Re: Kindle
- From: Larisa <purple_bovine@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 12:52:42 -0800 (PST)
On Nov 30, 2:31 pm, Bill <palmer.will...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Nov 21, 5:19 am, Catherine Fiorello
<cathynos...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:35:16 -0500, ian wrote:
And how do you lend a Kindle book you loved to your friends?
A physical book is a thing of mystery, potential and substance, and
downloading a bunch of text just is not close to being the same thing.
Ian
You guys are all acting like this is supposed to be a *substitute*. Think
of it as a supplement. We primarily use e-books when traveling. You can
get a ton of books into the same size and weight as one book.
Even there, it is not really such a great deal. Let's
say you figure you will need eight mysteries on your
vacation. Okay, with Kindle (guessing by what they
say in their ads, but without my having seen their actual
price listings for downloading individual novels) that
might cost you about $80. But if you live near any
good bookstore with used paperbacks, you likely
could get the same novels in very good or like new
condition for under $40, lower still if the used book
store does book-trading. And how heavy are
eight mystery paperbacks, after all?
Eight mysteries is nothing; while on vacation, I tend to read a book a
day, and a couple on the flight each way. So, assume a two-week
vacation; that's 14 books, plus 2 extra books for the flight. 16
books. Now, add to that the heavy language textbook that I also like
to take with me on vacation (where else would I have the time and
leisure to learn Chinese?), a couple of law textbooks that I have to
read for class (and those are heavy), and a classic that I figure I
won't read anywhere else, and you've got a whole extra suitcase then
and there.
Instead of lugging that suitcase, I download the books onto my Palm
Pilot. It doesn't do PDF files, alas, so the Chinese textbook will
probably be a few printed-out pages from the download I got for free
on the Internet. If I had a decent e-book viewer, I'd be able to take
the whole thing with me. I like Russian mystery novels, and those can
typically be downloaded for free (legally, and usually from the
author's own website) - so some of those 16 novels won't cost me a
penny. The classic work of literature is also free, at Project
Gutenberg or at www.lib.ru (depending on the language of the
classic). So the only books I'd pay for are the English-language
novels (which I usually download from www.powells.com), which
typically cost around $3 or $4. Assuming that 8 of the 16 novels I
will download are from that website (which is unusual - I generally
stick to the free books), that'll still cost me $32 - and I don't have
to lug a suitcase with me on vacation. The law textbooks, alas, are
typically not available in electronic form.
LM
.
- References:
- Kindle
- From: Willow Arune
- Re: Kindle
- From: ian
- Re: Kindle
- From: Catherine Fiorello
- Re: Kindle
- From: Bill
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