Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: mark smyth on August 16, 2011, 12:25:39 PM
-
Has anyone bought a Kindle? Have you bought plant books? Do you rate them? Would you rather have a real book? How good are they for the internet? ......?
-
Even though I got told off for buying a book last night* I will join the kindle set about the time that I start buying on e-bay or joining facebook - when hell freezes over! ;) ;D
*shelf space is an issue apparently. My response to which is usually to get another bookcase, but Susan rightly points out we are now also running out of walls.. anyway £3:50 for Deni Brown's Aroids book in our local Oxfam seemed too good to miss.
-
LIz Mills took her husband's kindle on the SRGC dolomite trip and became a convert within the course of the week.
Personally, I'd rather have a 'real' book - then I can fall asleep reading in bed without running the batteries down. ;)
-
That'll be a long sleep Peter. Amazon say their kindle has a two month battery life
-
Does the device not have a "snooze" mode that shuts it down if you don't change pages after a set time? Like a variation on the shut down/ battery save feature on a camera?
-
That'll be a long sleep Peter. Amazon say their kindle has a two month battery life
I don't sleep, I hibernate. :D
-
Shelf space!
-
Plenty of space on that top shelf, especially if you lay them horizontally. :D
-
true
I assume people have seen the 'brick'
-
Hold on to it they are starting to become collectors items.
-
What's the brick :-\
Angie :)
-
What's the brick :-\
Angie :)
Massive old mobile phone on a shelf in one of Mark's photos. I might not have spotted it but I was blowing the pic up to see how much info I could glean from Mark's computer and other stuff for my identity thieving hobby.
-
Sorry Martin only Outlook is open. I should have changed it to the forum.
-
In an average-sized 3-bedroom flat I have 18 tall bookcases and sundry other book cases/shelves with books - so, yes, I have a Kindle!!!
If you fall asleep with it on, which I frequently do, it turns itself off in a few minutes (customisable, I presume), but then again it also only uses the battery when you are "turning a page". I have a cover with a reading light (LED) in it so I do have to recharge it more often, but it also means that I can read in bed without a bedside light, and I don't wake up in the morning with the light still on any more!
At the moment I only read fiction/essays on it. I don't find the search features practical enough for using it with reference books, though I would imagine it might be useful in the kitchen, provided you don't want recipes with colour pictures. Internet is also a bit clunky, but can be useful.
For holidays/travel (going to the beach, etc) it's wonderful!!! And I have friends who read international daily newspapers etc on their kindles (better on the larger model).
-
I have just bought two Kindles, one for me and one for my husband. I did not buy it for plant books as I don't think I could ever live without them in the flesh, as it were. I need to be able to flick through pages, put post it notes in various pages and drool over some of the illustrations. I know we need more book shelves but it is one of life's necessities.
The reason I bought mine was for fiction, newspapers and when travelling. To be able to download Lonely Planets for every country we visited on our recent overseas foray was the best thing we could have done. They are so heavy. I used the Kindle facility on my Netbook while travelling and as a result (the exchange rate played a big part also), we both decided to buy an actual Kindle. So far we have not been disappointed. My husband enjoys fiction and it will probably save money in overdue fines from the library!
As someone has pointed out, battery life is quite long, and they do switch off when one falls asleep.
Susan
-
What's the brick :-\
Angie :)
Massive old mobile phone on a shelf in one of Mark's photos. I might not have spotted it but I was blowing the pic up to see how much info I could glean from Mark's computer and other stuff for my identity thieving hobby.
Thanks Martin, just couldn't think what he was meaning.
Angie :)
-
I have a Kindle for fiction, and the occasional non-fiction (illustrations can be annoying until you find out how to view them all). Also, the way one chapter merges into another (this was pointed out to Jeffrey Deaver at an evening with and he promised to talk to his publisher about it - he was shaken, but not stirred). I also have the leather cover but haven't used the light much. My daughter borrowed it and broke the glass screen. Amazon replaced it free and sent a new one to NZ free of charge.
