I use mine way more often than I originally expected. The low weight means I can have it in my bag by default. A lot of content is available in e-book format and it’s easy to get onto the device. Reading lengthy articles on it makes me less likely to get distracted by links, email, etc.
The unexpected killer feature for me was that you can use it one-handedly. I’ve been carrying my sleeping daughter and reading at the same time for hours—that would have been impossible or at least prohibitively uncomfortable with a book.
I live in a country where name-brand E-book readers are quite rare. I am aware of E-Book readers for quite some time, but I am unsure if I can justify buying one, because of
a) non-existent electronic bookstore support. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony and such doesn’t work here officially. Will E-book reader provide enough value if I will only download books to it manually? I heard it doesn’t handle pdf format well?
b) uncertain reliability of the e-ink devices. My only experience with it is when my brother borrowed a PocketBook reader for a day and it broke, somehow. He never even took it out of its leather case. Looks like those e-ink screens are very fragile? Or, maybe that’s only true for some? I was thinking of buying a Sony Reader, which had metal cases, but they changed for plastic in the latest generation.
I loaded up almost a hundred books to my Kindle from Project Gutenberg. There are other free (legal) eBook locations such as Baen Free Library. For the $80 Kindle, that’s likely worth it, even without accessing the vast illegal (in the US at least) sources. I agree they’re definitely bad for PDF, text books, or anything else you’ll want to flip back and forth; only good for sequential reading (novels and the like). They’re very reliable and last a long time.
E-book readers such as the Kindle
I use mine way more often than I originally expected. The low weight means I can have it in my bag by default. A lot of content is available in e-book format and it’s easy to get onto the device. Reading lengthy articles on it makes me less likely to get distracted by links, email, etc.
The unexpected killer feature for me was that you can use it one-handedly. I’ve been carrying my sleeping daughter and reading at the same time for hours—that would have been impossible or at least prohibitively uncomfortable with a book.
Specific advice would be much appreciated.
I live in a country where name-brand E-book readers are quite rare. I am aware of E-Book readers for quite some time, but I am unsure if I can justify buying one, because of
a) non-existent electronic bookstore support. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony and such doesn’t work here officially. Will E-book reader provide enough value if I will only download books to it manually? I heard it doesn’t handle pdf format well?
b) uncertain reliability of the e-ink devices. My only experience with it is when my brother borrowed a PocketBook reader for a day and it broke, somehow. He never even took it out of its leather case. Looks like those e-ink screens are very fragile? Or, maybe that’s only true for some? I was thinking of buying a Sony Reader, which had metal cases, but they changed for plastic in the latest generation.
Any thoughts on this?
I loaded up almost a hundred books to my Kindle from Project Gutenberg. There are other free (legal) eBook locations such as Baen Free Library. For the $80 Kindle, that’s likely worth it, even without accessing the vast illegal (in the US at least) sources. I agree they’re definitely bad for PDF, text books, or anything else you’ll want to flip back and forth; only good for sequential reading (novels and the like). They’re very reliable and last a long time.