Romance Readers Reading Challenges discussion

I hope this is an appropriate place to post my quandry. I love books of all kinds, shapes and sizes--reading, listening on audio, and now I'm interested in eBooks.

I know several members are avid readers of eBooks. I'm thinking of finally breaking down and buying a reader this year, but I don't really know what to look for.

I've looked at the Kindle 2, which looks good, if not a little pricey. Plus Amazon has a good selection of titles. I've heard of Sony readers, but I've also heard the selection of books isn't as good.

Does anyone have suggestions?

Sarah, are you in the market for a new phone or iPod? If you are, I would advise that over shelling out for an ereader. They haven't gotten less expensive. ><

I bought a Sony reader about 3 weeks ago with the intention that I would use it to read books I would probably give away after I read them, I only keep my favs, for space reasons I have fallen in love!.
The reader comes every where with me, I can download books when I want to, I have no problems with getting books as long was you get the pdf version you can get books from a lot of different websites not just Sony. Personally I could not read a book on an IPOD or phone it just feels wrong, with the reader it feels like a book, you hold it like a book and I still finding myself going to turn the page as if I was holding a book - off to download a few more books :)If I read an ebook that I love I then buy the paperback !

Personally, I couldn't afford the expensive. And I like having actual books to turn the pages on. Rather old fashioned that way. lol I don't buy many books new though, I usually buy used.

I have a kindle, and it was given to me as a gift so I didn't have to worry about the cost of it. But I LOVE my kindle!! I have so many great books on there and I can take it wherever I go. The books are a little cheaper through amazon.

It is a lot of money though, but if you are frequently buying books... in the end it will eventually save you money

Here in NZ we don't have a Kindle boohoo. I've not yet met anyone that has a Sony reader either (and I have been keeping my eyes peeled). A very lovely young man let me check out his Kindle at LAX on my way home. I fell in lust with it! Until then I use my handy dandy Blackberry or laptop. Because I don't know anything else it works for me. In fact, my main reason for purchasing a Blackberry was to be able to read e-books that my library will not purchase (the more steamy ones lol)

Thank for the posts! I have an Adobe Reader on my computer, but I hate having to sit in front of the computer to read a book. I really love paperbacks, where I can curl up in my chair to read, and I want the same if I start getting eBooks.

My space for book storage is limited where I live, and since I end up reading 200-400 books a year... even though I borrow some from the library... well, I'm thinking eBooks might save me space and money in the end.

tosca wrote: "In fact, my main reason for purchasing a Blackberry was to be able to read e-books that my library will not purchase (the more steamy ones lol)"

Hey Tosca.. I just recently bought a blackberry.. how do you read books on it? Is it an application or something you have to buy a program to be able to read books on it?

Jess, most Blackberrys can open documents, so if you convert your ebook to .txt, .doc, .rtf, or .pdf and transfer it, you should be able to read it on your phone. :)

I got an Acer Aspire. It is a netbook. About 2 lbs. Easy to carry like an e-reader. I got it b/c I was moving and needed a new computer. But until I decide on the Kindle or something this was only $359.00 and works well as an e-reader. I don't mind reading from this screen but I do unplug it after about an hour (the screen is not lit for hours of reading). the neat features of e-reading is adjusting the font size and buying "sips" for $0.99 from most e-book sites.

I have a Blackberry Pearl and I use Mobipocket Reader. I've installed it on my laptop and pc and phone. Then any files I have that are pdf, word etc. I can put through Mobipocket and read as ebooks. new_user is correct - you can also generally open all of those file types she's listed and read those, too. I hope this helps! What kind of Blackberry do you have??

I have the Blackberry Curve. I just got it a month ago so I'm still trying to figure out how to work it. But isn't it hard to read when the screen is so tiny? I think the curve's screen is a little bit bigger than the pearl but not by that much

Yep the screen is tiny! But I figure it's a better option than lugging my laptop with me everywhere LOL I have a 2GB media card so it fits quite a few ebooks on it and I can read them in my lunchbreaks, on the bus or the train etc. And considering some of the stuff I read I'm not so sure I want colleagues peeping over my shoulder while I read elf-smut on my laptop LOL

I love ebooks too bad my comp crashed and I lost a huge majority of them but it seems I read books faster when they're in ebook form. I guess I don't get cramps from holding my reader like I do a PB/HB.

