help your cause. You forget this is a thread about the practical issues of e-book readers versus the traditional physical book, within the reading section of DS. The ethical issues of a variety of shopping choices have oft been discussed in the GD and Politics section of the site.
Most of us are fully aware that we live in a world of consumer choices, and there are pros and cons to all of them. As I've stated more than once in relevant threads, I have a number of issues with amazon, and have reduced my use of them accordingly, but I am also aware that not everything said of them is true. I happen to live near one of their mega warehouses. I'm also aware that it is impossible to live in the modern world without making some compromises, and anyone who claims every product/business they use is entirely ethical is kidding themselves, or has a relaxed view of the word 'ethical'.
Without wishing to re-tread things said elsewhere, I stopped using amazon for regular books, because I'd rather buy them in a high street book shop even if it costs more, but I still use them for certain things that are difficult to get elsewhere. I have had lengthy discussions with friends about the best way to be an ethical shopper (which includes the environment), and investor and we realised it's impossible. It's fairly easy to make some better decisions, and with a bit of effort (and money to spare) it's possible to make quite a lot of better decisions, but impossible to make only good ones. The best we can do is to make better choices where practicable, put pressure on politicians to make the changes at a fundamental level, and not be too hard on ourselves or on others.
That last bit is important, because harassing people just switches people off to the debate. Most people realise it is impossible to be 100% ethical, and while some people are able to accept this, and find a level of ethics that suits their time/budget/lifestyle, others just give up trying. Taking a superior tone is unlikely to persuade anyone to change their ways, and is more likely to make people give up trying altogether.
It's more effective if lots of people are making better decisions some of the time than if a handful of people make very virtuous decisions, and everyone else is in denial. It's more likely to encourage businesses to change their ways and for politicians to force them to change their ways.
If you are really serious about helping people to make 'better' consumer choices, you need to work on how you communicate that information. You seem to want to make people feel bad, as if this will prompt some kind of Damscian revelation. It won't. It just makes you come across as insufferable, and that's a turn-off. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that kind of attitude plays into the hands of the unethical corporations.
Jellied Eel. Thanks for your post. It's always good to have extra choices when it comes to this sort of thing.
I could never write a novel myself, but I'm very impressed by those who do, and reading the FAQs on how to submit something is fascinating.
It took me a really long time to become convinced to try a kindle, and initially I opted for the kobo as it was a much cheaper alternative in case i didn't like it. i still by more books than ebooks, I just love the feel and the smell of a real book, however there are times when the ebook is cheaper, or if I'm travelling it saves so much space and definitely seems to be the better options. i do miss being able to share though.
I'd love to hear other thoughts on magazines as well as books, for those who download their books, do you do the same with magazines or do you still buy paper copies? it seems to me that digital magazines are slower to to take off?
I'd love to hear other thoughts on magazines as well as books, for those who download their books, do you do the same with magazines or do you still buy paper copies? it seems to me that digital magazines are slower to to take off?
Nope, and to an extent the same with digital newspapers. I think the web's more suited to a lot of magazine-style content and there's a bazillion websites covering every imaginable subject. For me, the format doesn't really fit a monoscreen reader like a Kindle, but may work better on a larger screen like an iPad. I especially dislike any 'e-zine' that insists on a proprietary digital wrapper (even Flash), and more so if that includes page turning animations. From people-watching, I also wonder if the constant <flick><flick><flick> gestures to skip over boring stuff will end up damaging digits.
I also think e-zines take some of the fun out of travelling (and to an extent so do e-books). Sometimes it's fun to see what people are reading and sometimes that can be a conversation opener, or just amusing.
The problem is that much as I'd prefer to avoid Amazon because of their predatory tax policies, the bottom line is that using a Kindle gives you a much easier life.
1) With a Kindle, downloading books is oh so simple. Simply click the button and Amazon does all the work for you. Mrs T has a Sony TSR-1 (thank you Mills & Boon ) which means having to battle with ADE (the fact that everyone except Sony say that there are no problems with ADE and this ereader doesn't help either).
2) I'm willing to be proved wrong, but I'd say that Amazon are slightly better price-wise than the competition.
3) Amazon has literally thousands of free books. How does the competition compare?
3) Amazon actually have a pretty good customer services. For example, as long as you don't abuse it, you can return any ebook within 7 days.
