Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

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tyrion
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by tyrion »

Most books that I buy for myself are on the kindle.

It it's an author that my wife likes I will buy the paper/hardcover version.

If it's something we both want to read immediately, we will buy both versions. I don't mind supporting good authors with compelling work. I will also go buy a paper version if it's something I want to be able to loan out.

Library books are paper.

One thing I do miss on the kindle is being able to easily refer to the maps in the front of the book. Mostly relevant for fantasy books.

Still a great device, and I like being able to read a bit on the fly using a cell phone or tablet.
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Ice-9
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by Ice-9 »

Anybody ever have a brain-misfire and try to unlock the house door by clicking your car's remote unlock button on your key?

Well, I did the Kindle equivalent of that the other day. Picked up a paper book for the first time in a while, came to a word I didn't know and froze for about three seconds because I wanted to scroll the cursor to it to look it up. :oops:
rojoreno
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by rojoreno »

lightheir wrote:Just curious - any Kindle owners go back to regular good ol books?
I've gone back to the the public library for "real" books. I am old-school and only use my Kindle for reading articles and short pieces. Ebooks come up short when trying to peruse a book. I actually design UIs and the ebook metaphor is lacking in a convenient user experience.
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DiscoBunny1979
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by DiscoBunny1979 »

I have not yet purchased any reader or a kindle. . .have a question for those that have . . .

If one is reading a Novel on a Kindle and has discovered words that need a Dictionary for meaning or definition, how is that done on an electronic reader? Can you highlight a word and the definition would pop up on the screen or does one have to have a dictionary loaded to the Kindle, close the book and open the dictionary?

Right now I prefer to read hardcopy books for a number of reasons. One reason is for the old style pocket book murder mysteries written in the 30s and 40s - called mapbacks - that had a map of the scene of the crime on the back. These books I assume are hard to obtain in some kindle database in their original format, including diagram on back cover and original art work on the front. Another reason I like reading hardcover books, is that some, like from Easton Press were done in a nice fashion, in leather and look great, feel great and there's nothing like being able to turn a page the old fashioned way. If the power goes out or inability to recharge the battery pack, a real book can be read any time under almost any circumstances, even candle light. A real book can be used for bartering in an 'end of the world' scenario whereas ebooks would be worthless because without power, there's nothing. So, for me, books that have some important significance in terms of how they fit within the scheme of worldly things, the real thing is best in my opinion (i.e. I'd rather have a hard copy of A Tale of Two Cities on my book shelf, then a copy of it sitting in my kindle, hidden from sight, like some prisoner waiting in the dark cell of prison for their day with the Guillotine.)
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TomatoTomahto
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by TomatoTomahto »

discobunny1979 wrote: If the power goes out or inability to recharge the battery pack, a real book can be read any time under almost any circumstances, even candle light. A real book can be used for bartering in an 'end of the world' scenario whereas ebooks would be worthless because without power, there's nothing.
True enough; if you're without power for a month or three, your Kindle isn't worth much. In that amount of time, though, you can probably transfer the contents to the cave wall. As regards the barter value of books, they must have cut that scene out of the version of Mad Max that I saw.
I get the FI part but not the RE part of FIRE.
Bungo
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by Bungo »

I bought one of the large format Kindles in 2010 (I think the DX). After reading a few books on it, I've put it aside and switched back to regular books. My reasons:

