More ebook talk

I heard an interesting podcast about the rise of the ebook. Check it out at:

It features talks with book publishers, writers and collectors about the impact of the ebook on the culture of books. Here are some interesting points that they raised:

  1. People actually buy the Kobo. I had no idea, but it’s a Canadian company, located in Toronto with Chapters/Indigo (Canadian version of Barnes & Noble) as its principle shareholder. They are available in the US, Australia and many other countries. Who knew?

  2. This whole trend is anglo-centric. The Kobo doesn’t even support other languages…and I thought Canada was bilingual.

I knew about this aspect because of my gf. She is French Canadian and has no interest in ebooks because there are practically none in french.

  1. It was 40 years after the beginning of printed books until someone thought of adding page numbers. Wow.

Another interesting article:

http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2011/02/yankee_group_e-.html

That’s up from 2010 sales of nearly $1.9 billion, or from about 11 million units last year to a projected 72 million in unit sales in 2014, Yankee Group said.

I have the Sony eReader. I am a huge book lover, reader but also the object. I collect books since I am a teen and I dont see myself stoping. The advantage of ereader for me is when I am traveling, or for books that I would not buy ie technical books. My girlfriend is doing a doctorate and since she saw my eReader, She is thinking to buy one and since the kobo is quite cheap, she will probably buy it.

Si tu sais ou chercher, la plupart des best-sellers sont disponibles en français :wink:

Oui, je sais. Ma blonde lit seulement en français, donc elle trouve que il manque assez des livres encore. Plus en plus, je pense de faire une voyage à Platsburgh pour cherche un Nook color. C’est hot en maudit pour $250.

Salut!

Oh you crazy French-Canadians…

I’m like John Kerry, I just speak french.

Watch out with the Nook color, it’s a screen, not e-ink , I could not read for a long time on a screen but no problem with e-ink…

I’m still debating it. I think I’ll end up with a Kindle before I get a Nook. Especially if they start giving them away as rumoured!

But what about batteries that power these EBooks because todays Li-Ion batteries that power smartphones barely last a day :frowning: . Somewhere I read that computer processor capacity increases every six month but it takes 10 years to increase battery capacity :unamused:

Regards,
Navnath

Another interesting article:
Can libraries survive in a digital world?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9421996.stm

Hypersurfacer: That’s a critical discussion to have. In a world with only digital books, Amazon will have access to the memory hole. I prefer to have a well-funded public library with hard copy books, even if no one uses it.

It reminds me of the Library of Alexandria. When it was burned, the world lost so many greek classics.

I’ve noticed my local library is starting to offer ebooks. Since I don’t have a reader, I can’t use it so I don’t know the specifics, but I was happy to see they were offering it.

I bought my fiance a Nook (had to return the Kindle) because of our library offering ebooks. It was a little difficult to set up because nothing said you needed Abobe Digital Edition. But now that it is set up, I fear the consequences ebooks will have for libraries. It is amazingly simple and convenient. The books last three weeks once you ‘check out’. However, since the expiration is handled through Adobe and not the device, you can use it much longer as long as you dont sync it to Adobe.

I could see Adobe or another source fixing that little bug somehow. Like you can only access the book if you sync or there’s an internal timer linked to an internal clock or something. Should be an easy fix.

I really want to like ebooks more. I love my iPad and it’s great for reading in some cicumstances (while traveling, in bed, at a cafe, etc.).

I have a few problems so far-

  1. I want to stick to one ecosystem. I’d already intrenched in the Apple Apps Store/iTunes so would like to just use iBooks. Plus, it’s a lot smoother and visually appealing than the Kindle apps or any of the others I’ve seen. Which leads me to point 2-

  2. Why can’t I browse the iBook store from the computer? I can do that for music, apps, but the iBook store is only available on the device. It’s much easier to navigate if I’m on the computer as great as the iOS app is…

  3. The selection. Frankly, it pretty much sucks, which is surprising. I search for all my favorite authors, and get nothing.

  4. The categorization is also pretty much full of suck. They have top level categories like “Fiction”, Sci Fi", wtc. and you can search by author, but not by sub genres or find one book you like and see others similar. I don’t know what I’d even call the genre I like, but I sure know it’s not Tom Clancy and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo top 100 commercial stuff. Since the lists are primarily Top 1o style, I’d have to browse forever to find something that isn’t a mass-pulp book.

  5. Along with the categorization, I think it is seriously missing some sort of recommendation feature like Genius is for music. I don’t use Genius, but I do go to the bookstore, tell them what kind of thing I like to read and they recommend a few books that are 99% spot on. I’m generally not a huge fan os “social” stuff, but something could be done that doesn’t have to include linking to a FB profile, twitter, or any of that crap.

I’m packing up for a trip to China now and want to bring a few books on the iPad, but it’s proving to take more time to search than it would to run to the bookshop and grab a few books, despite the weight savings and ease of reading…

R

That’s pretty sad. Isn’t the iPad (and all things Apple) supposed to make things easier for you?

indeed. Not to mention at the moment, I’m stuck in login hell. I have a few different iTunes accounts from when I lived in Europe, a US one when I got my iPad in the states and a CDN one. I’m constantly switching between accounts as the stores have different things on them and I can’t “update all” Apps, or I get stuck as some are US and some CDN… at the moment I can’t even login at all in iBooks!

R

OK, final report from my end. I literally spent about 3 hours today trying to find books through the iBooks bookstore. Besides not finding anything I was actually looking for (I almost bought something just out of frustration of searching for so long and coming up with nothing), not to mention the login hell, I’ve officially given up on it.

I went over again to the amazon Kindle shop (on the computer), searched for a few things I was looking for, and found them right away. Bought one within 2 min and 3 clicks. Started searching some more, and bought two more. The recommendations were also pretty helpful.

I kinda feel like a traitor using Kindle since I’m an Apple fanboy and all, but the experience was 1000x better. Too bad the Kindle reading app doesn’t do the nice page transitions :frowning: You’d be surprised how much something like that changes the user experience. For me at least.

I still just wish though I could get a free digital copy with even physical book I purchase. I love books, and have a whole wall of floor to ceiling (11ft!) bookshelves. Still, I want digital sometimes, but love the physical object of books and the graphics they have on covers.



R

@rkuchinsky: How is it to read a book on a screen? after let say 2 or 3 hours reading, it doesn’t hurt? I’m asking because I am planning to buy an iPad soon and if it could be as good as my eReader, I would give it to my girlfriend(the eReader)…

Funny. Just saw an iBook commercial touting “If you’re looking for a certain offer, or a New York Times Best Seller” then alluded to if you don’t have an iPhone, you’re missing out.