4) You'll often find references to how a non-Amazon device is much better for library books (epub vs azw3 and all that) but this assumes that your local library has a decent selection of ebooks. I'm in Bromley and I'd say that the Bromley library ebook selection is pretty poor. For example I like SF and fantasy books but Bromley library appears to be under the impression that this means vampires, vampires and more vampires. Enter the names of any of the SF masters and you won't find much choice,
who spent time collecting folk & fairy tales. Which is quite neat given they were often morality tales and part of the oral tradition. Now available on an electronic gizmo somewhere near you that could potentially read them to you. Interpretation is best left to you, dear reader. Also useful for reading to kids, although these are the pre-Disney version so any costs for counselling are down to you. Many of the morals still apply, ie don't go wandering off, don't take sweets from strangers, don't turn your friends into musical instruments etc.
But also beware of free or heavily discounted books. Like your name, YGWYPF. Sometimes the free or discount promo gets used to pump the book up the best sellers listings. This happened with James Herbert's Ash. Big marketing blitz, posters everywhere, priced at 20p. Best Seller! But bad, very, very bad..
4) You'll often find references to how a non-Amazon device is much better for library books (epub vs azw3 and all that) but this assumes that your local library has a decent selection of ebooks).
For Kindle format conversions (or for other readers), get this-
For example I like SF and fantasy books but Bromley library appears to be under the impression that this means vampires, vampires and more vampires. Enter the names of any of the SF masters and you won't find much choice,
Blame TV and the movies for that. Once the hype around Twilight has died down, normality may resume. Or not, given stuff like vampires, werewolves and zombies are public domain monsters. Try using a monster that isn't, like Freddy, Jason or Tony and you'll awaken the real demons. Lawyers.
But while we're on Amazon rants, sort of. My pet hate is their 'Recommends' and 'New for you'. Three out of the four 'new' books recommended for me a pre-orders. So new the e-ink hasn't even been applied. The other is book 4 of a series I've not read. Oh, and where books are part of a series, gimme a 1-click option to buy the rest.
Yes Gutenberg is always worth a check as long as you don't want something modern. Although, having said that, I've noticed that there are a fair number of mid-20th Century SF short stories on there. It seems that copyrights were not always renewed. Well worthwhile typing in the name of your favourite author and seeing what comes up.
There's quite a few books posted in the MobileRead forums and some seem slightly more modern than Gutenberg. I've never really checked but I get the impression that some are connected with a more generous Canadian copyright law. You will often find a solemn statement that you should not download this or that book if the copyright times are more strict in your own country. You then, of course, solemnly face MobileRead and say that such a thought would never cross your mind.
Calibre. Yes, definitely the best thing since, and before come to that, sliced bread. Absolutely essential. The book formats that it can convert have increased in number recently. If you have a problem go the MobileRead forums where you are quite likely to get a reply from the originator of the software himself. If you want to do a bit of light editing on your DRM-free book, say adding chapter headings or such like, I'd recommend Sigil This is an excellent epub editor (convert the books to epub in Calibre if necessary), but there's a bit of a learning curve. Calibre have now added an epub editor but I still stick with Sigil.
Google's motto is "Don't Be Evil" but that's not something that applies to Amazon:
Amazon accused of 'bullying' smaller UK publishers Amazon is facing a battle with UK publishers as it seeks to secure more advantageous terms in its latest round of contract negotiations. The web giant wants the right to print books itself if publishers fail to provide adequate stock, and wants publishers to match any pricing deals it offers to other distributers. One mid-sized firm accused Amazon of "bullying," and warned that the company was destroying the industry. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27994314
That does go to show that they have a dominant position and that the Competition Commission ought to be brought in to look at Amazon's poor and monopolistic conduct.
I also think e-zines take some of the fun out of travelling (and to an extent so do e-books). Sometimes it's fun to see what people are reading and sometimes that can be a conversation opener, or just amusing.
I completely agree, and I love to share books with my mum, friend, granny, whoever... e-books completely take away this element, I find it a bit sad!
I'd love to hear other thoughts on magazines as well as books, for those who download their books, do you do the same with magazines or do you still buy paper copies? it seems to me that digital magazines are slower to to take off?
I've recently switched from getting "The Week" through the post to getting it on a Kindle. It's only black and white, and it's not as swish as the iPad version would be (I don't have one of those), but I'm finding it pretty easy to read. It may help that I got the physical version for a couple of years, so know my way around the various sections, but there is a good contents list, which makes it easy.
