Reading technology: eBooks vs. Paperback

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Up to around 11 years ago I was a fan of paperback books, had shelves of them, technology, detective, travel… but we bought an apartment and chose to downsize, hence the books went to be recycled and I got a kindle. Mainly because there was not that much on offer as an alternative.

It works great, in bed with built in light, by the pool, on the terrace I could not go back to real books now.

Ok I cheat my maps are still paper and prefer them to technology. And my one computer book is linux user guide by a fellow member of this site with so many notes written in and falling apart through over use.

So whats the question ?
How does it work?
How does it index ?
I copy books onto its drive using linux and can see them (dont bother with calibre, although my wife prefers that method)
I can search for author, title, etc
But what operating system, is this linux ?
There is a browser built in but never needed it.

Are YOU a ebook person or phone, tablet, reader or do you prefer paperback ?

I just have one slight issue, I am trying to delete some books from it but they refuse to go, no idea why click remove, click delete no reaction, restart no change, but other books go with the same actions. They are books I have stolen from other computers in for repair and I am deleting as they are duplicated, unlike copy paste on linus which tells you kindle does not always do so.

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I prefer paperback, but I have downloaded books to a tablet.
Dont know how kindle works, but it seems like a modified tablet . It is some sort of linux based OS.
Is it locked to Amazon ebooks, or can you download anything to it?

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I dont have any problems with any of the standard ebook formats, even pdf can be read but they dont work as well for change of size for text.

Calibre does also offer change of format to kindle as part of its software system, although only used it once to see if it worked

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100% e-book reader for 10+ years or so…

Started off using Google Play Books and a 3rd gen iPad… i.e. I’d upload, or buy, books from Google and read them on my iPad - and I could also read on my android phone too, and it would sync whatever page I was up to between devices - and - computer browser view…

Then I got a Kobo paper-white “Aura” - I was able to “side-load” epub files - and buy books from Rakuten Kobo, but couldn’t read books from Google Play Books, or Kindle store… At one time there was a pentology “The Mongoliad” and the only place to get books 4 and 5, was Kindle - nowhere else. I did managed to download them and remove the DRM using some Windows software on my work Windows laptop… But that was a PITA…

I mostly used Calibre to manage my book collection on the Kobo Aura device.

But I hated being locked into the Kobo ecosystem - and not all books were available, and removing DRM from Google or Kindle e-books was getting harder and harder…

So - I switch back to iPad - but - got a 2nd hand iPad Mini (6th gen). So back to where I started my e-book journey.

With the iPad mini I can :

  • upload DRM free epubs to Google Play Books (doesn’t always work)
  • buy books from Google Play Books
  • buy books from Apple Books
  • buy books from Amazon Kindle store
  • read epub files using Apple’s Books app from a Resilio Sync e-book share I share with my wife and eldest daughter…

Sometimes when a DRM fee epub won’t upload to Google Play Books - I use Calibre’s CLI utility “ebook-convert” to convert to mobi file format, then “back-convert” again to epub - and re-attempt upload to Google Play Books… that usually works…

One thing that was making me frustated (putting it mildly) was that some evenings, I would retire with the intention to read before nodding off - and the battery on the iPad mini would be dead - even though I hadn’t used it ALL DAY!

Found a solution for that - installed a free iPad / iOS app called “Shortcuts” - and created a shortcut that activated when the iPad wasn’t plugged into the charger - to go into low power mode and stay there! Works a charm - haven’t had a dead battery for weeks now!

And - above - e.g. if I have a book I’m reading in Google Play Books on my iPad - I can still open that book on my Android phone and it knows where I was up to. I do this when I donate blood - don’t want to carry my iPad to the blood bank - so I read on my phone while they’re siphoning blood out of me!

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Yeah - I mostly avoid PDF - it’s not a very friendly format - as it’s “page” based - whereas epub are just zip files of HTML that can re-paginate itself for the screen… And as I’m demonstrated in other posts - you can unzip an epub file, and modify the html (e.g. using sed) - then re-zip the modified html to *.epub (so long as you don’t tamper with the style sheets or index).

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Ebooks are the actual books. e-readers are the devices made to read ebooks. There is a difference.

I use my phone to read ebooks. Works perfectly.

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I’ve read hundreds of paperback and hardback books over the years. I have since sold all but a few of those to Half-Price Books for pennies on the dollar. I’d rather give them away to the library or anyone else for the amount you get from them.

Most of my reading these days is done on my phone, android tablet, or computer screen. It’s mostly due to being handy. I have my phone with my anyway and most of the options for reader software sync no matter which platform I’m reading from.

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We have a local secondhand bookshop that accepts return of 2 books in exchange for one taken. I think that is generous. We sometimes give them a box of books just help them stay open.
You dont get the bookshop atmosphere on a website.

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Great idea to help the shop.