* I found the user interface very cumbersome. Features that are cool in theory, such as searching for keywords within the book or in the dictionary, were tedious to use in practice.
* The typesetting is fairly poor: the default fonts are marginally acceptable, but some books seem to be typeset in different fonts which cannot be adjusted, and these sometimes look terrible, like they were printed using an old-school dot matrix printer. Even a poorly printed paperback book has a more natural looking font than anything I was able to produce on the Kindle.
* Page update is slow, and does not fully erase the previous page, so you get a palimpsest effect unless you forcibly clear it, which takes extra time and requires remembering the right combination of characters to type.
* Page contrast is OK but not great.
* There is a bit of glare on the screen in some lighting situations.
* The books are sometimes more expensive than buying a brand new paper copy from Amazon, and there's no used market of any kind.
* The books are often poorly edited/proofread, with errors ranging from improper hyphenation (which may be algorithmic) to laughable "typos" which obviously resulted from optical character recognition.
* Pictures, tables, and charts are generally abysmally displayed.
* The PDF reading experience (one of the reasons I got the DX model) was unsatisfactory, often involving a poor compromise between zooming in close enough for readability versus zooming out far enough to be able to see the full page.
* Useful book features such as index, table of contents, endnotes, etc. were much more tedious to access than in an ordinary book.
* Typesetting of equations is a hit and miss (usually miss) affair.
* Poor selection of titles available compared with paper books.

Maybe some of these defects have been addressed in the newer color models, but overall my experience has been negative enough that I'll stick with paper books.
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lightheir
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by lightheir »

DiscoBunny1979 wrote:I have not yet purchased any reader or a kindle. . .have a question for those that have . . .

If one is reading a Novel on a Kindle and has discovered words that need a Dictionary for meaning or definition, how is that done on an electronic reader? Can you highlight a word and the definition would pop up on the screen or does one have to have a dictionary loaded to the Kindle, close the book and open the dictionary?

Right now I prefer to read hardcopy books for a number of reasons. One reason is for the old style pocket book murder mysteries written in the 30s and 40s - called mapbacks - that had a map of the scene of the crime on the back. These books I assume are hard to obtain in some kindle database in their original format, including diagram on back cover and original art work on the front. Another reason I like reading hardcover books, is that some, like from Easton Press were done in a nice fashion, in leather and look great, feel great and there's nothing like being able to turn a page the old fashioned way. If the power goes out or inability to recharge the battery pack, a real book can be read any time under almost any circumstances, even candle light. A real book can be used for bartering in an 'end of the world' scenario whereas ebooks would be worthless because without power, there's nothing. So, for me, books that have some important significance in terms of how they fit within the scheme of worldly things, the real thing is best in my opinion (i.e. I'd rather have a hard copy of A Tale of Two Cities on my book shelf, then a copy of it sitting in my kindle, hidden from sight, like some prisoner waiting in the dark cell of prison for their day with the Guillotine.)
I don't even own a Kindle, but I do use the iphone app and the computer app. I actually find the opposite of what you've found - it is MUCH more convenient for me to have my entire library of books readily accessible on my phone, computer, or whatever rather than hunting down the darn book all the time. I received an excellent hardcover book gift a few months ago but I found the tedium of hefting that big book all over my house so impossible that i broke down and bought the kindle version. It's a real pleasure to be able to read it whenever, wherever since I'm always with phone if I'm out of the house.
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by DaleMaley »

nisiprius wrote: Pictures, diagrams, and maps are generally a disaster area and I don't understand why. There doesn't seem to be one publisher in ten that knows how to put a high-resolution image into a Kindle book. And an amazing percentage of the time, they are sideways!
I have written and published about 55 short stories on Amazon Kindle, plus also on Smashwords.com. I do not own a Kindle reader. My stories are financial stories and often include charts and tables.

When you upload your story, it is optional for you view the story and correct anything that does not look right. Unfortunately, the Kindle viewing software Amazon lets you use to view your book is not very high quality. I also compared the look of a book I upload to Kindle, versus a friend's Kindle reader............and the preview on Amazon was different looking than on the actual Kindle reader.

Even if you want your book to look good to the customer using the Kindle reader, Amazon makes it tough to do this. Hopefully, Amazon's preview software will improve over time.
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Toons
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by Toons »

No,I do all of my book reading on Nexus 7 tablet :happy
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TomatoTomahto
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by TomatoTomahto »

Bungo wrote:Maybe some of these defects have been addressed in the newer color models, but overall my experience has been negative enough that I'll stick with paper books.
The newer color models are good for videos, but I don't like them for reading books. The newer b/w models, especially the Paper White model, are a tremendous improvement over the older models.
Last edited by TomatoTomahto on Tue Jun 25, 2013 7:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I get the FI part but not the RE part of FIRE.
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Epsilon Delta
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by Epsilon Delta »

TomatoTomahto wrote:As regards the barter value of books, they must have cut that scene out of the version of Mad Max that I saw.
Wrong dystopia. Try Lucifer's Hammer.
Dick D
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by Dick D »

I use the Kindle when I am reading long books - 700+pages. Otherwise, I go to the library and use the money saved for other things.
mikefixac
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by mikefixac »

It's become bothersome to me when reading a regular book and I need to look up a word.

