Opinions on electronic books.

[Mac]

What do you think of electronic book readers like kindle. Just wondering.
Personally I would rather have a real book, but I suppose we'll all get used to it.

[Dr Mindbender]

What do you think of electronic book readers like kindle. Just wondering.
Personally I would rather have a real book, but I suppose we'll all get used to it.
I think its a great invention. Im really bad at taking care of books (they get dog eared and stained) so if i had the £110 i would certainly get one. I understand that the screen is sunlight resistant and supposed to resemble paper so it shouldnt take much getting used to.

Plus i believe that the book downloads are cheaper than the books themselves, plus you have none of the associated storage issues since you can keep your library on a single unit.

[Smyg]

I don't know about you, but I find them horrible to read, just as any other longer digital text.

[Hoipolloi Cassidy]

2 points:

1) Not to confuse "e-books" and "e-readers." For instance at the Orange Press (http://theorangepress.com) we publish .pdf versions of our "hard" books, which of course we can send out for free to convicts or third-world/reservation libraries. E-readers are just a gimmick to keep the control of the distribution of books with the distributors, not the authors.

2) There is no particular reason the reader (as opposed to the distributor), shouldn't have some measure of control over the format he/she wants. So, for instance, if you prefer printing out a .pdf as a book and binding it yourself, we encourage you to do that. That way you can sneak it into a jail, or casually leave it on a park bench, or whatever.

Bottom line: aesthetic issues are political issues.

[Dr Mindbender]

Id be interested to know if the kindle can support videos. Sometimes in the case of a tutorial book, i find that a moving image can explain things more eloquently than still images.

[Mac]

In the future, all electronic devices will be morphed together.

[AnonymousOne]

What do you think of electronic book readers like kindle. Just wondering.
Personally I would rather have a real book, but I suppose we'll all get used to it.

I love it, I'm not a big fan of the kindle e-reader, I dislike the e-ink, but I right now use a hacked Nook, and I love it. The thing I really like about Kindle (software) is that it keeps your books in sync across many different devices.

So I can be chilling reading, some Bakunin on my phone when I have some idle time on a job waiting for tests to run, and then when I get home I can sit down with my tablet and start where I had previously left off.

That's the biggest reason I like ebooks, the fact that they're convenient and it's impossible to misplace/lose. Worst comes to worst I reinstall the kindle application and I still have my place marked.

[Tenka]

Electronic format is, for me, far less engaging, more easy to be distracted from, and more straining on the eyes, than a real book. Plus I'm a bibliophile, therefore to the devil with all of these sleek portable devices which I can't afford anyway.

[Dr Mindbender]

devices which I can't afford anyway.
false economy. The kindle downloads are cheaper than the actual books because you arent paying for a tangible product.

Plus anyone whos ever experienced the ordeal of moving house will keenly know the advantage of not having a load of books to lug around.

[AnonymousOne]

Plus I'm a bibliophile, therefore to the devil with all of these sleek portable devices which I can't afford anyway.

If you own a computer, you can read kindle books. Also, you can pirate pretty much whatever you want to read, if the cost of the ebook is prohibitive.

[The Dark Side of the Moon]

i think they make it easier to pirate, so its better


but yes i think they are pretty near, bought world war z and loaded it onto my ipod and read it from my house to my grandparents house

[Ingraham Effingham]

Although you can't replace the feel (and smell) of a nice book, i have to say i absolutely love my kindle.

It's so convenient, and the pressed ink is easy on my eyes to read. The display is different than a computer screen

[Tenka]

false economy. The kindle downloads are cheaper than the actual books because you arent paying for a tangible product.

Plus anyone whos ever experienced the ordeal of moving house will keenly know the advantage of not having a load of books to lug around.
I've payed very little for "used & new" hardcovers at [self-censor]on.com; sometimes only a few cents. Regardless, both formats should be completely free. I have moved several times before, and it sure was tedious even before I had any large books, but the added effort isn't really something to complain about if you really like books.


If you own a computer, you can read kindle books. Also, you can pirate pretty much whatever you want to read, if the cost of the ebook is prohibitive.
Don't get me wrong, I'm quite used to electronic format. I've gotten copies of plenty of books I'd otherwise have to pay for to read on the computer, but it's just not the same.