Amazon accused of 'bullying' smaller UK publishers Amazon is facing a battle with UK publishers as it seeks to secure more advantageous terms in its latest round of contract negotiations. The web giant wants the right to print books itself if publishers fail to provide adequate stock, and wants publishers to match any pricing deals it offers to other distributers. One mid-sized firm accused Amazon of "bullying," and warned that the company was destroying the industry. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27994314
That does go to show that they have a dominant position and that the Competition Commission ought to be brought in to look at Amazon's poor and monopolistic conduct.
I was reading about this a while ago. At first it was the usual "amazon are evil" (and I admit there are things about them I don't like), but then it turned out that the negotiations in question weren't a small family business, but a huge, global publishing company worth billions who were being economical with the truth, and had been deliberately slow in sending out their books to amazon.
It's obvious that amazon, like all big shops, have a bit too much power when it comes to negotiating with smaller suppliers, but some of the very big suppliers have great big PR teams who are put to work when contract negotiations are happening, and it is in the interests of all publishers (big or small) to form a united front. Big publishing companies want to drive a hard bargain just as much as amazon does.
Recently, when there was all the news about whether or not "Of Mice and Men" should be part of the GCSE exam, I nipped into my local bookshop to see if they'd taken advantage of everyone raving about how important it was, and had a display to interest those of us who didn't read it at GCSE. Sadly, they hadn't thought to do that, but worse, the price of the book was a whopping £7.99 as a penguin classic. I looked around and that was the price in a number of shops and on amazon. Only slightly less for the e-book.
I've no idea how they can justify charging that price for a very slim paper-back that has already sold millions. It's clearly the publishers doing, and they are taking advantage of the fact that they sell a lot of copies to schools and eager parents, who have to pay full list price.
For me the biggest danger of e-books is pirating. I know of a few people who got CDs filled with a couple of hundred books, and are working their way through them. I know some could be from the legal projects to share books out of copyright, but I know a lot of them are more recent block-busters. Some will argue that reading a pirated copy of an international best-seller won't hurt the author, and the publisher wont notice. However, so long as these people are only reading their free e-books, they are no longer buying the books they used to buy in any format. To me, that's a bigger threat for emerging authors, and authors of more obscure genres.
Speaking of free, I've borrowed some e-books from my local library. The publishers/authors do get credit, so I don't feel bad! However, the choice is a bit limited. Still, it's worth a look, and I expect the choice will expand. I think a lot of the problem is there are a lot of disagreements between the publishers and the libraries that are taking time to resolve.
A rather eye opening read on the dispute between Amazon and the big publishers
That's a great read. I have nothing but praise for what Amazon are doing, even if I was skeptical at first, and was absolutely loathe to get an E-reader of any kind.
Essentially, Amazon are 'sticking it to the man' i.e. the big publishers, with their business model. The key thing is that this is NOT bad for authors, or, indeed, readers. It's bad for huge publishing companies who need to get their acts together. The state of literature is very healthy at the moment, as far as I can see.
Think of the trees you'll save! Also the amount of storage space in your house and if you're travelling you won't need to haul a load of books around with you
I don't have a Kindle because I prefer real books to ebooks. At least with real books you can highlight passages in them (useful when studying; I do that all the time with textbooks), lend them to friends and family and donate them to the charity shop when I'm finished with them. Plus I'm quite proud of my book collection :cool: Saying that, however, I have a few ebooks on my Nexus 7 but they were ones that were hard for me to get in print form. I thought about putting college textbooks on my tablet but I would get too distracted when reading them on a screen. At least with paper books I can stay more focused.
That's why I got a 'proper' e-reader, rather than a tablet. It makes it much easier to resist temptation. The biggest danger is looking up words you would normally presume you understand, but would like to check to be sure!
You can highlight passages on a Kindle. It even collates them for you so you can see them all together, but you don't have the fun of multi-coloured felt-tips.
That's a great read. I have nothing but praise for what Amazon are doing, even if I was skeptical at first, and was absolutely loathe to get an E-reader of any kind.
Essentially, Amazon are 'sticking it to the man' i.e. the big publishers, with their business model. The key thing is that this is NOT bad for authors, or, indeed, readers. It's bad for huge publishing companies who need to get their acts together. The state of literature is very healthy at the moment, as far as I can see.
Here's another good article on the Amazon V Hachette dispute
I use my iPad mini for reading, but I did own a Kindle for a couple of years. I can safely say I love e-readers and now I get very annoyed when a book I want to read isn't available in digital format. This is from a total old fart who resisted going the e-reader route for a long time because I hated the idea of books becoming a thing of the past. There are just so many more benefits with an e-reader, from saving an unimaginable amount of space to being able to read hands free.
