Continuing the discussion from Identify Yourself:
eBook and eBook reader discussion goes here.
I would recommend Kindle over the nook if you are just starting your collection. The Fifth Season books will probably be difficult to purchase without DRM. I have a fairly large collection of books with and without DRM. I usually use Moon+Reader on my Android devices and I have a Kindle Paperwhite for stand alone reading. I use Calibre to manage the DRM free books on all devices, it is free and great software. (runs in Linux 
) Humble Bundles and Story bundles are a great way to pick up books at a reasonable cost.
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I’m also a fan of Calibre. Supposedly there are ways to use it to remove DRM as well, but I haven’t tried them yet.
I have owned both a kindle and a nook. Kindle is just better put together. The experience is way better.
I used to use an actual Kindle. Now I just use the Kindle app on iOS. It syncs! I can read on my iPad. Then pick up where I left off on my iPhone on the subway. Then pick up where I left off again on the iPad.
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The actual Kindle has an advantage in high-glare scenarios, like sitting on the beach while reading or something along those lines due to the nature of its e-ink screen. However, I agree that a phone or tablet with the appropriate app is far more flexible.
I’ve had a nook for about 4 years, and I have yet to pay for a single book, since I just sail the high seas and plunder any of the books I need. The nook is compatible with both epub and pdf. Sometimes the display quality of the file can be questionable, but the Calibre program mentioned above can be used to optimize a file for the nook if it’s not displaying properly.
*Disclaimer: There have been at least 3 revisions of the nook hardware since I bought mine, and I haven’t tried out any of the newer ones.
I still have an Actual kindle, a keyboard K3, that I bought in 2010. The only thing that’s suffered in the time since is that the battery life is a bit shorter now - as in, it used to be about two months, unless I was using it REALLY heavily or using the wi-fi, now it’s more like a month.
If/When it breaks, I’ll propably replace it with a Kindle Oasis, maybe a voyage. The only kindles I don’t like are the ones with no physical buttons, I dislike the touch-screen-to-advance-page models, with my giant shovel-hands, it’s tricky to hold them comfortably in a way that won’t result in a lot of unintended page-turning.
There are at least a few ways to strip the DRM from purchased books. My experience has been that the free solutions are usually a difficult process though. I did come across an actual software package that you can buy to remove DRM but I haven’t tried it yet.
Once I found out that I could reverse the colors on Google Books, I’ve been using my iPad almost exclusively. Also because I’m dumb and get money from the Google Survey app, so it let’s me have a steady stream of legally free books.
Everyone who has Amazon Prime should also be aware of the Kindle Lending Library.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200757120
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I have an original Kindle I use sometimes, but I’d like to replace it with a tablet when I get the money. E-ink is nice but a large screen with pinch zoom would be better, especially with things like textbooks that don’t format as nicely as plaintext.
I feel like a Luddite because I really hate reading long passages on a screen instead of in dead tree format. I find it much more cumbersome to navigate an app, scroll through to find what I want, zoom always makes it format weird so I have to scroll around. I had to get an eBook textbook for a course I’m taking and I’m cursing it every time I have to read it. Give me a real book.
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I feel that way for reference books and text books where I constantly have to flip back and forth and jump around. For for anything sequential, I’ve fully committed to digital.
One thing I miss about dead trees is lending books/comics to people, and they’d actually read them. Every time I’ve given a friend a flashdrive with comics on it, they don’t read them even if they have a tablet.
I’ve never seen any eBook reader or app that scrolls. I haven’t seen any zooming either, except for images like maps. If you can’t see, you increase the font size, and the number of pages in the book adjusts automatically.
Also, it is easier to flip around because you can SEARCH. You can put in a million bookmarks that are saved and sync’d. The table of contents is a menu you can click on! With Prince of Nothing I’m searching for “heron spear” all day. Good luck finding it with a dead tree edition. With a paper book you often have to poke around randomly to find shit. With an eBook you go direct to the exact spot every time, no fuss.
Are you just like, not using the features available in the digital edition?
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While I love all those features, dead trees still win in one department. Quickly paging through a lot of pages, like finding Kellhus in the glossary. Sure, you can use the regular search, but he’s coming up so much you can’t quickly find his entry.
I can’t make a screencap of my iPad while I’m at work, but I just tried this, and it was pretty fast.
Also, there isn’t an entry for Kellhus in the glossary that I saw. There is no entry for “Kellhus, Anasurimbor” or “Anasurimbor, Kellhus”
I use the Kindle app and whatever flat screen device I have available to me.
- Kellhus doesn’t have an entry? That’d seems wild.
- I just picked a name. Search for $TERM_THAT_OCCURS_FREQUENTLY. Maybe tusk? I don’t know.
I’ll make a tiny video tonight showing how fast I can search.
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