Kindle,the end...

charles_reed said:
On a small boat storage of real books is the problem.
Deciding that a Kindle was a sort of half-way house, I went the whole hog and started to buy audio-books which I load onto an external HDD and listen to on my mobile or the laptop.
It was a bonus that I found a supplier of MP3 audio-books which are sent on DVDs and cost about £0.39 per book. I now have 293 books by various authors, on a 2.5" USB drive, which is 1/2 full.
I still prefer real books and still swap!!
The other benefit of the audiobook is that you can listen and do something at the same time.
Reference/scholarly books are never on MP3 (but a very few are available for Kindle) of Nial Ferguson's 15 books 8 are available as Kindle and he's a pop historian.
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A lot of reference books are available as PDFs and can be viewed on a Kindle, and the Kindle will also play audio books and music in MP3.
 
There are an awful lot of books that aren't and probably never will be available as e-Books. Just for example, I was looking for "White Cliffs to Coral Reef" the other day; only available in book format. Low demand, so it is doubtful if the publisher will ever reformat it, and it's in copyright so enthusiasts (e.g. Project Gutenberg) won't do it.

I have a Kindle; on the whole I use it for out of copyright classics with very few purchased books on it. It is great for that; I have Jules Verne, Conan Doyle, Ride Haggard, John Buchan, HG Wells, Slocum, Voss and screeds of other things on it.

Project Gutenberg is an excellent resource!
 
Tam Lin said:
After resisting buying a Kindle I was given one as a present. To my surprise I like it and have downloaded lots of books. To my further surprise I am still reading / buying / being given traditional paper books so am reading more than I used to. Think both formats will co-exist in the future. You can't buy Kindle downloads in the charity shops yet!
PS While the Kindle is Ok for reading paperbacks I would stick to real books for reference works / manuals etc.
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Agree completely with your first paragraph. One of the additional benefits of a Kindle is its light weight. I travel abroad a lot for various activities [sailing/skiing/climbing/golf etc] and am always struggling to keep within the weight allowances. I also like to take lots of books; since I got my Kindle the weight allowance problem has been much reduced. But I still have plenty of bookshelves at home groaning with books both read and those waiting to be started.
 
mogy said:
Is Kindle the end of the traditional book swapping that is /was common between yachtsmen.Will people load their kindles with those cheap paperbacks that can be read without thinking and keep your mind off pending doom.
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No. I'm back on paperbacks. The number of readable free books on Kindle is far less now Amazon are trying to make money out of the service - quite often its cheaper to buy the paper version than the kindle one. Havent turned the kindle on for weeks now.
 
Bosun Higgs said:
No. I'm back on paperbacks. The number of readable free books on Kindle is far less now Amazon are trying to make money out of the service - quite often its cheaper to buy the paper version than the kindle one. Havent turned the kindle on for weeks now.
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Thats interesting....asa non owner of a kindle I would worry about the damp or even wet conditions on a boat which could be disasterous whereas a book just gets damp or soggy!
 
agurney said:
A lot of reference books are available as PDFs and can be viewed on a Kindle, and the Kindle will also play audio books and music in MP3.
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How do you manage that? I have several A4 size manuals in PDF that I would like to have on my Kindle but I find the screen is too small to see the full width of a page. If I use 'Fit to page' the font is too small too read without getting a headache.

There is supposed to be a large screen Kindle coming out but I don't think it's available yet.
 
Bosun Higgs said:
No. I'm back on paperbacks. The number of readable free books on Kindle is far less now Amazon are trying to make money out of the service - quite often its cheaper to buy the paper version than the kindle one. Havent turned the kindle on for weeks now.
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Pirate Bay and other sites have thousands of free books to download which can be swapped via memory stick.
 
mogy said:
Thats interesting....asa non owner of a kindle I would worry about the damp or even wet conditions on a boat which could be disasterous whereas a book just gets damp or soggy!
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I'd be a lot more worried about a boat that was damp or even wet inside! Potentially a lot more dodgy than a wet kindle.
 
Just read my first book on my tablet kindle app. Reckon i,m hooked. App seems better than my sons old kindle.
Been reading sailing mags on line for years, zino seems to allow you to send a copy via email tho I nver tried it.
Maybe kindle will follow suit.
 
I've had a Kindle since the first one appeared and no way could I go back. I take off for the boat in early summer with literally hundreds of books stored - mostly classics from the many out-of-copyright sites that I would never have normally bought, but also others that I have paid for. If I should tire of the list - highly unlikey, but it has happened - with the wireless version I am without cost in Amazon and another title is instantly downloaded. How else could one have such a well-stocked library on a small boat?

As for swapping books ... I never, ever, saw anything that I wanted to read amongst the airport newsstand trash invariably on offer. And where I sail the swap offers are either in Italian or German, which I prefer not to struggle with.
 
centaur1 said:
Just read my first book on my tablet kindle app. Reckon i,m hooked. App seems better than my sons old kindle.
Been reading sailing mags on line for years, zino seems to allow you to send a copy via email tho I nver tried it.
Maybe kindle will follow suit.
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Turn the background black and text white, it takes a little getting used to but saves battery AND is easier reading at night on watch...
 
Coming in late to this discussion, catching up on stuff I'd not looked at for a bit...

Having recently acquired an eReader for SWMBOs birthday, its a Kobo rather than the Amazon thing, I've also been introduced to an application called Calibre. One of the things Calibre does is reformat ebooks for the device you have. On current experience it does a good job of reformatting a PDF into an epub which makes the type size problem go away. Of course, it wont touch anything that is copyright protected so there are limits - but it does mean its still possible to exchange but not by leaving books on a bookshelf
 
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