Just got a Kindle.

AdMan said:
That is pretty amazing--I wouldn't have expected that for some time.
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Same here - I thought this day would be in a few more years.

I suspect part of it may be a blip where people are getting their new Kindles and "buying" all the free books from Amazon (maybe then the 69p books) - the article wasn't clear on how they were counting so I don't know if this could be the case or not. On my part, I have "bought" about 30 free books, another 6 or 7 which were less than £1 - while in print I have bought only 1 book this year)
 
DrDave said:
I suspect part of it may be a blip where people are getting their new Kindles and "buying" all the free books from Amazon (maybe then the 69p books) - the article wasn't clear on how they were counting so I don't know if this could be the case or not. On my part, I have "bought" about 30 free books, another 6 or 7 which were less than £1 - while in print I have bought only 1 book this year)
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That is a good point. They aren't giving their physical books away or selling them for $1 or $2 like they are with many e-books.
 
And I just noticed a rogue right parenthesis in my post - luckily there's an xkcd for that

(.png


Back on topic - I do not doubt that e-books will eventually take over from physical book sales, but I think it has come artificially early due to the availability of the free books which every new Kindler I know downloads as many as they can find which look vaguely interesting and performs quality control after.
 
DrDave said:
Same here - I thought this day would be in a few more years.

I suspect part of it may be a blip where people are getting their new Kindles and "buying" all the free books from Amazon (maybe then the 69p books) - the article wasn't clear on how they were counting so I don't know if this could be the case or not. On my part, I have "bought" about 30 free books, another 6 or 7 which were less than £1 - while in print I have bought only 1 book this year)
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Also if you do not have a Kindle you can go to a bookshop and buy books.
 
DrDave said:
And I just noticed a rogue right parenthesis in my post - luckily there's an xkcd for that

[qimg]http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/(.png[/qimg]

Back on topic - I do not doubt that e-books will eventually take over from physical book sales, but I think it has come artificially early due to the availability of the free books which every new Kindler I know downloads as many as they can find which look vaguely interesting and performs quality control after.
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The worse thing with doing the above is what happens to the "recommended for you" selection. I've inadvertently downloaded a couple of the "Christian" books that seem quite common and also one Romance novel. Which made for some rather strange recommendation until I used the "do not use for recommendation" option!

ETA: One of the things I think that alters book publishing significantly is the ability of a publisher or an author to give-away or charge very little for the first book in a series or even a selected book of a multi-novel author. This is crafty on two fronts, first of all you will probably sell many more of the first book than you would have done otherwise and still make a profit on that (if you say charge 99p) which is something new as that model wasn't practical for a publisher when books were paper and they had to hold inventory plus then of course those that like the series or author are likely to buy more at an increased price.

Also for me it has allowed me to do something that I haven't been able to do for years. When I was younger I went around all the shops that sold remainder books and would cart home dozens of pulp quality novels (I even have a hundred or so of the Ackermans' English Perry Rhodan bought this way). I love being able to pick up books for under a quid, at that price it doesn't matter if they are crap, you always find a few gems and being a voracious reader (okay compulsive obsessive) it's simply heaven. My Kindle is hardly ever not at my side. Oh and it has made my house much tidier - I no longer have piles of half read books all over the place.

I love my Kindle, can you marry your Kindle?
 
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Darat said:
The worse thing with doing the above is what happens to the "recommended for you" selection. I've inadvertently downloaded a couple of the "Christian" books that seem quite common and also one Romance novel. Which made for some rather strange recommendation until I used the "do not use for recommendation" option!
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That is a problem! But, I gave up on their recommendations a long time ago since I buy more presents than things for myself on Amazon, and the things I buy for myself generally cause problems (e.g. buy a box set - get recommended every individual DVD from that box set)

The best I saw was "You bought a Friends DVD - then you may like a street map of Chicago". Might make a thread on this later to collect interesting/useless/ridiculous automated recommendations people have seen.
 