With the Kindle I just touch and hold the word and I get the definition, then go immediately back to my reading. With the book, I just pass on it and keep reading.
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TomatoTomahto
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by TomatoTomahto »

DiscoBunny1979 wrote:If one is reading a Novel on a Kindle and has discovered words that need a Dictionary for meaning or definition, how is that done on an electronic reader? Can you highlight a word and the definition would pop up on the screen or does one have to have a dictionary loaded to the Kindle, close the book and open the dictionary?
Forgot to answer this one: you just highlight the word and the definition pops up.
I get the FI part but not the RE part of FIRE.
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SamGamgee
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by SamGamgee »

I buy kindle books and use calibre to convert them to a generic ebook format. Then I load them into a third party ebook reader (Moon+ Reader) on my android phone. Why? The 3rd party app uses the phone's text-to-voice engine and reads the book to me while I drive to and from work!

It's obscene that this simple function isn't built into the kindle app. But it isn't.

For children's and young-adult books, I buy the physical book. That way it is sitting in the bookshelf in case my children want to read it at some point in the future.
investingdad
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by investingdad »

Epsilon Delta wrote:
TomatoTomahto wrote:As regards the barter value of books, they must have cut that scene out of the version of Mad Max that I saw.
Wrong dystopia. Try Lucifer's Hammer.
That was a good read.


On topic, we have the following tablets in addition to our Galaxy S smarthphones:

- Nook Color. My wife bought this for $99 and rooted it. It's running Jellybean off a micro SD card and essentially works as an Android tablet. The kids use it for watching downloaded cartoons and playing some games.

- Kindle Fire. My wife got this for free as part of a bank promotion. I've claimed it. It's OK for web browsing, it's real function is media consumption. I use it for Hulu Plus and am in the middle of rewatching every Star Trek Voyager episode. It's tied to Amazon and is seamless with Amazon offerings.

- Kindle. Old black and white version. My son and daughter use this for reading books we download for free from the public library.

- iPad Mini. My wife got this for herself as a Christmas present. She uses it for Hulu Plus and as an e-reader.


Me? I hate e-readers. I buy all my books and then sell them back to the local used bookstore.
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by bungalow10 »

gkaplan wrote:I read a lot of nonfiction. From what I have been told, e-books do not do a good job with charts, maps, genealogical trees, indexes, footnotes, end notes, bibliographies, and so on.
My experience is that it does a great job with indexes, footnotes, end notes, etc. Very easy to jump back and forth.
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hand
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by hand »

Love my Paperwhite in general, and would never go back to paper for commuting / travel, but not opposed to using paper books when the situation demands (graphics heavy, flipping between multiple reference pages).

Have taken heavy advantage of the many free book offerings, but am unwilling to invest heavily to buy e-books in a proprietary format that may be rendered obsolete or remotely disabled.
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ruralavalon
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by ruralavalon »

DiscoBunny1979 wrote: If one is reading a Novel on a Kindle and has discovered words that need a Dictionary for meaning or definition, how is that done on an electronic reader? Can you highlight a word and the definition would pop up on the screen or does one have to have a dictionary loaded to the Kindle, close the book and open the dictionary?
I didn't expect to like an e-reader, thinking that I would prefer the feel of a "real" book.

This is a nice benefit to a Kindle that I didn't anticipate at all. You just bring the cursor down to the word in question, press a button and you go immediately to a dictionary definition. Its much less cumbersome, time-consuming, and distracting than getting out a physical dictionary, paging through it, and looking the word up.