In europe there are boxes in most towns where you can simply collect books from and donate for others, totally free. In our reception we have the same idea with shelves of free books in main languages

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That idea is spreading here. I have even seen one in the hospital foyer.
Books are not the status symbol they used to be… except when you are being interviewed on TV… everyone seems to feel they have to appear with a wall of hardcover books in the background.
I suppose the computer equivalent of that is ??? … I cant think of one. What do people use as a symbol of hi-tech competance?

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Technology and book in the same sentence makes my mind travel back in time to my youth.
My that time favourite was definitely Isaac Asimov. I have read all his books I could get in my hand - that was not so simple that time, and probably I did not really get all his books.
But for sure I remember the Tragedy of the Moon.
In that he wrote about an imaginary “casette” which plays automatically, rewinds when needed, stops playing as soon as the humans attention gets elsewhere. Additionally the casette should be controlled just by thought, so no real physical interface should be needed - as I remember, this was in some context where SF writers discussed between each other or something like that.
So when will we have such a device, when is the technology going to get to that advanced state, that it can produce such a device?
Asimov wrote, we already have that, and that is THE BOOK.
:slight_smile:
Now this summarized by me does not seem to sound that funny as I remembered it was.
I need to look it up in my collection, and read again, my memory is fading a bit.
Anyway, real books are never going to vanish, all the alternatives are just kind of replacements.

Edit: the Wiki tells Asimov wrote or edited more than 500 books. I’m nowhere near to the 10% of that with reading…

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A book is three things

  • an idea in the mind of the author
  • a representation of the idea committed to paper ( or other medium)
  • the power of the response it gets among those who read and discuss it.

The third of those - “the book as read” is the most important. All of our important classical literature exists today because of this third aspect. It is the spirit of the book that survives in generations of appreciative digestion and comment… and it is recursive… books are written about books.

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Read quite a bit of Ursula K. Le Guin in my formative years…

I love how her “instant comms” tech - i.e. where space is travel limited to the speed of light, but could still use some tech to communicate across light years of vacuum : the “ansible” - and many of us here who do Linux stuff day and day out - know of “ansible”.

I need to re-read her Science Fiction books again - especially The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness…

On the subject of books - I have extensive shelves at home lined with paperbacks and hardbacks (mostly stuff like Attenborough’s books that accompanied series like “Life on Earth”). A fair bit of the fiction paperbacks are science fiction, or fantasy (my favourite author in both sci/fi and fantasy is Jack Vance) - but also some classics (like the Russians), and popular science books by the likes of Stephen J. Gould. But I just cannot read the tiny text in them any more.

Late last year I finished reading Dostoyevsky’s “Brothers Karamazov” in e-book format and wanted to re-read my favourite Russian author’s (Mikhail Sholokhov) “Quiet Flows the Don” and “The Don Flows Down to the Sea” - but had trouble finding it in e-book format (I have it in paperback) - and tried reading my penguin paperback - and gave up - but then I found on the “Internet Archive” copies of them - but - they weren’t OCR’d text, they were scanned pages in image format - but I persevered never-the-less - had to zoom in on every page, then drag down the page to scroll, then zoom out to flip to the next page - but - I managed it…

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Think I would have abandoned that very quickly, thats why I dont take pdf books on my kindle. And only on my netbook if its technology related and just need a small amount such as a manual.

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I don’t think I’ll try that again :smiley:

I might have to re-join my local library and hope and pray they have stuff I might want to read in the shelves where the zimmer frame wielding geriatrics congregate :smiley: : LARGE PRINT

Only kidding and I shouldn’t be so dismissive of my elders - FFS - I’m 63 myself… There’s a nursing home right next to my local library - so close the inmates probably don’t need to recharge their mobility scooters :smiley: :heart:

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Where I lived before the nursing home was next to the cemetery… at least here in leucate its across the village, but outside the home is a poster for the local undertaker.

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There are always audio books. When I last saw one they were DVD’s. You must be able to download them today.

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In my country when you want something and the local library hasn’t got it, they can get it from another library… nation wide. There’s always at least someone who has it.

Hasn’t your country got such a system?

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This is what I have been doing more and more. As I travel in the car, there is nothing better than listening to a book. I do have to preview them first as some of the narrator voices do not appeal to my ears :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

I use Audible as well as another app on my phone and while driving, it is connected via bluetooth to my car stereo. My last two trips to my mom’s home (1800 miles RT for each) got an entire book read and part of another.

Like @daniel.m.tripp I have loved the shelves of books acquired throughout my lifetime and was sad to have to get rid of them as we are downsizing considerably. I donated them to a local charity and have since purchased some I owned and have read long ago in audio format.

I do have a Kindle and used to read on it regularly. It was nice to be able to make notes, highlight certain parts, and for the app to remember where I left off. And it definitely helps with old eyes. But it is pretty old and now I use it for a display to monitor my mom on all the cameras in her home.

Sheila

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I fear that step is coming for us too… not only books, there are files of notes, magazines, reprints. Then there is farm equipment and tools. Dont know where to start.

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