What kind of reader do you use, Jael?

I use my toshiba PDA

tosca wrote: "Yep the screen is tiny! But I figure it's a better option than lugging my laptop with me everywhere LOL I have a 2GB media card so it fits quite a few ebooks on it and I can read them in my lunch..."

lol.. elf smut!!! you're too funny. I'm going to see if I can get that download you mentioned. See how it is to read with the small screen.

Ooh, I love guessing games.
Was the elf smut one of the Dark Elves books by Jet Mykles?

Nichole wrote: "Was the elf smut one of the Dark Elves books by Jet Mykles?

Oh it has to be! Is there any other elf smut out there? Surely not or I'd know about it!

Lori wrote: "Nichole wrote: "Was the elf smut one of the Dark Elves books by Jet Mykles?

Oh it has to be! Is there any other elf sumt out there? Surely not or I'd know about it!"

Yeah, I think you'd definitely know about it, Lori. ;) I count on you for these things.

Definitely the Jet Mykles Dark Elves series - Danielle and I (she belongs to this reading group as well) refer to them as elf smut because elf porn sounded so much worse LOL She said she always knew there was a market for it somewhere LOL I also read Morgan Hawke's books - Victorious Star, Fallen Star (omg these are m/f/m but the men come double-equipped, literally LOLOL - shit I'm typing and spraying coca cola everywhere LOL), Torrid and Lost Star and, while they're not illustrated if my colleagues got a load of it (pun unintended LOL) I'd never live it down heh.

Tosca wrote:"Morgan Hawke's books - Victorious Star, Fallen Star (omg these are m/f/m but the men come double-equipped, literally)"

Awww...yes. Another one of my favorite authors. Love the double endowed hotties in her books. Is there anyone in this group that I have not corrupted?

Some of her stuff is err not quite to my taste but definitely the Stellar Interdisciplinary (prob got the series name round the wrong way geez) books I liked. Although they're definitely not everyone's cup of double-endowed heroes :)

I have a Kindle 2 that I read my ebooks on and I absolutely love it. It's constantly with me as well as my ipod full of audiobooks. Before I got my kindle I was printing out ebooks (uses way too much ink) or reading them off my laptop (not fun when trying to curl up with a good book). I would recommend getting a ereader if u read lots of ebooks. It doesn't have to be the kindle (it is a bit pricey) but get one you'll be happy with and will last a long time.

Lori wrote: "Is there anyone in this group that I have not corrupted?..."

Err... me. lol My library doesn't carry any of this stuff and I can't afford to go out and buy it. So unless one falls into my lap (like say finding it at the thrift shop, which I doubt), I'm not gonna be able to read it. I will however admit to laughing when I read the term "elf smut", lol, and was wondering what on earth she was reading. lol My curiousity would have me read the m/f/m double endowed males book, lol, just to see what's going on. lol But... can't afford it so will just read all your commentary instead.

Briansgirl wrote: I will however admit to laughing when I read the term "elf smut"

Not that I'm trying to corrupt you or anything but...if you go to Jet Mykles website http://www.jetmykles.com/ and click on "images", there are photo galleries of the elves (they are very graphic so be careful who's around when you're looking at them) along with some commentary. She also has some really great short storis in her "freebies" section.

I do realize that this type of reading material is not for everyone. I just get so excited with I find a kindred spirit who loves it as much as I do :)

Ha! But you are trying to corrupt... No worries, you're posting this stuff in the right group. I think most of us are corrupted already anyways.

oh my! lol
*blushes*
I just peeked at the website. lol
I had to send the child out of the room when he ran in and close the website down.

Lori wrote: "Briansgirl wrote: I will however admit to laughing when I read the term "elf smut"

Not that I'm trying to corrupt you or anything but...if you go to Jet Mykles website http://www.jetmykles.com/ an..."