When I went into Half Priced Books to unload some dead tree books for the pittance they pay, I was tempted to ask them where the used e-books were shelved. If they are a public company, it's time to start shorting their stock.
 
amused said:
When I went into Half Priced Books to unload some dead tree books for the pittance they pay, I was tempted to ask them where the used e-books were shelved. If they are a public company, it's time to start shorting their stock.
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I heard a report on NPR recently that said while major book chains are struggling (although Barnes & Noble’s revamping and Nook entrant is holding its own), that independent bookstores are actually doing reasonably well. Anymore, they’re a niche market anyway, but because you can browse titles in a specific genre, or cover art can catch your eye, they still hold the attention of readers, even if you have been won over by the e-book industry (which I have). I found myself wandering into a used bookstore this past weekend, and enjoying browsing through the titles of the SciFi/Fantasy section, seeing some older, obscure books that were somewhat appealing.
 
RobRoy said:
I heard a report on NPR recently that said while major book chains are struggling (although Barnes & Noble’s revamping and Nook entrant is holding its own), that independent bookstores are actually doing reasonably well. Anymore, they’re a niche market anyway, but because you can browse titles in a specific genre, or cover art can catch your eye, they still hold the attention of readers, even if you have been won over by the e-book industry (which I have). I found myself wandering into a used bookstore this past weekend, and enjoying browsing through the titles of the SciFi/Fantasy section, seeing some older, obscure books that were somewhat appealing.
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Also never forget the luddites. I work with a fellow who gets a look of angst in his eyes whenever I talk about my beloved Kindle, and talks about going into used book stores and start buying books in bulk just for the sake of having them and making arguments about posterity, etc. I don't necessarily disagree. I love the smell of an old paperback, and if the world converts to digital a giant CME or well-placed EMP could do some serious damage. Then again digital data is less subject to other hazards (i.e. politics + fire) and perhaps we'll have bigger worries if a CME is powerful enough to wipe out hard drives around the world.

Has anyone here use a Nook, in particular the new touchscreen model? How is Barnes & Nobles Nook store? I did a bit of looking around and though it had the new releases I was looking for (i.e. Jon Ronson's Psychopath Test), it lacked some of the older books I've been considering picking up which Amazon does have available. The prices, being set by the publishers I guess, were the same. I understand B&N hasn't put quite the effort into DRM'ing their book files (read: they're easily hackable) that Amazon has and that is appealing to me, however I've had no trouble finding utilities to strip the DRM off all my Kindle2 books. The Kindle3 apparently is another story.

I've been considering the Nook because my Kindle is starting to show some wear (I've dropped it a few times and most of the casing is cracked) and I don't like how Kindle does not support ePub, which seems to be the standard open book format for checking out from libraries, etc.

Thoughts? Does this belong in a new thread maybe?
 
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Bloodtoes said:
Has anyone here use a Nook, in particular the new touchscreen model? How is Barnes & Nobles Nook store? I did a bit of looking around and though it had the new releases I was looking for (i.e. Jon Ronson's Psychopath Test), it lacked some of the older books I've been considering picking up which Amazon does have available. The prices, being set by the publishers I guess, were the same. I understand B&N hasn't put quite the effort into DRM'ing their book files (read: they're easily hackable) that Amazon has and that is appealing to me, however I've had no trouble finding utilities to strip the DRM off all my Kindle2 books. The Kindle3 apparently is another story.
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I use a Nook Color (though it's cracked and I use both the Kindle and Nook apps for Android) and used the Nook and Kindle before it. If the new touchscreen e-ink Nook gets similarly broken, I'll probably switch to that.

As for comparing the two stores, I like the B&N store's layout better but they're both quite usable. In terms of content, it's a 6/half-dozen situation. One might have a particular book while the other doesn't, but it works both ways. In fact, in the example you provided, I too wanted to read 'Psychopath Test' and then wanted his other 2 books. It turned out that neither store had 'The Men Who Stare at Goats' and 'Them' was only available for Kindle; I bought the former in hardcopy and the latter from the Kindle Store.

One advantage for the Nook is that it has native EPUB support, but as mentioned many times above it's easy enough to use Calibre to convert files to a Kindle-friendly format.

