Books on the Nightstand discussion

INCUNABULA (heard on the radio today!)....Probably not any available for my KINDLE.... :-)

in⋅cu⋅nab⋅u⋅la   / [in-kyoo-nab-yuh-luh, ing-:]
–plural noun, singular -lum  /-ləm/

1. extant copies of books produced in the earliest stages (before 1501) of printing from movable type.

2. the earliest stages or first traces of anything.

MORE

LOL, Susanne, that's very funny.

I actually have a friend who makes jewelry from incunabula -- after many years, I still haven't decided how I feel about it. The pieces that he uses are typically torn bits from books that are falling apart and cannot be restored, but it still seems not quite right, though I don't know what else I'd have him do with the bits.

Ann or Michael,

I'm having a hard time finding out just when Sarah Dunant's newest novel, SACRED HEARTS is to be released in the U.S.?

Amazon and B & N both have it listed on-line as July 14, 2009

But Sarah has it posted as AUGUST 4th for the U.S. on her website.

It's Random House, so I thought I'd ask you if you can find out for me?

TIA
Susanne

Hi Susanne-

I currently have 7/14. It was going to be August, but we moved it up. Maybe Sarah hasn't updated her site...

Thanks Michael!

I have a question for Kindle owners. Is it worth it? I have been coveting one for months, but it seems weird to pay over $300 to read books when I could do that for free at the library. Obviously this logic hasn't completely won out because I still really want one. So are they really all they're cracked up to be?

I find mine well worth the investment. I visit the library weekly and place holds on many books but sometimes there's that one book I just don't want to wait for. I also find the when I discover an author that is new to me I can get their earlier books on Kindle. And then there's camping in the summer and visits to Florida in the winter. With my Kindle in tow I don't have to lug around heavy books and if I finish what's on my Kindle I can get more with just one click.

I love my Kindle and it was well worth the money. It's so portable that it goes everywhere with me. Anytime I have to wait for an appointment I can pull out my Kindle and read. It helps keep the frustration level down when the wait gets too long. Plus I'm reading what I want to read, not a months old magazine about a topic I'm not interested in. If I don't feel like reading one book, I can read a different one, or the magazine I subscribed to, or the blog I subscribed to. And it's so easy to hold, my hands don't get cramped trying to hold a big book. I'm discovering new authors by downloading samples of their work for free, plus I can see if the sample lives up to the hype for some books. Did I mention, I love my Kindle :-)

I have (or had) a Sony Reader. I loved it. Something has malfunctioned with the screen, and it being 1 1/2 years old now, they offered me a trade in, on a rebuilt one for about half price of a new one.

As much as I loved it, here's a better idea. Get a netbook. You can use it darn near anywhere, you can download audio books into it, there's also ereader, you can download the app easily, and as for news and other entertainment like email, anywhere you go that has a hot spot or wi-fi, you're able to be online. Something that I've heard about the Kindle, that I didn't have on the Sony Reader, was that you must pay for subscriptions and that if you were wanting to subscribe to magazines or newspapers, you needed to be near Sprint or Verizon cell towers, is that true? Out in some rural areas around my location, I've heard some Kindle owners weren't able to use those features.

Fortunately with my Sony Reader, I was able to download all my purchases onto my laptop, so it's not really a total loss.

Those little Acer Aspire Netbooks don't cost much more than the Kindle's do either! Amazon has one for $330!

Love the Kindle!

It doesn't replace the physical books I want to own for my Library...it just add a new dimension of reading accessibility in my life!

Easy to hold, easy on the eyes, great on a windy day sitting by the pool, very portable, and is great to download the "samples" they offer to read before you decide to purchase the book....plus so many other pluses!

I'm glad I finally sprung for it!

Susanne

Here's my concern with the Kindle (and I've never used one, so take these comments with a grain of salt): I've heard tell of a man who had his Amazon account closed because he returned too many (physical) products. He lost access to all of his Kindle items. Eventually he was reinstated, but this brings up a huge question:

Do you actually OWN your Kindle books or are you renting them from Amazon? If Apple suddenly got out of the music business, I'd still own all of the songs I've downloaded from iTunes. I'm not sure the same can be said for the Kindle.

I may be misunderstanding this situation, so if anyone has more info, or knows I'm wrong, please let me know!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my Kindle. And I find it to be (at least to me ;) ) to be well worth the investment. And I am someone who doesn't just have to have the latest technology! I just got an iPod a year or so ago. But I am a huge reader, and splurged in March to get one. I find that I read even more now -- and not just books on the Kindle, but also from the library and the book store. I also read blogs and news updates and the newspaper on my Kindle.