Maps, charts, and graphs are troublesome.

I do love getting free books, there are a large number offered.
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epilnk
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by epilnk »

Go back? I love my kindle, but that doesn't mean I've left real books. I read both happily.

I have an original keyboard kindle, which I still think is the best one, and my son has a paperwhite. While I envy his built in lighting I don't think it's worth trading physical page turn buttons. I will say I agree about the clumsy UI. I hope Amazon is working on this; I have no loyalty to the kindle brand so if another manufacturer comes out with a substantial improvement I'll switch.

I also have an ipad mini which is still the coolest thing ever and I do have the kindle app with some of my reading material handy in case that's all I have with me. However I consider this vastly inferior to books.
ndchamp
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by ndchamp »

I started with one of the Original Kindles, upgraded to a Keyboard, and now have a Paper White.
So, rather than "go back" to regular books I've gone forward to improved and better Kindles.
For my reading habits, mostly cop, crime, and thriller novels, the Kindle is perfect.
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Dutch
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by Dutch »

I love my e-reader!! I can't think of any reason to ever go back to paper.

The ability to hold hundreds or thousands of books in the palm of your hands, in such a small form factor.
Not sure about the meaning of a word? Just tap on it and have instant access to the dictionary, including support for multiple languages.
Remember reading a paper book in bed, how the left page is more "comfortable" to read than the right page (or vice versa)? Well, with an e-reader you don't have to adjust your position anymore.

That said, I'm not a big fan of the Kindle/Amazon combination. I own a Sony e-reader myself and find that there's lot more free or low cost content available when you're not locked-in with Amazon's proprietary formats.
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by gkaplan »

My brother retired about eighteen months ago. His colleagues feted him with two retirement parties. (I guess he was well liked. I'll be lucky if I get one retirement party.) At one retirement party, they gave him a Nook. At the other, they gave him a Kindle. (No $5,000 watch, though. I guess he wasn't that well liked, after all.) My brother played around with both e-readers and liked the Kindle better than the Nook, so he kept that and sent me the Nook. I opened the package, read the instructions, and decided I liked print books better than e-books, so the Nook is sitting on my bedroom night stand, unused. I guess you can call me a Luddite. I just love carrying around those seven hundred page Ron Chernow biographies and the like.
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DaleMaley
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by DaleMaley »

DaleMaley wrote:
nisiprius wrote: Pictures, diagrams, and maps are generally a disaster area and I don't understand why. There doesn't seem to be one publisher in ten that knows how to put a high-resolution image into a Kindle book. And an amazing percentage of the time, they are sideways!
I have written and published about 55 short stories on Amazon Kindle, plus also on Smashwords.com. I do not own a Kindle reader. My stories are financial stories and often include charts and tables.

When you upload your story, it is optional for you view the story and correct anything that does not look right. Unfortunately, the Kindle viewing software Amazon lets you use to view your book is not very high quality. I also compared the look of a book I upload to Kindle, versus a friend's Kindle reader............and the preview on Amazon was different looking than on the actual Kindle reader.

Even if you want your book to look good to the customer using the Kindle reader, Amazon makes it tough to do this. Hopefully, Amazon's preview software will improve over time.
I just published a new story on Kindle. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Amazon has dramatically improved its preview viewer for authors/publishers. I was able to quickly and easily page through my short story, and make sure everything looked ok. I was also pleasantly surprised all of my charts and pictures looked fine also.

Image

Maybe the format quality of Kindle stories will improve because Amazon improved the preview capabilities. Of course, there is nothing that forces the author/publisher to actually use the previewer.
Most investors, both institutional and individual, will find that the best way to own common stocks is through an index fund that charges minimal fees. – Warren Buffett
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JMacDonald
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Re: Anybody who bought a Kindle go back to regular books?

Post by JMacDonald »

I have both a Kindle and an iPad, but I read mostly books because the ones that I do read I can usually get cheaper here: http://www.alibris.com With a coupon I can get another dollar off.
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