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Do you Kindle?

Discussion in 'Booktalk' started by dmc, Jun 27, 2011.

?

Do you use electronic book reading device thingies?

  1. No way, old fashioned books for me all the way

    18 vote(s)
    41.9%

  2. I prefer books, but will use one for travel or similar things

    8 vote(s)
    18.6%

  3. Either one is fine for me

    12 vote(s)
    27.9%

  4. Eh, well, if my battery is dead or I can't find the thing, I'll pick up a book

    5 vote(s)
    11.6%

  5. Unless I'm forced to by work/school, I don't touch a book, only e-readers for me

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
Page 1 of 4
  1. dmc

    dmc Speak softly and carry a big briefcase Staff Member Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    Remove all ads!
    Well, this isn't limited to kindles per se, as my daughter has a Nook (it's the Barnes & Noble version of a kindle).

    I can certainly see the utility of having a hundred or a thousand books on a single device, and it makes 100% sense for travelling, but, honestly, I like having a good old-fashioned book in my hands, even if it means I wake up with it on my face because I fell asleep reading.

    Edit: Weird - it truncated my last two choices and cut the poll down to 4 instead of 6. I put them back, but let's see if they stick.

    Edit: It wasn't the boards, it was Tal. :p Now that THAT is hopefully squared away . . . one last time.
     
    Last edited: Jun 27, 2011
    dmc, Jun 27, 2011
    #1
  2. Ragusa

    Ragusa Eternal Halfling Paladin Veteran

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    Kindle? Me? No. No way.
     
    Ragusa, Jun 27, 2011
    #2
  3. Barmy Army

    Barmy Army Simple mind, simple pleasures... Adored Veteran

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    I've been thinking of buying my mum one, I think she'd like it. For me though, there's no substitute to having the actual book in your hands, with a lovely cuppa. Especially if it's a slightly old book, so has that musty smell and feel. You can't replace that for me.
     
    Barmy Army, Jun 27, 2011
    #3
  4. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Now that they're pretty cheap I may get one eventually. I would have already, but I have so many unread books on the shelf already it'll take years to get through them all, so no point in getting a Kindle now.
     
    Blackthorne TA, Jun 27, 2011
    #4
  5. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    Don't own one yet, but that's just because I've got such a huge backlog of printed books that I want to get through them first. I'd probably prefer a tablet over most of the fat paperbacks, let alone any big hard cover books that are just too unwieldy to read.

    Edit: Ha, BTA is my long-lost twin. :p
     
    Taluntain, Jun 27, 2011
    #5
  6. Taza

    Taza Weird Modmaker Veteran

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    Given the Kindle store's limited supply of books in my preferred language in my region AND their extraordinarily clumsy interface? Not a great fan. I'd love Kindle if it had more books and worked half-okay.

    EDIT: Note, my Kindle is an Android device, and Kindle for Android is a great idea marred by absolutely horrible execution.
     
    Taza, Jun 28, 2011
    #6
  7. Harbourboy

    Harbourboy Take thy form from off my door! Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    I may go that way at some point but still books and magazines from the library for me.
     
    Harbourboy, Jun 28, 2011
    #7
  8. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    I wouldn't even want to use Kindle with a self-lit screen; the only reason I'd consider an e-reader is an e-ink screen.
     
    Blackthorne TA, Jun 28, 2011
    #8
  9. henkie

    henkie Hammertime Resourceful Adored Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    Are some of you using Kindle when referring to e-readers in general? The usage confuses me somewhat.

    I would consider using an e-reader for travelling, as it's much more space efficient if you're going on holiday for a longer time and want to take a couple of books with you.

    The problem I have with e-readers is that most of the official sales points for these electronic books use some form of DRM which can be very limiting.

    Furthermore, I just like to have the books physically on a bookshelf. Unfortunately, buying a book physically doesn't allow you to download it for free to an e-reader also, which would mean you'd need to pay for it twice.
     
    henkie, Jun 28, 2011
    #9
  10. dmc

    dmc Speak softly and carry a big briefcase Staff Member Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    Yes, I used Kindle as a generic term for e-reader.
     
    dmc, Jun 28, 2011
    #10
  11. Barmy Army

    Barmy Army Simple mind, simple pleasures... Adored Veteran

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    Amazon will be very chuffed about that! Nothing pleases a company better than to get their name used as a generic term for their product type.
     