I have both ebooks and paper books. I prefer ebooks because I don't like clutter or lots of personal belongings but I still buy (and receive as gifts) paper books. For example the latest Stephen King book is only £1 more than the Kindle version (after student discount) and I can pass it on to my mum who is also a fan of his books.
Quite honestly I don't give a toss about the tax affairs of Amazon, they operate within the law and have a duty to get the best returns for shareholders. If you don't like this, lobby for changes to corporate tax law. The more of this guff I read, the more I want to buy from Amazon
I haven't even mentioned the (limited) library you get for free if you are a prime member. I did have a Nook before my Kindle which was a nice piece of hardware but the online store was poor, both in price and as a shopping experience (eg no reviews).
Had my Kindle for 3 yrs now, and wouldn't be without it.
My book reading has shot up since getting it, and whether it is a day out, or a week away, I always have a new book to read, without having to lug them around.
Actually, there is one drawback in having a Kindle. I have had to dial back my purchases recently, as I simply didn't realise how much I was buying. Even though many of the books were costing as little as 77p, it mounted up, so now I put all the books in my "wish list" first, then decide whether to buy now, or wait for the price to come down.....
Had my Kindle for 3 yrs now, and wouldn't be without it.
My book reading has shot up since getting it, and whether it is a day out, or a week away, I always have a new book to read, without having to lug them around.
Actually, there is one drawback in having a Kindle. I have had to dial back my purchases recently, as I simply didn't realise how much I was buying. Even though many of the books were costing as little as 77p, it mounted up, so now I put all the books in my "wish list" first, then decide whether to buy now, or wait for the price to come down.....
BiB - my problem as well , I have so many books in my "unread" collection and just keep adding to it quicker than I read them
BiB - my problem as well , I have so many books in my "unread" collection and just keep adding to it quicker than I read them
Same here. It's amazing how many books you get when you subscribe to a daily free kindle book mailing list. It was so tempting that I had to unsubscribe.
Comments
I had similar feelings, plus couldn't get comfortable with the old Sony e-book. But I read and travel a lot & probably get through 3-4 books a week so the Kindle's very practical. Especially when I'm currently reading Dreadnought by Robert K Massie which is 1,040 pages in paperback form or a click and 4MB on the Kindle.
Also for TelevisionUser, other booksellers are available for reading on a Kindle, eg if you like SF/Fantasy, check-
http://www.baen.com/
A thank you indeed from me for that useful and constructive response.
Your aggressive and condescending tone does nothing to help your cause. You forget this is a thread about the practical issues of e-book readers versus the traditional physical book, within the reading section of DS. The ethical issues of a variety of shopping choices have oft been discussed in the GD and Politics section of the site.
Most of us are fully aware that we live in a world of consumer choices, and there are pros and cons to all of them. As I've stated more than once in relevant threads, I have a number of issues with amazon, and have reduced my use of them accordingly, but I am also aware that not everything said of them is true. I happen to live near one of their mega warehouses. I'm also aware that it is impossible to live in the modern world without making some compromises, and anyone who claims every product/business they use is entirely ethical is kidding themselves, or has a relaxed view of the word 'ethical'.
Without wishing to re-tread things said elsewhere, I stopped using amazon for regular books, because I'd rather buy them in a high street book shop even if it costs more, but I still use them for certain things that are difficult to get elsewhere. I have had lengthy discussions with friends about the best way to be an ethical shopper (which includes the environment), and investor and we realised it's impossible. It's fairly easy to make some better decisions, and with a bit of effort (and money to spare) it's possible to make quite a lot of better decisions, but impossible to make only good ones. The best we can do is to make better choices where practicable, put pressure on politicians to make the changes at a fundamental level, and not be too hard on ourselves or on others.
That last bit is important, because harassing people just switches people off to the debate. Most people realise it is impossible to be 100% ethical, and while some people are able to accept this, and find a level of ethics that suits their time/budget/lifestyle, others just give up trying. Taking a superior tone is unlikely to persuade anyone to change their ways, and is more likely to make people give up trying altogether.
It's more effective if lots of people are making better decisions some of the time than if a handful of people make very virtuous decisions, and everyone else is in denial. It's more likely to encourage businesses to change their ways and for politicians to force them to change their ways.
If you are really serious about helping people to make 'better' consumer choices, you need to work on how you communicate that information. You seem to want to make people feel bad, as if this will prompt some kind of Damscian revelation. It won't. It just makes you come across as insufferable, and that's a turn-off. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that kind of attitude plays into the hands of the unethical corporations.