As to whether you "own" your books -- I have seen debate on this. This is how I deal with that. If you have the space on your computer, you can keep copies on your drive of all your books. I don't keep digital copies of all my books, but some on my computer. Unfortunately, you can't read the Kindle books on your computer, but you can hold the file on your computer. Then, if you want to read it, you can transfer it back to your Kindle. I keep a few things on my computer -- the documents I have sent to be converted into Kindle-compatible files and a few books. The others I still trust Amazon to hold for me out in their storage site. I guess if I ever worry I won't be able to get to them, I will download all of them to the computer.
Anyway, as a huge reader who usually loves to have 2 or 3 books going at one time -- and often one of them is a classic (which are sometimes really big books!), I love that I can have many books in one place at one time. And, I travel for business -- if I am already mired down in business stuff, I don't want to be worrying about carrying all my books, or having to pick just one.

OK, I have rambled about my love for my Kindle.... now, if the Harry Potter books were just sold in Kindle format, everything would be perfect......

Shannon

My concerns about the Kindle are a bit different than Michael's, but I will also say that I haven't really used one.

First, I do not at all like the fact that I would be locked into purchasing books from only one source: Amazon. As you know, I believe in supporting local bookstores, as they employ my neighbors and do business with other local businesses (printers, accountants, etc.). This holds true for both independently owned bookstores and chain stores -- if there is a physical location, they are employing local people. And so I appreciate the choice to purchase books wherever is currently meeting my needs, instead of being locked into one store.

Right now, Amazon is subsidizing the prices of the books. That $9.99 or $14.99 is, for the most part, lower than they are buying it from the publisher. So they are losing money on each book.

Once they have a significant market share of the devices, that pricing can change. If I justified a $350 purchase because I was saving $10 on each book -- and then the books went up to list price -- I would be very upset.

OK, I'll likely blog about this later, but take a look -- here's a Kindle for us all:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Kindling-3-Featur...

Ann wrote: "OK, I'll likely blog about this later, but take a look -- here's a Kindle for us all:

That is really funny (and clever!) Maybe I'll bid on it for a gift for a friend or family member who wants one!
Thanks for the laugh!

Ann...this from the Kindle Boards site

"Q: What do you mean when you say "acquire content"?

A: Let's start with a visual: imagine your Kindle is a bookcase. When you first take it out of the box, the bookcase will have 2 items: The Kindle User Guide and a welcome letter from Jeff Bezos. As the new owner, you have the fun job of filling up the shelves. This is acquiring content.

I say content rather than books because you are not limited to just books. From Amazon you can buy books, obtain sample chapters of books, and subscribe to newspapers, magazines, and blogs.

You are not limited to getting content only from Amazon. You can buy books that will work on the Kindle from other sites, such as fictionwise.com. You can obtain thousands of free books from sites such as the Gutenberg Project and feedbooks.com. Content can also come from you in the form of documents that are converted (either by you or Amazon) and loaded onto your Kindle.

Content that is acquired needs to be put on your Kindle so that you can read it. This can happen using the Whispernet service (see previous answer for more on Whispernet). If you are in a location without Whispernet, you can transfer the content using a USB cable that is connected to your computer and your Kindle. Whispernet is the easiest, of course, because you don't have to do anything except flip a switch to turn it on, but using the USB cable is pretty simple, too."

Michael,

I think you OWN your book....Amazon will store books that you clear from your Kindle to be retrieved whenever you want them again...but with approx capacity of 1500 books on the Kindle..I could be dead before I'd need that!

This is a very good video presentation explaining it's features I think...

KINDLE VIDEO

But I understand your concerns and love my collection of real books too!

Susanne

Susanne,
Fictionwise is owned by Amazon ;)
So for instance, I cannot buy Kindle formatted books from any of my independent bookstores, or Barnes & Noble, etc. That's what I meant.

As far as owning books, what happens if your Amazon acct. gets shut off is up for debate (there was a well-publicized case), but the other reason you don't "own" the book is that you can't send your file to someone else when you are done with it, as you would pass on a book. And you can't use it on a different reader that is not a Kindle. That kind of stuff ....

Ann - The Kindling -- Love it! What a clever idea - they'll probably sell a million of 'em! (And it's "green" technology, too!)

Oops, Susanne, sorry -- Fictionwise is owned by Barnes & Noble. Where I was confused is that Amazon is no longer supporting the Mobi format that Fictionwise used. Oh, it's so confusing ......

Really....I don't work for Amazon!
But if I can get this link to work...there is much more supposedly available for free.

KINDLE DOWNLOADS

I don't know where we are headed with all of the new technology...but I think we will always cherish and want physical books too!