    Barmy Army, Jun 28, 2011
    #11
  12. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    I think there may be some confusion because Amazon provides a Kindle app for many platforms. So, you don't even have to have a Kindle device to read Kindle books.
     
    Blackthorne TA, Jun 28, 2011
    #12
  13. Topken

    Topken Elven-dragon wizard

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    I use my PSP for on the go reading and I have over 6 gigs of fantasy books to read. This way I don't have to worry about DRM in the books. As for physical books those don't bother me at all as I have a number of hard copies around here myself. I don't mind reading either way personally.
     
    Topken, Jul 1, 2011
    #13

  14. Rook Gems: 2/31
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    I voted "Either one is fine for me".

    The problem with books is the same as with my games, cds and dvds. I can't fit them in my room. Kindle is easy to use and nice on the eyes and the books are cheap. I have even read a free one, and another that cost 90p. Download is virtually instant, battery life lasts ages (I read about a book a month and have had it for 6 months, charged it twice I think).

    I had so many books I couldn't fit them on the shelves along with CDs, games and films and just like all the old games, films and CDs I ended up filling up big plastic boxes with them and leaving them in the spare room, then my dad bust his back trying to pick up one of the boxes to move it.
     
    Rook, Jul 2, 2011
    #14
  15. Gaear

    Gaear ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful

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    Put your game disks and DVDs on spindles. Takes up a fraction of the space. (CDs are a bit too sacred for that, imo, but most packaging for DVDs is crap unless you get some special edition, and who cares about game packaging?)
     
    Gaear, Jul 2, 2011
    #15
  16. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    A lot of people care about game packaging... or used to, anyway. I keep all the old game packaging, from the times when they still contained various goodies and such. These days the packaging in most instances is so small that it doesn't take that much space, but it usually doesn't contain anything except the discs and manual, if that.

    Spindles aren't exactly convenient when you need to dump the whole lot off whenever you're looking for something not near the top.

    We've got a small library's worth of books in the house and the amount of space they take is really quite silly - especially since 90% of them will probably never be read again or only every few years. If I could, I'd exchange the lot for Kindle versions in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, since that's never going to be free, that'll never happen. As it is, the books represent a significant financial investment over the years. And while in the past the notion of having a library at home might have seemed quaint and cute, today when you could load the whole Library of Congress into a Kindle it seems pretty stupid, to be honest.
     
    Taluntain, Jul 2, 2011
    #16
  17. Harbourboy

    Harbourboy Take thy form from off my door! Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    I agree with Taluntain. Books take up way too much space, which is why I let the public library store all my books for me.
     
    Harbourboy, Jul 4, 2011
    #17
  18. Harbourboy

    Harbourboy Take thy form from off my door! Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    I have an iPad 2 now, so maybe I will look into reading books on that.
     
    Harbourboy, Aug 1, 2011
    #18
  19. Deathmage

    Deathmage Arrr! Veteran

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    I don't have one, but I would use one if I did. It would be pretty helpful when I'm commuting and so on (although, most of the time I just bring a book anyways). I can imagine it being useful for me though because I travel quite a lot overseas and it's impractical to bring my entire book collection.

    I'm thinking about Kindles for academic use, though, since most of the books I read these day are for my thesis. I think my use would be limited - while it can store a lot of .pdfs for quick reference, it would be hard to take notes/underline them, or scribble notes in the margins. Also it's unlikely to have much if any academic books available (one series I'm reading now is so obscure that the nearest copy is apparently in the British Library). So the only use would be, essentially, to store .pdfs - but even then I could only have one on screen at a time (as opposed to like six if I printed them out and scattered them around, as I usually do).

    Summary: okay for relaxation books, no way for study.
     
    Deathmage, Aug 1, 2011
    #19
  20. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    My understanding is you can take notes and highlight passages. I'm not sure how quickly it switches from one book to another, but it does remember where you were in a book, so it may not be as bad as you think for study.
     
    Blackthorne TA, Aug 1, 2011
    #20
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