E-book readers?

I've read a few ebooks on my notebook. It's annoying in some ways, but not really a big deal. But I've had my eye on the Cybook for a while. Actually, Sony's e-ink reader is probably the best one, but it's so expensive...still, I think it would eventually be worth it. Your eye can't tell the difference between that display and real paper, it's pretty neat.

There's a chinese version similar to the new sony reader, it should probably be cheaper. It's made by a company called Hanlin.

I read them on the computer. Ebook readers are even harder to read on IMHO.

I generally use Mobipocket, and I love it for ebooks. Acrobat Reader isn't too bad, either.

When I was in college I used my handeld pc a lot, found a lot of my English lit books for free online. Only thing that really bugged me were:

1. the ebooks in HTML format. I hated not having a linked table of contents or a way to bookmark where I left off.
2. the length! I wouldn't read a novel as an ebook. However, I've found that short fiction is really great in the ebook medium.

I bought an ebook reader but found it too hard on my eyes an too heavy to hold. So now I read them at home and take paperbacks to work. I would suggest test driving some before spending money.

You know, i really thought it would be a 'brrr, ain't Hell nippy today' situation before I read e-books, but I actually quite like it! Prefer real books, of course, but the accessibility while at work is good. Also, there's the coming across publications one wouldn't get down the local Waterstones. Any additional access to reading matter is OK by me.

I read ebooks on my mac, because I can't find a decent mac-compatible ebook reader. You can get virtually brand new (but very old) palm computers for well under $100, but you might need old operating software to feed stuff into them.

I'm not sure why, but there seems to be a real prejiduce against Mac users when it comes to ebooks. The 'revolutionary' Sony Reader isn't at all compatible with Mac, and as far as I know, isn't even available outside of the states. What was Sony thinking?

I read e-books on my laptop quite frequently. I use Microsoft Reader. I like it. I wasn't sure I would but it's not too bad.

I use my PDA. I have a Palm, which works beautifully, that I got on Ebay for about 80 bucks. I've heard many good things about the eBookwise.

I don't have an e-reader, and I don't expect to get one soon unless they get really cheap with much higher resolution screens (though at the rate things go, that could happen in a year or two). I do like to read stuff that's online, mostly non-fiction (or what passes for NF on the Web...). I sometimes print longer online articles so I can read them in bed (where do most of my print/book reading - I'm reading "Page After Page" I got from an auction here, and she writes about "sleeping" with books!). I'd really like to have a pogram that formats text into pages that can be folded up to make a "book". Maybe Word or OpenOffice write would do that without too much trouble. I wouldn't want to have to go to a page layout program just to print my own personal copy of something I'll probably read once and then toss.

My older HP inkjet printer (the one that's out of ink right now, and might NEVER get more ink bought for it) has a software feature that you could say "print on both sides" and it would print the even pages, then prompt you to reinsert the paper and it would print on the odd pages, but my newer HP "PSC" doesn't have that feature (What's up with THAT?). It was much nicer to have ten double-sided pages to read rather than twenty single-sided.

I have never seen an ebook. I wouldn't know how to go about finding an ebook. And really, I just don't care about ebooks. To me they're just a fad and they'll always be a fad until the devices themselves become as cheap as paperbacks and I won't have to worry about leaving it on my seat on the bus.

I started downloading eBooks a couple of years ago, in several formats. Mobipocket, text, and Acrobat. I download them to my Palm Pilot, which I otherwise use mostly for the calendar. Since I already had it, there was no extra expense to purchase another reader.

I keep several books on it at a time. I prefer reading from a real book, but I use it when I'm eating alone in a restaurant and don't have a book with me, when I'm traveling, especially by air so I don't have to carry a bunch of books, and when waiting in doctors' offices. The PP I have now has a lit screen, so I can read it in any light. I can change the font size if my eyes are tired. I can rotate the screen display so I can hold it in one hand and use that hand easily to change pages, or if I want to lie down in bed and read it.

Sometimes I buy eBooks at Fictionwise, but I also download free books from the Gutenberg project.

I read books to get away from computers, screens, and most of the rest of the planet. eBook readers just aren't comfortable for me. The only feasible use I can see for me getting one was if I started doing a slushpile on a more regular basis than I already do.

THEN, I wouldn't mind something which I can read stories, adjust the text on the fly, and scribble with a pen "rejected" at the top. That would be handy.

I have a couple of ebook readers, and find Mobipocket works quite well. Once you get used to them they have a number of excellent qualities-- including backlight.

I have absolutly tons of ebooks, and i'm glad I started reading them because i've had access to some amazing authors I doubt I would have ever read any works by otherwise. As for how I read them well I just use my computer, if I am going to somewhere that I know has a computer and that I will want to do some reading I just place it on a pendrive and then take it to that computer. Or i'll print out some of the pages and take them with me.

I know a lot of people dislike e-books and don't class them as proper books but some of the authors out there are just amazing and well worth the read.

The Sony reader is very pleasant to read -- no glare or backlight. Just like ink on paper. But the reader itself is a piece of junk and expensive -- definitely not ready for prime time. But the eInk technology itself is promising.

I've heard quite a few people asking me if my book is available in eBook format. So I think there's a market out there, albeit a small one right now.

The market currently tend to be in niches print publishers don't serve well, or where the buyer prefers to be effectively anonymous.

veinglory said:

The market currently tend to be in niches print publishers don't serve well, or where the buyer prefers to be effectively anonymous.

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Interesting. I didn't know there was a science fiction market there.

Christine N. said:

No... it's the, um 'naughty' books. There's a big market for naughty e-books. Books you buy in the supermarket checkout line, with Fabio on the cover. And the, um.. even naughtier....books too.

Tee hee.

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I just about spotted that, yes. Ohhhh, I get it. Like, books with women who aren't wearing their vests! I was thinking it was pulp sci-fi! Ha! Ha! I'm so dumb.

Erotica ebooks are like porn. Anonymity required.