eReaders (Kindle, Sony, etc.) and stuff about them

I've had my Kindle2 for over a year now. I love it. I mean, I love it! Now I read, read, read all the time. Occasionally I'm on the internet and I'll see some that I don't want to lose, like how to do something new, good books, free books, new software of the like for my computer ... so anyway, I thought I'd put this in here. If you want to share anything you found on the subject, please do. If you have any questions, you can and I, or somebody else, will give it a go.

I stumbled on this site yesterday. Everyday this guy posts Amazon's free Kindle book of the day (some don't last the full day and some last a little longer). That's quite a deal. I haven't looked back to see if there are any really, really good books available, but I saw some I'd have been interested in, for free anyway.

[Only admins are allowed to see this link]

He has some other stuff in there, but it seems that the free books is the most of what it is.

Here's another list he has showing plenty of other sites where you can find free eBooks:
[Only admins are allowed to see this link]

One more, for now. I've mentioned this before. Calibre. It's free and open source software that helps you manage your eBook library. It's got some really cool features, the simplest of them being:

calibre can sort the books in your library by: Title, Author, Date added, Date published, Size, Rating, Series, etc.

In addition, it supports extra searchable metadata:
* Tags: A flexible system for categorizing your collection however you like
* Comments: A long form entry that you can use for book description, notes, reviews, etc.

I don't know about other eReaders, but on the Kindle you have only a couple ways to sort all your books.

I haven't downloaded it yet, but I have observed that it seems to be the software of choice because it can handle so many different eReaders (not just Kindle).

Also check with your local library. Alot of them have free downloads of both audio and ebooks on their website. I know that at the library where I work, our customers LOVE this service.

I have been waffling on whether I want an ereader. I just love the feel of a book and turning pages.

crzy4bones wrote:Also check with your local library. Alot of them have free downloads of both audio and ebooks on their website. I know that at the library where I work, our customers LOVE this service.

I have been waffling on whether I want an ereader. I just love the feel of a book and turning pages.

Hey crazy! Some folks 'round these parts call me "crazy" too...

I'll have to check it out at my library. They have audio books to check out, but I haven't noticed anything of downloads!

As for the "feel of a book," I wasn't one to read much, before I found fanfic, but I ended up reading soo much of it that it started to wear my eyes out, and that's when I broke down and bought one. During the hiatus in February I started in on Kathy Reichs's books, from the library, until I got a tiny print softback, and it was download from there on out. The one perk I've found, besides being able to carry a whole library around with me at once, is that when I'm reading in bed (all situated just so, and especially when it's cold) I don't have to continually move to read this page then that page then turn the page - pushing a little button with one finger is so nice!

I'm not trying to talk anyone out of real books though, go at it any way you like, I'm just glad I finally developed a love of reading!

DBCrazy wrote:Hey crazy! Some folks 'round these parts call me "crazy" too...

I'll have to check it out at my library. They have audio books to check out, but I haven't noticed anything of downloads!

As for the "feel of a book," I wasn't one to read much, before I found fanfic, but I ended up reading soo much of it that it started to wear my eyes out, and that's when I broke down and bought one. During the hiatus in February I started in on Kathy Reichs's books, from the library, until I got a tiny print softback, and it was download from there on out. The one perk I've found, besides being able to carry a whole library around with me at once, is that when I'm reading in bed (all situated just so, and especially when it's cold) I don't have to continually move to read this page then that page then turn the page - pushing a little button with one finger is so nice!

I'm not trying to talk anyone out of real books though, go at it any way you like, I'm just glad I finally developed a love of reading!

Crazy in a GOOD way right? LOL! The library is a great resource...of course I might be biased in that respect. But yep...most libraries nowadays have a website..and you can download from home. I think ours just requires you to come into the library and get a library card, and then you can sign up from home. I haven't tried it yet, but I get alot of comments on it.

And I am glad that you have developed a love of reading...reading is reading, no matter which way it's done.

I hope Crazy in a GOOD way!! although we all have our moments. Right?

Anyway, here's a post about what's FREE today at Amazon (or, more truly, for a time - maybe a few hours and maybe a few days...)

[Only admins are allowed to see this link]

It's a Jeffrey Archer book of short stories, "And Thereby Hangs a Tale." It won't be released until Sept. 1st, but it's free to pre-order now.

And something else I wanted to say is that you don't have to have a Kindle to read Kindle books! There's all kinds of other ways: PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android Phone. You just download the software or app (for free) and load it.

Take a look for yourself [Only admins are allowed to see this link] (on Amazon).

Back before Christmas last year I was dying to get the new B&N Nook. I'm a B&N member so I kept getting emails about it....but for Christmas I got a 32g iTouch. So I downloaded the B&E reader. I can download pretty much any book I want and it's so convenient. I take it to the movies (to read before the movie starts), baseball games, even in the car when my hubby is driving! I love it!

I don't have an eReader or want one, but apparantly, the Harry Potter series will NOT be availiable to download.

I'm seriously considering getting a Kindle, but I'm scared I'll just end up spending more money buying books for it!

i_heart_bones wrote:I'm seriously considering getting a Kindle, but I'm scared I'll just end up spending more money buying books for it!

Well...I hate to break it to you, but I've racked up quite a tab on books. But...I'm not spending as much on them as I would be for real books, so I guess it's a toss up. With me it's just that I'm reading now! And the classics can all be gotten for free or next to nothing. And there's plenty out there that are really inexpensive. The ones that cost around $10 would be the current popular authors, but buying one of their hardbacks would probably set you back $20 or so.

There's two new Kindles coming out very soon. One is $139 and the other is $189. The price is coming down; last year when I got mine it was $249.