Jellied Eel. Thanks for your post. It's always good to have extra choices when it comes to this sort of thing.
I could never write a novel myself, but I'm very impressed by those who do, and reading the FAQs on how to submit something is fascinating.
I'd love to hear other thoughts on magazines as well as books, for those who download their books, do you do the same with magazines or do you still buy paper copies? it seems to me that digital magazines are slower to to take off?
Nope, and to an extent the same with digital newspapers. I think the web's more suited to a lot of magazine-style content and there's a bazillion websites covering every imaginable subject. For me, the format doesn't really fit a monoscreen reader like a Kindle, but may work better on a larger screen like an iPad. I especially dislike any 'e-zine' that insists on a proprietary digital wrapper (even Flash), and more so if that includes page turning animations. From people-watching, I also wonder if the constant <flick><flick><flick> gestures to skip over boring stuff will end up damaging digits.
I also think e-zines take some of the fun out of travelling (and to an extent so do e-books). Sometimes it's fun to see what people are reading and sometimes that can be a conversation opener, or just amusing.
1) With a Kindle, downloading books is oh so simple. Simply click the button and Amazon does all the work for you. Mrs T has a Sony TSR-1 (thank you Mills & Boon
2) I'm willing to be proved wrong, but I'd say that Amazon are slightly better price-wise than the competition.
3) Amazon has literally thousands of free books. How does the competition compare?
3) Amazon actually have a pretty good customer services. For example, as long as you don't abuse it, you can return any ebook within 7 days.
4) You'll often find references to how a non-Amazon device is much better for library books (epub vs azw3 and all that) but this assumes that your local library has a decent selection of ebooks. I'm in Bromley and I'd say that the Bromley library ebook selection is pretty poor. For example I like SF and fantasy books but Bromley library appears to be under the impression that this means vampires, vampires and more vampires. Enter the names of any of the SF masters and you won't find much choice,
Baen run a lot of free books and there's 45,000 or more here-
http://www.gutenberg.org/
including one of my all-time favorite collections-
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30580/30580-h/30580-h.htm#alphabet
from this guy-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Lang
who spent time collecting folk & fairy tales. Which is quite neat given they were often morality tales and part of the oral tradition. Now available on an electronic gizmo somewhere near you that could potentially read them to you. Interpretation is best left to you, dear reader. Also useful for reading to kids, although these are the pre-Disney version so any costs for counselling are down to you. Many of the morals still apply, ie don't go wandering off, don't take sweets from strangers, don't turn your friends into musical instruments etc.
But also beware of free or heavily discounted books. Like your name, YGWYPF. Sometimes the free or discount promo gets used to pump the book up the best sellers listings. This happened with James Herbert's Ash. Big marketing blitz, posters everywhere, priced at 20p. Best Seller! But bad, very, very bad..
For Kindle format conversions (or for other readers), get this-
http://calibre-ebook.com/about
Free and easy to use, unless the ebook has DRM.
Blame TV and the movies for that. Once the hype around Twilight has died down, normality may resume. Or not, given stuff like vampires, werewolves and zombies are public domain monsters. Try using a monster that isn't, like Freddy, Jason or Tony and you'll awaken the real demons. Lawyers.
But while we're on Amazon rants, sort of. My pet hate is their 'Recommends' and 'New for you'. Three out of the four 'new' books recommended for me a pre-orders. So new the e-ink hasn't even been applied. The other is book 4 of a series I've not read. Oh, and where books are part of a series, gimme a 1-click option to buy the rest.
There's quite a few books posted in the MobileRead forums and some seem slightly more modern than Gutenberg. I've never really checked but I get the impression that some are connected with a more generous Canadian copyright law. You will often find a solemn statement that you should not download this or that book if the copyright times are more strict in your own country. You then, of course, solemnly face MobileRead and say that such a thought would never cross your mind.
Calibre. Yes, definitely the best thing since, and before come to that, sliced bread. Absolutely essential. The book formats that it can convert have increased in number recently. If you have a problem go the MobileRead forums where you are quite likely to get a reply from the originator of the software himself. If you want to do a bit of light editing on your DRM-free book, say adding chapter headings or such like, I'd recommend Sigil This is an excellent epub editor (convert the books to epub in Calibre if necessary), but there's a bit of a learning curve. Calibre have now added an epub editor but I still stick with Sigil.
