E-Book Reader

[MikeH]

Anyone got one? If so any good recommendations for cheap or free books, especially woodie related. I know about the usual gutenberg etc.

I ask as I have ordered a kindle 3 which should arrive early Sept so am eagerly building up a collection at the mo.

 

[wobblycogs]

I've got a Sony PRS-505 and love it. The non-free books I have are all from Waterstones which all things considered is not a bad service. The kindle is a nice machine, the only thing that put me off was the lack of format support. IIRC Kindle don't support epub which seems to be emerging as the industry standard, I wouldn't think it's much of a problem though as Amazon have a huge selection of books.

In my various searches I've found free books at these places:

• http://www.baen.com/library/
  http://www.ebooksjustpublished.com/
  http://www.epubbooks.com/
  http://www.feedbooks.com/
  http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/multiformat.htm
  http://www.freetechbooks.com/
  http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
  http://manybooks.net/
  http://www.mobileread.com/
  http://www.speculativefictionreview.com/

I don't know how good / bad most of these are as I've not had much chance to look in depth. I've searched a few times for woodwork related books but never found anything of note. To be honest though the ebook reader isn't really the right medium for that type of book. Ebook readers are great for fiction and news but only just scrape by with technical works.

 

[oddsocks]

I've just bought a secondhand sony PRS-505 from ebay and find it really simple to use. I buy books from WHSmith - cheaper than waterstones but a lousy web page.

A word of warning if you buy a secondhand one (any make) where the original owner has ever put a DRM (adobe epub protected) book on it. You will not be able to download any other DRM protected books to that reader without factory resetting it and losing all existing DRM....so read the books before buying your own!. This is because the ereader is locked to the owners adobe username/account.

FYI to do a reset on the PRS-505....
with the ebook off, use a paperclip in the reset hole for 10secs.
power on the ebook and hold down the bookmark button and the volume up keys for approx 25 seconds...then the warning menu will appear and prompt you that you are about to lose the DRM. Say yes (if you are sure!) and then when you try to use your own adobe DRM account to push a book the ereader will then register itself to you.

EDITED as sony provided this method using the library reader app...

In regards to the issue, I can confirm that you will need to de-authorise the Reader and then re-authorise it using the same details you used to register with Adobe Digital Editions.

You will need to:

- Open up the Reader Library and highlight the E-Reader icon on the left hand side.

- Once highlighted, press CTRL+SHIFT+D (tap D a few times), this will de-authorise the Reader.

- Unplug Reader, go into SETTINGS then ABOUT to make sure the Reader is now de-authorised.


You can now re-authorise the Reader:

- Plug the Reader back into the computer.

- Drag and drop the purchased book onto the Reader icon on the left hand side.

- You will now be asked to authorise the Reader, be sure to enter in the same Adobe ID details as you did to register with Digital Editions.

- Go to STATUS, and it should say authorisation complete.
Dave

PS i bought the Sony as the kindle3 would not ship in time for holiday and I like the idea of the £149 with wifi and web browser. Amazon kindle book prices appear better than epub ones if you re happy to be locked in.

 

[skyechem]

I also have the Sony PSR-505, and think it's great. I would find the lack of support for epub on the Kindle annoying, but as has been mentioned, amazon will probably have a good selection of books.

Other than Waterstones, there is another good site for buying books, books on board. There is an american and UK site, which sometimes have different things available. But perhaps with the Kindle you're limited to buying from amazon?

 

[wobblycogs]

I don't know if the Kindle is supported so this might only be relevant to the PRS users but there is a free e-book manager called Calibre http://calibre-ebook.com/. It's not brilliant but it's streets ahead of the Sony monstrosity tat ships with the device and much more feature rich than Adobe Digital Editions.

Calibre can handle DRM protected content in so much as it can put it on to the device ready for reading but it can't, of course, display it. It can also download news / magazines etc to your device and it handles just about every format under the sun.

Finally, if you are at all into science fiction I would recommend The Host by Stephenie Meyer - really good read, couldn't put it down.

 

[MikeH]

Thanks all.

WobblyCogs, I have played around a bit with Calibre yesterday, haven't got my head around it yet, it completely messed up a PDF I converted to MOBI. Thanks for the SCI-FI recommendation, I love SF so will look that one up.

 

[wobblycogs]

I wouldn't bash Calibre too hard for not being able to convert a PDF (unless it trashed the original file of course). PDF is very very difficult to convert into another format because it's designed to give an accurate representation of what will appear on the printed page rather than provide a semantically rich description of the information being displayed. PDF is, pretty much, just printing instructions. I've never seen a converter that will tackle all the images in a PDF either as they can be insanely complex.

 

[petermillard]

Sorry if this is a bit late - only just noticed this thread. We've been reading eBooks for years and bought my first e-ink reader about 3 years ago. We have a few different brands including the Sony 505. Personally I switched to using the Kindle App on an iPhone/iTouch last year, and these days we do most of our reading on iPads.

That said, I've just pre-ordered a Kindle3 - £109 for a wifi-only model it's perfect for reading outside in bright shade or sunlight, and keeps all your books/bookmarks synced between devices. In the UK Amazon has far and away the better selection of books, and not just current fiction.

Agree with Wobblycogs, Calibre is a great open-source format-shifting and book management software, but I wouldn't take a PDF anywhere near it!
I'd also heartily recommend www.mobileread.com - lots of advice there, and Kovid Goyal (developer of Calibre) is an active member.

HTH Pete.

p.s. Sony have just announced some new readers:-
http://www.sonyinsider.com/2010/08/12/n ... ming-soon/

 

[MikeH]

Thanks all for the info. Will have a poke around the addresses etc given. Just have to wait for the Kindle to arrive now!!

 

[AndyT]

Anyone got one? If so any good recommendations for cheap or free books, especially woodie related. I know about the usual gutenberg etc.

I ask as I have ordered a kindle 3 which should arrive early Sept so am eagerly building up a collection at the mo.

Just in case, though they've been posted here before, do you know about these two wood-related sources?

http://www.evenfallstudios.com/woodworks_library/woodworks_library.html - - wonderful collection of 175 wood-related texts in pdf format

http://www.roseantiquetools.com/id220.html - collection of old tool catalogues

Maybe having a collection like this - of stuff otherwise unavailable - is a good reason for getting an e-reader.

 

[dannykaye]

I have had success with calibre under ubuntu. If you use the sony you must use either sony software under windoze or calibre, you CANNOT mix the two