-
So a kindle's a sort of ebook? I'd like one for fiction too but would have to talk to bank manager.
-
So a kindle's a sort of ebook? I'd like one for fiction too but would have to talk to bank manager.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002Y27P3M/ref=r_kdla_h_i_gl
-
Via a similar discussion on Kindles: http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/05/stop-its-a-really-bad-time-to-buy-a-kindle/
-
Thanks Anthony and also Chloe. It might be possible after all. How does one get the books? Are they bought Online and uploaded or what? My knowledge of things technical ended with the 1960s.
-
I'm in the process of trying to convert a couple of my books into ebooks for Kindles and it's a pain in the bum. You'd think they'd have the coversion software sorted, wouldn't you. But no. According to Amazon, pdfs, which is what most printers require to print from, so publishers tend to have those ready and to hand, don't convert very well. WHY NOT?!!! Surely Amazon could afford to get the bloody software de-bugged and working properly! They recommend you start with the text in Word format! But even that doesn't work very well. The conversion software seems to do all kinds of odd stuff to your formatting. In one book, all the Slovak words with a c that has a certain kind of accent over them have lost that c with an accent - just blank space! Now I have to go through the whole book changing the accented c where it occurs to an ordinary c!
-
In one book, all the Slovak words with a c that has a certain kind of accent over them have lost that c with an accent - just blank space!
Character set or font problem, like final font does not have the character you've used?
-
In one book, all the Slovak words with a c that has a certain kind of accent over them have lost that c with an accent - just blank space!
Character set or font problem, like final font does not have the character you've used?
I don 't know what the problem is. It's a č character that I copied and pasted into the text from the symbols selection in Word. All the other Slovak accented characters that I copied and pasted into the text seem to have converted okay in the ebook format. But where there should be a č there is just a blank space.
-
Another thing - why do you have to pay VAT on ebooks? Paper books, magazines and newspapers are zero rated for VAT, on the basis that governments haven't wanted to be seen to be taxing reading, and that taxing reading might mean people reading less. But ebooks have VAT on them. WHY? They're still books - just in a different format. Sneaky taxation on reading by the back door, that's what! Hoping no-one will notice or kick up a fuss because it's only ebooks and they're not a big thing are they? But they will be!
-
Can Kindles show photos?
-
I thought these sorts of e-books had been around for ages because I was very used to seeing them on "Star Trek New Generations" over a dozen years ago! ;D Yet another incidence of technology catching up with Sci-Fi!
cheers
fermi
-
Further back Fermi. I remember people bring them to Kirk to have a quick read.
-
Mark, they can show photos, but they only work in monochrome, so no good for plants books. Kindles are 3G so you just order using your Kindle and your Amazon account. Type in the Author and it lists the books available and the price. You then click "buy" and the book is downloaded on to your machine.
-
Classic titles and out of copyright books are available free here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/
Cheers
Mick
-
Why am I not surprised that the No. 1 ebook downloaded free at the Gutenberg website is 'The Kama Sutra'
-
I wonder how long it's held that position?
-
;D ;D ;D
-
Kindles are 3G so you just order using your Kindle and your Amazon account. Type in the Author and it lists the books available and the price. You then click "buy" and the book is downloaded on to your machine.
Ah, that's what I wanted to know. Might ask Susan to bring hers to the market tomorrow and show me how it all works. Soon be christmas. :D
-
Why am I not surprised that the No. 1 ebook downloaded free at the Gutenberg website is 'The Kama Sutra'
Well it's been on my book shelves for 40 years. Don't think I've looked at it for at least 35! :o
-
What Lesley, the Kama Sutra or the Kindle?
-
The Kama Thutra, Thilly.
-
Just had a quick scan over my bookshelves. Spotted "The Perfumed Garden". I know the "Kama Sutra" was on offer in "Bargain Books" a few years ago, but I don't think I bought it! I suppose the Kindle is handy in that you don't lose your page when you get distracted by other things!