[clug] Using Kindle?

[Karun Dambiec]

On 13/03/10 10:56 AM, Felix Karpfen wrote:
> On Sat, 13 Mar 2010 08:38:22 +1100, Daniel Pittman wrote:
>
>    
>> Felix Karpfen<felix at spodzone.org.uk>  writes:
>>
>>      
> .....
>    
>>> I would therefore welcome comments from CLUG members who have explored
>>> what Kindle has to offer.  And are there competitors to Kindle, that
>>> warrant a look before I put my money down?
>>>        
>>      
> .....
>    
>> http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_readers
>>
>> Both of those have fairly good summations of the options available; the
>> Sony options are likely to be worth a look, at least.
>>      
> ....
>    
>>> The following additional info is relevant to my queries:
>>>
>>> I like reading text on a desktop-computer screen (and feel virtuous
>>> about saving trees).  I have no interest in portable
>>> <telephones|computers| libraries>.
>>>        
> My thanks to Karun Dambiec for flagging the proprietary format used by
> Kindle and to Daniel Pittman for the above URLs (which is giving me
> plenty to digest).
>
> As indicated in my original posting, portability is a non-issue for me.
> Ability to download paperless texts rather than wait for 2-3 months for
> the hard-copy to arrive from overseas is of interest.  I have tended to
> restrict my searches to Amazon books because my interest is mainly in
> books that were published donkeys-years ago and are now likely to be out-
> of-print (but not out-of-copyright); e.g. I have recently ordered (from
> Amazon):
>
>   Godel, Escher, Bach: An Et...   $15.61               1   $15.61
>
> Shipped via Standard Int'l  Shipping
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>                             Item Subtotal:     $15.61
>                    Shipping  and handling:      $9.98
>
> which was originally published in the late 1970s.
>
>    
There are many alternatives to Amazon in terms of ordering paper copies 
of books such as the Book Depository, second hand book stores etc.
Amazon has also removed books in the past from the Kindle such as 1984,
and it completely removes the ability to give someone a book and 
eliminates the second hand market in books, if everyone was to use kindle.

Whereas with the Kindle, you are locked into only purchasing a licence 
for books from Amazon that they allow you to.

> Whether such books ever make it to Kindle (or other eTexts) is an open
> question. I would need to buy about 25 books as eTexts before I have paid
> for the initial investment; given my geriatric status and reading speed,
> my chances of achieving that target appear slim to me.
>
>    
One of the reasons why I have not considered Ebooks, is I can not just 
let some one borrow my copy of the book, or give it away when it is
no longer needed.

> Felix Karpfen
>
>
>