My bottom-line recommendation: If the battle is between the Nook Simple Touch and the Kindle, I'd go with the former. It uses the same display tech as the Kindle, has better battery life, and adding the touch screen makes it more potentially versatile (especially if it could be hacked into being an e-ink Android tablet!). If it's between the "classic" Nook and the Kindle, go with the Kindle since the little color touchscreen doesn't add that much to the reading experience while the current Kindle's design is much nicer.
 
Babbylonian said:
My bottom-line recommendation: If the battle is between the Nook Simple Touch and the Kindle, I'd go with the former. It uses the same display tech as the Kindle, has better battery life, and adding the touch screen makes it more potentially versatile (especially if it could be hacked into being an e-ink Android tablet!). If it's between the "classic" Nook and the Kindle, go with the Kindle since the little color touchscreen doesn't add that much to the reading experience while the current Kindle's design is much nicer.
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Basically it's between the Nook simple touch and waiting to see what Amazon does later this year. There were some pretty impressive e-ink display demos earlier this year at a tech conference (was it e3? i forget) and I'm keen to see the devices which integrate the new e-ink displays which I'm assuming will include the Kindle4. This is entirely assumption, I have no idea what Amazon plans to do.

I love that the new Nook device is mostly screen up front, getting rid of a lot of bulky framing / keyboard.
 
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Bloodtoes said:
Basically it's between the Nook simple touch and waiting to see what Amazon does later this year. There were some pretty impressive e-ink displays earlier this year at a tech conference (was it e3? i forget) and I'm keen to see the devices which integrate the new e-ink displays which I'm assuming will include the Kindle4.

I love that the new Nook device is almost entirely screen up front, getting rid of all that bulky framing / keyboard.
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Regardless of your preference it is amazing what is being done with such young technology. I can only imagine what these devices will do in a couple of generations of development
 
Bloodtoes said:
Also never forget the luddites. I work with a fellow who gets a look of angst in his eyes whenever I talk about my beloved Kindle, and talks about going into used book stores and start buying books in bulk just for the sake of having them and making arguments about posterity, etc
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Tell him he's wasting his money buying them because more and more are being given away and that trend is only going to increase. A Borders bookstore near where I live went out of business recently and after their going out of business sale, they gave whatever books were left to our local library. Our local library has days every now and then when they give away books. I have some books I want to get rid of to reduce clutter but I worry that when I go and try to get rid of them nobody will take them off my hands. If you go to a used bookstore to try and sell books they give you almost nothing for them.

I bet if you go to the free section on Craig's List people are giving books away.
 
Bloodtoes said:
Also never forget the luddites. I work with a fellow who gets a look of angst in his eyes whenever I talk about my beloved Kindle, and talks about going into used book stores and start buying books in bulk just for the sake of having them and making arguments about posterity, etc. I don't necessarily disagree. I love the smell of an old paperback, and if the world converts to digital a giant CME or well-placed EMP could do some serious damage. Then again digital data is less subject to other hazards (i.e. politics + fire) and perhaps we'll have bigger worries if a CME is powerful enough to wipe out hard drives around the world.
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I can’t forget the luddites, as I am one! :) It took me years to get on board with CDs, and years to get on board with DVDs. I’m a little quicker on the Kindle because it let me buy more books for less money, and my wife doesn’t get angry at all the new books cluttering up the house.

However, I’m not certain there is need for concern over a “well-placed EMP”. The data just seems to exist in too many places currently, so taking out everything such that the loss of digital data causes a loss of technological knowledge seems too far-fetched to me.

What’s “CME”?

Bloodtoes said:
Basically it's between the Nook simple touch and waiting to see what Amazon does later this year. There were some pretty impressive e-ink display demos earlier this year at a tech conference (was it e3? i forget) and I'm keen to see the devices which integrate the new e-ink displays which I'm assuming will include the Kindle4. This is entirely assumption, I have no idea what Amazon plans to do.
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My understanding is that before there is a Kindle 4, Amazon will enter the tablet market. They’ve been relying on iPad to be their tablet of choice, but the tech rumor mill recently went into overdrive over the idea that instead of a color Kindle, Amazon may in fact be about to launch their own tablet.

But again, I’m a luddite, so I’m not quite ready to jump on any more tech at the moment.
 
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