Thanks for all the input. Looks like I have a lot to research. The whole ownership thing is an interesting quesiton. However, I have often finished a book while visiting my sister in Kansas and not been able to get to a book store. If nothing else, maybe I could get a kindling :) Seems a bit less confusing.

I have been sitting on the Kindle fence and wobbling back and forth for some time. Some friends have them and love the fact that you can change the size of type (reading Pillars of the Earth in the mass market version was not a pleasant experience). I think - being a book group leader - that it would be great to be able to search a book quickly to find a passage I remember and to be able to add comments (I think that is possible) And if I travel for 2 weeks, that's 12 books and most of my baggage allotment. But - and here's the killer for me. I love to share my books. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society just came back today from the 10th borrower. I find it really painful to tell people about a book I loved and not be able to add "of course you can borrow it". So I am still fence sitting.

Dottie M.

The whole book sharing thing is another great point Dottie! I'm a book lender too.

I guess, like most things, buying a Kindle will always be a personal decision based on a lot of different factors!

Ann wrote: "Susanne,
...As far as owning books...the other reason you don't "own" the book is that you can't send your file to someone else when you are done with it, as you would pass on a book... "

The only caveat to this logic, in my opinion, is that if you are in fact a supporter of independent and/or chain bookstores (or authors and would love for them to get paid for doing their jobs), passing along books (and sites look paperbackswap.com or bookmooch.com) don't support that. Those two arguments seem to be mutually exclusive--you either support local commerce or you support the free exchange/sharing of books.

Heather, I see your point, but I don't really equate the two. ... I make a personal distinction in my mind (rightly or wrongly) that lending a book or giving a book to a friend is somehow different than paperback swap or bookmooch or even selling it at a used bookstore. I view the ebooks as they currently are as more like "renting". So while I think it's fine to give a DVD away to a friend when I'm done, I wouldn't lend someone a DVD that I rented. Not sure that's the best analogy, but it's the closest that I can come. I think as long as ebook buyers understand that they are renting/leasing the book, it's fine.

Did anyone else see/hear about Google taking on Amazon in the Kindle realm?....Interesting to say the least......

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/st...

I have a Kindle 1 and love it, but it will never replace a paper book for me. I will use my Kindle more when traveling so I don't have to take multiple books along. But if I see a book and know my son or daughter would like to read it, I always buy it in paperback or hardcover. I will also never buy a newer Kindle as I love the SD card that the Kindle 1 has.

I was given a Kindle (I would not have spent the money on it myself) and it has come in handy. I enjoy the same things mentioned already. Plus the free books that I can download from Gutenberg and other sites and the PDFs that I can get converted for free and download onto the Kindle. And if I finish one book, I usually have a few more waiting or can find one to download.

I find it a little awkward to hold and I think the pages take too long to turn. And I love to loan books to others so it kills me to read a great book on the Kindle and then not be able to loan it to someone.

My take is that it is nice to have and I use it, but I still wouldn't spend the money on it.

Now, a friend of mine who travels for work every week loves his because he can take several books with him on the plane. If I traveled that much I would see it as well worth it.

Given my high use of the library, I suspect I would consider the Kindle a better investment if I could borrow books for free like I do at the library. I don't feel tempted to loan those to someone else and I would use it all the time!

I too am debating whether I want to jump on the Kindle bandwagon. For those of you that use it while travelling, do you have to power it down during flight takeoff/landing like all other electronic devices?

You are supposed to shut it off during take-off. I thought it was funny (not haha funny) when Oprah was quoted as saying she had bought a book during take-off with her Kindle. I wouldn't do it, but then I don't fly anyway.

but I'm sure Oprah was flying on her private jet and can do whatever she wants during take-off and landing!!

Haha....you're probably right, Michael. I never thought of that.

Well, after going back and forth quite a bit I decided to get an ipod touch. It was about $100 cheaper than a kindle and kindle is one of the free apps available. I don't use the kindle app because there are a few other ebook readers for the ipod that allow you to buy books from other sources. My local independant book store has ebooks available in adobe reader so I can buy from them or get free public domain books. I really like it so far. It's VERY portable and I don't mind the small screen. Plus it does other things like browse the internet. Though I still use the library it has been great to carry around a copy of Jane Eyre in a device that is smaller than a cell phone. I also bought a couple books for our family vacation next month. Anyway, that's the way I went, and I've been happy with it.

Kathy,
I am thrilled that you are able to purchase your ebooks from your local store. I haven't yet tried to do that, but I will ... as soon as I finish my first book on my iPhone. I love having the book with me when I'm waiting somewhere, but that's about the only time that I use it. So I haven't yet finished a book yet (in fact, can't even remember now what book it is -- a business book, I think, where I don't have to keep a continued reading flow).