Amazon accused of 'bullying' smaller UK publishers
Amazon is facing a battle with UK publishers as it seeks to secure more advantageous terms in its latest round of contract negotiations. The web giant wants the right to print books itself if publishers fail to provide adequate stock, and wants publishers to match any pricing deals it offers to other distributers. One mid-sized firm accused Amazon of "bullying," and warned that the company was destroying the industry.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27994314
That does go to show that they have a dominant position and that the Competition Commission ought to be brought in to look at Amazon's poor and monopolistic conduct.
I completely agree, and I love to share books with my mum, friend, granny, whoever... e-books completely take away this element, I find it a bit sad!
I've recently switched from getting "The Week" through the post to getting it on a Kindle. It's only black and white, and it's not as swish as the iPad version would be (I don't have one of those), but I'm finding it pretty easy to read. It may help that I got the physical version for a couple of years, so know my way around the various sections, but there is a good contents list, which makes it easy.
I was reading about this a while ago. At first it was the usual "amazon are evil" (and I admit there are things about them I don't like), but then it turned out that the negotiations in question weren't a small family business, but a huge, global publishing company worth billions who were being economical with the truth, and had been deliberately slow in sending out their books to amazon.
It's obvious that amazon, like all big shops, have a bit too much power when it comes to negotiating with smaller suppliers, but some of the very big suppliers have great big PR teams who are put to work when contract negotiations are happening, and it is in the interests of all publishers (big or small) to form a united front. Big publishing companies want to drive a hard bargain just as much as amazon does.
Recently, when there was all the news about whether or not "Of Mice and Men" should be part of the GCSE exam, I nipped into my local bookshop to see if they'd taken advantage of everyone raving about how important it was, and had a display to interest those of us who didn't read it at GCSE. Sadly, they hadn't thought to do that, but worse, the price of the book was a whopping £7.99 as a penguin classic. I looked around and that was the price in a number of shops and on amazon. Only slightly less for the e-book.
I've no idea how they can justify charging that price for a very slim paper-back that has already sold millions. It's clearly the publishers doing, and they are taking advantage of the fact that they sell a lot of copies to schools and eager parents, who have to pay full list price.
For me the biggest danger of e-books is pirating. I know of a few people who got CDs filled with a couple of hundred books, and are working their way through them. I know some could be from the legal projects to share books out of copyright, but I know a lot of them are more recent block-busters. Some will argue that reading a pirated copy of an international best-seller won't hurt the author, and the publisher wont notice. However, so long as these people are only reading their free e-books, they are no longer buying the books they used to buy in any format. To me, that's a bigger threat for emerging authors, and authors of more obscure genres.
Speaking of free, I've borrowed some e-books from my local library. The publishers/authors do get credit, so I don't feel bad! However, the choice is a bit limited. Still, it's worth a look, and I expect the choice will expand. I think a lot of the problem is there are a lot of disagreements between the publishers and the libraries that are taking time to resolve.
A rather eye opening read on the dispute between Amazon and the big publishers
That's a great read. I have nothing but praise for what Amazon are doing, even if I was skeptical at first, and was absolutely loathe to get an E-reader of any kind.
Essentially, Amazon are 'sticking it to the man' i.e. the big publishers, with their business model. The key thing is that this is NOT bad for authors, or, indeed, readers. It's bad for huge publishing companies who need to get their acts together. The state of literature is very healthy at the moment, as far as I can see.
You can highlight passages on a Kindle. It even collates them for you so you can see them all together, but you don't have the fun of multi-coloured felt-tips.
Here's another good article on the Amazon V Hachette dispute
http://www.hughhowey.com/friends-and-corporations/
I couldn't do without one now!
Quite honestly I don't give a toss about the tax affairs of Amazon, they operate within the law and have a duty to get the best returns for shareholders. If you don't like this, lobby for changes to corporate tax law. The more of this guff I read, the more I want to buy from Amazon
I haven't even mentioned the (limited) library you get for free if you are a prime member. I did have a Nook before my Kindle which was a nice piece of hardware but the online store was poor, both in price and as a shopping experience (eg no reviews).
My book reading has shot up since getting it, and whether it is a day out, or a week away, I always have a new book to read, without having to lug them around.
Actually, there is one drawback in having a Kindle. I have had to dial back my purchases recently, as I simply didn't realise how much I was buying. Even though many of the books were costing as little as 77p, it mounted up, so now I put all the books in my "wish list" first, then decide whether to buy now, or wait for the price to come down.....
BiB - my problem as well , I have so many books in my "unread" collection and just keep adding to it quicker than I read them
Same here. It's amazing how many books you get when you subscribe to a daily free kindle book mailing list. It was so tempting that I had to unsubscribe.