[Sensible Socialist]

I'm a traditionalist, I guess. Nothing can replace the feeling of the pages of a book. Usually I'll open to random pages and begin reading, or flip through and skim quickly. It's probably just the technophobe inside of me, but it will be a while before I make the unholy conversion to e-readers.

[Pioneers_Violin]

I have been reading books for ages and love having a real book in my hand.

I also have had an Apple iPad for over a year now.
The iPad is a great, handy tool to have and one of its many features is an ebook reader named iBooks. In addition, it browses the internet very well, does email, GPS, all kinds of great things. A great all-in-one electronic device that happens to do e-books as well.

The screen is much different than a Kindle and isn't that good in the sun, but it is convenient, the pages flip like you'd expect and it works amazingly well for an e-reader.

The big drawback is that prices for iBooks books are often the same as a paperback, and I'd rather have the paperback.

Still, the complete works of Marx and Engels was only like $5 or $6 and it's a great way to sneak in a little study in between email, revlefting and maybe a little music.

I can't say that I would buy a dedicated eBook reader but iBooks on an iPad is "there anyway" and beats carrying several books around.

[RedTrackWorker]

I don't know about you, but I find them horrible to read, just as any other longer digital text.

Have you tried the Kindle? The key is the e-ink screens are just like reading a book to your eyes.

To me there are two big benefits to the Kindle:
1) E-ink--a lot I read is digital, so the e-ink reduces eye strain and can read more for longer.
2) Having it all right there on one device means I get more reading done--can take the complete works of Marx through Trotsky, Shakespeare and Tolstoy, and tons of political journals, science, etc., and when I get tired of one, just flip to another. I find I read a lot more because of it (and I already read a lot).

[Rss]

Here you can lease e-book readers from libraries and DL any e-books you want. This is the greatest thing dumped out by technology sector in years, I've always dreamt about having tons of books in one small device. I love these things!

[Princess Luna]

I love collecting stuff, so I have a almost compulsive need to have physical copies of books and movies. Also I find reading large passages of text on a computer to be very hard and while I suppose a E-reader wouldn't be as bad, it most likely would not eliminate the problem completely.

[RedTrackWorker]

I love collecting stuff, so I have a almost compulsive need to have physical copies of books and movies. Also I find reading large passages of text on a computer to be very hard and while I suppose a E-reader wouldn't be as bad, it most likely would not eliminate the problem completely.

Reading a kindle has the exact same kind of eye strain as reading a book.

[heyjoe]

I really should enter the 21 st century though its really not my century. Can you download from the kindle onto your computer or a disk so that you can save the book? do you lose everything you bought if your kindle breaks? I can definitely see the value that red track worker is talking about as far as being able to carry around many different works at once and being able to access them instantly. By the way red track worker, i used to work the same place you do now. I was a CI back in the 80's.

[Le Socialiste]

I too enjoy the feel and look of a good book. I've always dreamed of having my own mini-library (i.e. little room) with wall-to-wall bookshelves where all my books could go. I understand that electronic readers, books, etc. are great inventions, but nothing beats an actual book in my mind. I'd rather have a room filled with books than a tiny device filled with them.

[HEAD ICE]

i have a kindle and i really enjoy it. i mainly use it to put articles from the MIA on it and rare books that are hard to find in print/too expensive. a really good investment.

[socialistjustin]

I used to hate anything electronic, but now wont really touch a physical book. I suppose its because having a bunch of books laying around was disgusting and I was getting tired of having to dust my books.

[pluckedflowers]

I used to consider myself a traditionalist, but at my school pretty much all courses just use pdf copies of articles and chapters from books. So after having spent a few hundred dollars and killed a small forest printing these things out last year, I caved and bought an iPad. I'm now in the process of pirating everything I can get my hands on to make a new e-library for myself while I wait for it to arrive. Thank goodness for library.nu

On a related note, does anyone know any good Web sites for quality leftist PDFs? Marxists.org is a bit of a mixed bag.

[praxis1966]

On a related note, does anyone know any good Web sites for quality leftist PDFs? Marxists.org is a bit of a mixed bag.

One Big Torrent has all sorts of shit on it. There's also ManyBooks.net, which while not specifically leftist has plenty of leftist stuff on it. For example, a link to Kropotkin's Conquest of Bread: http://www.manybooks.net/titles/kropotkinpeter2342823428-8.html