Yep that was the reason I was looking at them because they're so cheap! I was looking at the one 3G one. Probably just over $200 australian. Not too shabby!
Even though the books are cheaper, I can still justify paying more money for a hard copy of a book!
I think I might get one after Christmas!

I just got some great news! I posted a question on this site ( [Only admins are allowed to see this link] ) about a little glitch that occurs when I create my own files (just a missing character now and again) but the response that I got was better than I could have imagined! There's a FanFiction downloader!!!! My life just got soo much easier!

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Finally, Sherry’s issue, is an interesting one, which I may have a fix for. I, too, read a lot of fan fiction, but I got tired of doing the cut & paste or save, so I finally did an Internet search for fan fiction downloaders & found a great one from someone in Germany. You just copy the link & put it into the downloader & it will create an ebook for you, with whatever chapters you want. Reason being, some fan fiction can be quite long, I’ve seen some fanfics up in the hundred of chapters, so you might want to split that up into a few different books. Personally, I tend to go in 10, 25, or 50 chapter increments, depending on length of the chapters (some are only a few pages, if printed, whereas others are upwards of 40 pages per chapter). Also, you can also create a separate ebook for each chapter, if you prefer, personally I think that’s a waste of space. Anyway, with the fan fiction downloader, you can create a mobi ebook, pdf, document, or HTML file. Note that if you make a mobi ebook, it creates both a mobi file & an HTML file, which is kind of nice, then you just sync your kindle or send the HTML to amazon. As of the last update, there are 11 sites that fan fiction downloader works with, & the developer is always updating & adding more sites. The link for the downloader is [Only admins are allowed to see this link] for the English version, the main site is [Only admins are allowed to see this link] which is in German. The formatting is as good as the original, which sometimes leaves some to be desired, and the chapter breaks are several lines of # signs. Also, I found a Live Journal Community that is working on providing fan fiction ebooks, here’s the link [Only admins are allowed to see this link] what’s good is that all of the stories are there with the author’s permission. There is a little bit of everything in their Ebook Library, but most of it is readable on the kindle.

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I can't wait to download this and give it a try!

I thought I'd post this too. It's a picture of the user interface of that downloader.

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Okay, I'll calm down now!

Wow that's pretty awesome!!

Random question... does anybody reading this have an e-ink e-reader that isn't a Kindle? Or have a kindle and know how to convert epub files so they can be read on a kindle?

I've been debating getting an ebook reader seriously for about a year now... but I'm not really sure which one would best fit my needs. Basically, in order to get a kindle I need to figure out a way to overcome their crappy DRM (because I already download and read library ebooks, which are all epub and not readable on a kindle. But I love me free books!), and to get something else, I need to know that it is good without a lot of flaws/glitches. So any advice anyone has would be appreciated!

On a side note, I still buy "real" books, but borrow lots of ebooks. I've bought a few, if I know that I'll like them, but I've sort of shifted my library reading to ebook format simply for instant gratification (I often have to wait to get the books delivered from another library) and convenience. But I will never stop buying books I love in real format. However, e-readers have one huge advantage... I use a lot of public transportation and it would be MUCH nicer to not have to lug huge books around everywhere I go. So that's mostly why I want to get one.

Razz,

Moonlightbones mentioned on the previous page that she has a Barnes & Noble Nook, and she loves it. I don't know if that's eInk or not though.

About the ePub files on Kindle, so long as those files are DRM-free (some are, some aren't) then you can use the Calibre program to easily convert them for a Kindle.

Calibre is open-source freeware that you can use for library management.
[Only admins are allowed to see this link] << take a look!

Sherry

One thing I forgot, if your books are downloadable as .mobi files also, those will work on a Kindle without any kind of conversion necessary. The way I understand it .mobi IS what the Kindle uses (but when they add the DRM to it then it becomes .azw files.)

oops... I should read messages more carefully! I thought that that was only organization, didn't realize it was for conversion as well! sorry!

I got my new Kindle yesterday!!! OMGosh! It's wonderful!

I was going to part with my first Kindle, but I've made a better decision. I'm going to use it as a loner. Since you can't transfer ebooks, most of them anyway, this way I'll be able to let somebody read one. You know how it is when you read something incredible and you just want to hand it off to someone else.

Here's another cool resource I found yesterday. Lots of cool stuff there and while some of it is Kindle-specific there's plenty that's useful to anyone reading eBooks or wanting to make them.


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Here's a book that is free right now on a site called "Smashwords." It's science fiction / fantasy and has received quite a few very good reviews. I see that there are already 6 books following this one.

Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins

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If you like Romance novels then here are several to take a look at. They were free yesterday and probably still are for a short while anyway. I haven't read any yet as I have plenty awaiting me, but there are a few that looked really good, and a few romantic comedies too! "Guns Will Keep Us Together" looked like it could be hilarious.

[Only admins are allowed to see this link]

And if you don't have a Kindle, remember that you can download the software from Amazon onto your computer and read it there too, as well as many other ways that you can read about on the previous page.

That site I mentioned earlier about free stuff from Amazon for Kindles, well, yesterday they had a load of textbooks for $0.00 and I got many of them. So there I was last night looking through the Algebra.

I've mentioned this blog several times in here

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and I just did it again! Reason? Because Amazon has been having a gob of books for free in the last week or so. And even if you don't care because you don't have a Kindle, maybe you should. And why should you care? Because you can read them on your computer or your iPhone, Blackberry, Droid, iPad, Mac ... And once you own a book from them, it's ALWAYS yours. You might not get to read it for a year or two or more, but it doesn't collect any dust or take up any room on your bookshelf either. You don't even have to download it yet if you don't want to. They'll just hold onto it for you!

I hadn't gone in in a few days and this morning I went through and downloaded 13 books! One of them was "Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon.