They're entitled to control what they sell. Every bookshop in the world controls what it sells. If you don't find what you want in that shop you go to another one.

I'm not particularly evangelising for Kindles, all I'm saying is that, to me, the decision not to distribute a few mucky books on one particular platform is hardly going to bother me one way or another.

Damn Amazon and their customer-pleasing ways... How dare they bamboozle us by giving us exactly what we want.

You do realise that every book store choose what to sell and not to sell? So there is a blog about Amazon removing a book from their shelves, this makes them corporate evil does it?

I can imagine that my local book store (that is run by this lovely old couple) would probably not sell the book either as they would probably find the subject material to their liking and it is ultimately their decision what to sell in their shop.

I don't have a Kindle and I'm not particularly after one. I like open devices I can get any content I want on them so not really for me. I strip the DRM from all my books so I can read them on all my devices, the only Kindle I use is the windows version so I can de-DRM them.

I just don't really see the issue you raised though, Amazon choose what they sell like any other company, it's no more evil than any other shop. They don't censor or silence people, they just choose not to sell things. If it were the government banning stuff I'd be concerned but it's not.

How is this bad for free speech? If the Kindle was the only way of reading books and getting access to the internet then it would be too much control for one company to have over access to information, but the Kindle market is still tiny and competition is increasing at the moment.

I'm confused I can by pdf's and other formats from anywhere and put them on kindle what's the problem?

What world do you live in?

I can buy books from anywhere, convert them and put them on my Kindle, PDFs too, obviously.

More to the point, what online or offline bookstore doesn't control what's sold?

Get off your high horse and stop bashing people for like a product you don't. It's all down to personal preference and there's a thing called live and let live.

I think there is far more choice when you have a Kindle as you've got loads of indie authors books available as well as the best sellers, out of print and classics.
What's more most classics are free, indies are cheap - usually under a pound and you quite often get free books available. On all books you can sample the first chapter free just to see if you like it.
Usually, but not always, the best sellers are cheaper than the paper version.
I'm so glad I've got my Kindle - I wouldn't be without it.

<sigh>

I just got a Kindle from Santa.

If I could be bothered, we could have a nice natter about RMS, GNU, Doctorow, Linux, Creative Commons, Copyleft and all that jazz.

More than that though, I want authors to be paid. I want to be able to search cumbersome technical books. I want to sit in a comfy chair with a cup of tea and read stuff I've found on t'Internets. Or do the same on the train. I've got a huge physics book, 1000+ pages on there.

With Kindle DRM at least some money will get to modern authors, and let's not forget Amazon has brought lots of books to a wider audience than mainstream bookshops with their dire 3 for 2 stack 'em high promotions.

I love my paper books, and they're EMP-proof. I'll have to think whether I value reading more than physical tangibility for my fiction. I might try Iain Banks' Surface Detail on Kindle even though I've got the rest as paper.

It's like many things in life, a compromise. Sure, those books are licensed, but so are your three score years and ten on Earth.

Plus, if ever Amazon start the equivalent of large scale book burning, I think there'll be a backlash precisely because Kindle is popular enough that someone somewhere will be able to put up a fight and win, or crack the DRM.

Until that day comes though, I'll compromise, that's how progress is made.


PS I've discovered 'calibre' on my Linux machine. Excellent tool for converting stuff to MOBI for Kindle.

I got a kindle for Christmas yesterday. I love it so far! You can get all of Thomas Hardy for 69p and Jane Austen's novels for 79p... what a bargain! I am hooked on it already.

They (and lots of others) are available at Project Gutenberg.org for free in Kindle format.

Ooh thanks for the tip. I haven't actually put them on my ebook yet, so I'll go on Project Gutenberg to check them out.

I got a Kindle yesterday. I love it!!!

Me too. Have been downloading the free classics and then thinking about what else to down load next but do have a pile of real books to read too.

I downloaded 3 books. I was a bit disappointed that 2 other books I'm after weren't available on the Kiindle yet, but I'll just buy those in paperback. I might have a look at the classics later.

Another Kindle owner as of yesterday

Really pleased with it.

Same one you do. I never use that pathetic smilie in lieu of making a point though.


Amazon is not only a bookstore, it controls the hardware and also is increasingly a publisher.

Why do you think BSkyB's takeover is so controversial?


I think Kindle is a good device, it's the control of content/hardware that concerns me. As other suppliers get wiped out, it's bad for free speech.

Me too. Best present I received, haven't put it down yet, already half way through a book I downloaded.

Looking at changing the screensaver pics for something more exciting though!

Same! Totally unexpected! Happy though as I hope to read more! :-/

I'm obsessed with it atm

I got one for Christmas this year. So far I think it's okay, but I must admit I am finding it hard to actually let go of "real" books.

I am doing a mixture of Kindle and then a real book so on real book but found Kindle so easy to read as it is light.

Rhetorical question. How easy is it to copy a paper book?

Snap! Not long read the hardback but would have been great to try it out on the Kindle. Pity the hardback was cheaper than I'd have to pay for the Kindle version. I'd love another copy on Kindle. Pity no one got you SD for Christmas though - it's a very worthy addition to the collection.

Calibre on my Linux as well. I tried the others including Kindle but Calibre just leaves them all standing.

In my opinion the publishing industry is the next in a long line of media and entertainment industries that will go through the whole sequence of "the world is not changing, it's just a new platform" to "the world is changing, but we're not going to" through to "we'll make some changes, but you're going to need to jump through hoops" and then finally onto "hmm, we'd better embrace this whole new world".

The music industry took a heck of a long time to get from stage 1 to the current model of Spotify and iTunes / Amazon. The film industry was a bit quicker in getting to the Lovefilm / Netflix solution.

I just hope that the publishers realise relatively quickly that their future is (in my view) likely to be a Lovefilm style lending library scheme where you can effectively check out a certain number of books and, when you check them back in, take the next one.

Sure, there will be people who rip them off in the same way as Lovefilm have people who get the disc, rip it and send it straight back, but per month limits will help minimise that. Obviously there will also remain the option of buying outright as well.

It remains to be seen how smart the publishers are about handling the "new world" and whether they fight it or see it as a huge opportunity to expand readership in general, but I have no doubt that they will end up there eventually.

I fancy a Kindle and after reading the majority of the very helpful posts on here I am now totally confused.

How easy is it to download books? How do you do it? How much do they cost? I am not a great computer buff but I do love reading and as a previous poster said,it does save lugging a great pile of books on holiday.

So, can someone help out. As I said above, detailed info in plain English wold be ideal.

Many thanks in advance foir your help.