I love Jet Mykles site! Defintely not appropriate for everyone though lol. I've been reading the freebies she has posted up and I love the writing style. I have Taken on my list of things to read. I hope to get to it soon! Elf smut. woo hoo

I have a Sony Reader and have no problem finding the Romance titles I want to read. If it's not there, it's not available anywhere as an ebook. I've had it for almost a year now and you'd have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands.

If anyone has specific questions about ebook readers, come over to mobileread.com. We've got a good crew over there who can answer most questions.

Ok so I am seriously considering a Kindle 2 but I need to know something.

In the event I run out of room on it (as I am a huge bookaholic) can I transfer books from it to my computer? To free up space for new books?

Reason I ask is because well I dont want to have books I purchase get deleted.. in the event I run out of room and the thing wont let me transfer them to my computer.


Same question for those of you with the Sony Reader.

Thanks in advance!

with the kindle, when you are done reading your books, you can send delete them from the kindle memory and they can be stored on an account at amazon. All you have to do to get it back is click it through the kindle and amazon will send it back to your kindle. no charge. so you can have a large number of books stored that way.

I think you can keep about 100 books in the kindle memory, and they have memory cards that you can buy I think to keep up with the books.

As of right now I think I have about 60 books stored in amazon and on my kindle.

Hope that helps :)

Weird it claims it can hold 1500 lol...

Starting to wonder about this thing.. its ALOT of money to spend.

I could be wrong about the total number of books. I just find it easier to store everything on amazon and keep the books im currently reading in the kindle memory

It is definitely a lot of money. But I love my kindle! lol.

hmm is there a time limit your books are stored at amazon?

not that I'm aware of, the books are in your account. It's hard to explain. You can still find the books on your kindle, you have to click something that says "send to kindle" and then it's back on your homepage. But you don't have to actually go onto amazon to get them sent back.

Or you can keep them stored in the kindle memory. I just find it easier to sort through the books when there are just the unread books on my homepage screen.

I'm sure I'm being confusing lol! I think they have have some forums on amazon where you can read more about it. And it will probably make more sense.

With the sony reader you can store 120/160 on the actual reader but also buy memory cards that just slot in to the reader there are two slots - I have a 4 G one that will hold about 2000 books, I think you can get 16 G ones that hold about 13,000.

Kindle isn't the best because of all the DMR... http://www.slate.com/id/2212320/. I'd say sony is a better choice, I have a CyBook though http://www.bookeen.com/ebook/ebook-re... and I loooove it. There are over 500 books on it now (I haven't used additional memory cards yet). And the eBooks.... there are so many various sites with eBooks - that's never a problem.

Hmm I have never heard of a CyBook. Can you purchase the ebooks for it anywhere? or just certain places like you have to for Kindle?

Nope, from anywhere :)

/gasp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1ADZL...

and there's this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJzR5A...

Thanks, am trying to find out a ton of info before I fork over the money for one.

My biggest concern is the variety of books I can get for either system.

I mainly like Paranormal, Urban Fantasy type stuff.
And authors like say LKH I have heard refuse to have their stuff available for the digital format =/
Been concerned about getting books for it I guess.

Well it's definitely good to make an informed decision. Another good choice I can recommend is Hanlin.

Oh, and here's the comparison matrix of them all: http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-boo...

And the main page there: http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Main_...
it has links to all the eBook Stores and free eBooks...

Cool thanks Kasia! :D

So here is another question.

Say I purchase a Cybook. Which format would I need to look for in purchasing an ebook?

eBook: eReader
Additional Formats:
Paperback: Mass Market: $7.99
eBook - Adobe reader: $7.99
eBook - Microsoft Reader: $7.99

CyBook reads .prc, .html, .txt and .pdf files. But if your book is not in any of those formats (say .lit => that would be Microsoft Reader) you put it through Mobipocket software and you're good to go. It's just a free program: http://www.mobipocket.com/en/Download...