/lit/ - Literature

Personally I tend to avoid digital copies as much as I can; mostly due to DRM. When you purchase a paperback, typically the purchaser is bound to abide by their country's copyright law. When you purchase a digital copy you're bound to copyright law and additional terms & conditions imposed by the distributor / seller. Usually when you purchase a digital copy of a book, you're merely purchasing the right to view the material and are not permitted to share the content with anybody. A plus side to digital copies would be how inexpensive they are, however it still comes at a price, the price that you are willing to waver all ownership of your copy and the company you've purchased from (e.g. Amazon) can veto your access without any given notice.

You're purchasing an e-reader for a practical reason by all means go for it. Be aware of who you're purchasing your books from.

(I'd still go with a shitty laptop just because it can serve as an e-reader and then some.)

>>6723

>DRM

Well there's your problem bro.

Also, while I wouldn't have believed it without getting one myself, I think an e-ink screen is a lot easier to read on than a monitor/laptop screen.

i like mine. but as you said

> they will never be as good as real books

i go for a phisical copy if i can avoid it.

E-readers have become a commodity. People are practically throwing them away, holding to their somnambulist part of the feature upgrade treadmill.

As others have pointed out, you are buying into a whole system of DRM, file format compatibility, legality, and so on. You have a learning curve ahead of you.

My advise is to get the cheapest one you can get you hands on. See if someone you know is going to toss away an older model. You might be able to get one for free. I did.

With that, you can get a feel for what they can do, and what features you might want that are missing. If you are happy as a passive consumer you will then be well armed with information before you pony up for an expensive model.

Hopefully what you will soon see is that there are whole other systems out there that grant you some serious freedom. DRM stripping, device jailbreaking, vast online libraries of free content, the range of different file format superiority, file format conversion, and more.

You'll discover Calibre.

My little obsolete well known name brand device has an intentionally disabled wireless, the advertisement nagging cruft is long gone, various crippleware features tossed, it's perfect for me. It didn't cost me a penny and I'll be using this until the battery or solid state drive dies.

E-readers don't replace books, but they're great for the niche they fulfill, and the inadvertent user supported systems and freedom infrastructure they've given rise to.

I never understood the appeal of readers over smartphones. They have smaller screens and can be used almost anywhere. What do readers offer in exchange for portability?

>>6734

>What do readers offer in exchange for portability?

Larger screens.

My smart phone is barely viewable without glasses, and a pain in the ass to use as a reader even with them.

I don't normally use my glasses at all with my e-reader; larger font's and all that.

Given a choice I'd rather use a netbook with Calibre so that I have a decent general purpose computer for other uses, or a plain old book. My obsolete freebie e-reader is still nice to have for difficult travel situations while carrying around a hefty variety of books.

A reader has no need to use its wireless transmitter, so you can shut it off which allows the battery last practically forever. Phones sort of need to stay connected all the time, just in case.

Also, smart phones are a magnet for thieves, while old readers don't seem to attract anyone's interest.

>>6728

It depends. Normally what I do is just put everything into Calibre and go from there. Some pdfs convert pretty well, so i can read them on my kindle. Others don't really convert, but the kindle will still display them, and I like my text very small so it works for me. Worst case scenario, they're already on my PC so I can just read them there.

I have one, my brother bought it for me, but I find it difficult to read on, I mostly load it with audiobooks.

I will never be able to read an entire book on a screen. It's just something that I'll never be able to accomplish. Physical books are the only medium that I can possibly read from beginning to end. Reading books on a screen is the same as listening to music through headphones: it's fine and works, but it just feels awfully uncomfortable and it isn't something that I can endure regardless (or maybe because) of how captivating the art itself is.

>>6734

it looks like paper. sort of.

and the battery lasts forever.

I have a kindle fire that I only use for audiobooks, I have a lot of epubs/mobi files on my computer, do you guys have any tips for making use of the kindle a lot more comfortable, I could never finish a book on it, the letters on the screen feel like a hole is being drilled in my eyes, then there's the reflection and to deal with that I have to turn the light up, and that's just uncomfortable.

>>7042

you should try a e-ink one.

like i said >>6744.

>>6722

Doesn't cause eye strain, I have a 6 inch kobo, but it's a pain because it's such a small surface, i might look at getting a 13.3" Sony but I hear they can only load pdfs, neotronix is coming out with a larger one some time. I also don't have 800 bucks to spend on this.

>>7052

>i might look at getting a 13.3" Sony but I hear they can only load pdfs

i have a sony, a sorta old one, and the problem it has no problems with other formats but generally speaking i convert pdfs in epubs because sometimes pdfs were not loaded properly. things like cutting the last line in a page. but maybe i don't remember it correctly.

epubs are fine though..,

I grew up in a home full of books. I deeply appreciate the physical aspects of a well made book. However, I found myself mostly looking to read books which are either hard to come by in Europe, rare or expensive. I only recently jumped the bandwagon of e-readers and carefully researched all my options. I eventuall settled for a device that can read virtaully any format and doesn't lock me into any sort of markeplace. I'm a very happy reader now and have read more on this device than I had read this year paperback.

>>6722

Displays of all sorts are not as good as a real book, but sufficient. I sometimes read books on my phone. Get pdf's, then you won't have to worry about DRM.

>>7052

> i might look at getting a 13.3" Sony but I hear they can only load pdfs

i have an sony, a relatively old one and they load several kinds of formats.

personally i convert stuff to epub because, maybe i was doing something wrong, but sometimes pdfs are cut at the beginning or the end of a page, don't know why…

>>7618

Is this bait? E-pub is objectively worse than just about any other e-book format.

>>7622

epub and pdf are the most common formats, and, looking at what's posted in the library thread >>>/library/22 most, if not all, of them could have been textfiles for all the formatting they have. If the better formats would be more common, that would be great.

>>7622

epub is the best when used with a e-reader

If a book is now in the public domain, I download a pdf and read it off a hand-me-down nook i received from my grandmother.

>>9317

are you me?

>>7618

>ePub

>not DjVu

step it up anon

>>6722

I have one of the older Amazon Kindles

>lightweight

>no backlight

>screen makes it look like words on paper

>simple buttons that make it easy to turn pages

>using it alongside calibre I an read pretty much anything. I've downloaded over a million books from kickass torrents

>lots of space

>can change the screensaver, play music and audio books

What's not to love?

>>7622

What's the difference between the formats?

>>9317

>pdf

No.

Convert that shit

>>9369

Pdf and epub are shit

Mobi is pretty good

I've an e-ink Kindle and it's one my most valued possessions. The display induces virtually no eye-strain, the physical profile has a certain je ne sais quoi that's comfortable to use in pretty much any circumstance, and the value of being able to store an entire library's worth of books on a device light enough to be measured in grams can't be overstated. File type support is robust–.epub being the only unsupported format I've yet encountered–as is importing books: plug in and ctrl-c + ctrl-v. That's it. Above all though, the backlight: this motherfucker is the greatest thing to happen to the written word since the printing press; it's subtle, natural, and completely adjustable. I can turn it off and on in under a second and change the amount of "on-ness" with incredible granularity. I've actually had the backlight on for the last several months and can't think of ever consciously noticing it when reading in the light yet can still see the text crisply glowing in the darkest night. You'd think this would be a significant battery drain, but in the last year (12 months) I can count the number of times I've had to charge the thing on one hand. The only reason I still read print books is because I already have them.

There are caveats, however. Above all make sure your model has airplane mode, "sponsored offers" or w/e they call it is horrendous and the device will phone home of its own volition far more than it has any right to (also draining your battery). Additionally the touchscreen, while a net gain on the whole, is terribly inconvenient to use with gloves which can impact your usage significantly if you're in a shitty part of the world.

Oh and get one of the magnetic auto-locking leather cases, they're cool as hell and feel great to hold.

>>9368

>>9390

>>9368

I was thinking of getting the one with the keyboard, was pretty pumped until I read about everybody having them die in a couple/3 years and decided to hold back. How has been durability on your side?

>>9369

>pdf

A little rigid, exploits can be inserted into the files

>epub

Basically a text file zipped, dynamic and lightweight.

>mobi

Don't really know/remember.

>>9413

I had a 2nd and 3rd gen (keyboard models) before I got the touchscreen and while the 2nd gen worked perfectly, the 3rd gen failed for some reason I can't remember after several months to a year. I may have damaged it, I can't remember. I've had the touchscreen version for about a year now and haven't had any issues with it.

I wouldn't recommend a physical keyboard version because that increases the size of the device quite a bit while robbing you of your screen real estate. You likely won't be doing much typing and the on-screen keyboard works well enough.

>>9413

.mobi is amazon's proprietary ebook format, which in my experience is primarily for DRM-locking files. I've actually been locked out of public-domain books I DLed through amazon because of it. Avoid like the plague.

I don't think these are really worth it. I have an old ipod touch someone gave me for reading and I am much better at reading on that than my nook.

1) The nook is too big to be carried everywhere and is very fragile (I had to buy a second one because my last one stopped working)

2) it has a bigger screen than the smartphone, but the smartphone can zoom in so that the text is big enough anyway.

3) you can't use the nook for anything other than books and it doesn't hold anywhere near as much as the smartphone.

4) the nook has no color

5) they try to push advertisements and shit onto e-readers.

Sure it's easier than a lap-top, but its not worth paying a hundred bucks forone imo. For a lower price you could just get an old smart-phone used and read off of that plus have music, internet, and more memory.

I'm thinking about looking into a Kobo eventually. Anyone know if they're any good?

Cheap Linux netbook, plus Calibre is the way to go.

I still stand by the advise of picking up yesteryear's model of name brand reader, cheap or free if possible, as the best deal for most people hellbent on a reader. Especially if it's your first one.

The thing about readers people keep forgetting is how much better a specialized non-backlit screen is for reading over your standard lcd/led fare.

>>9472

this, i guess.

the thing i like about my reader is that simulates paper.

>>9474

as far as i'm concerned that kind of device is already at a peak technologically speaking.