posted
I have no idea about the book but please post a review of your Kindle. I'm tempted to buy either a Kindle or the Sony reader that is similar but I think I'll wait for a year for the technology to improve.
Posts: 278 | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, keep in mind that it is a book about OSC by someone else. In 1990, he had 3 Alvin Maker books, 2 Ender books, Capitol, Treason, Hart's Hope and Wyrms, of course, and Maps in a Mirror...
The bibliography doesn't show any Homecoming books at that stage.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Oh! Please post a review of the Kindle. I'm looking at it, but waiting for them to address texts more relevent to schooling before I plunk down the money for it. In other words, historical texts and college text books. But I'm really curious to hear a review.
I'm waiting for the price to dip, which I imagine won't happen while it's sold out, and I'm waiting for the price of the books themselves to dip, since they don't cost ANYTHING to make, it seems like even ten bucks is a little silly, and I'm waiting for the second generation to come out.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by pooka: Well, keep in mind that it is a book about OSC by someone else. In 1990, he had 3 Alvin Maker books, 2 Ender books, Capitol, Treason, Hart's Hope and Wyrms, of course, and Maps in a Mirror...
The bibliography doesn't show any Homecoming books at that stage.
Exactly. Why would you pay $94 dollars for it? If it were $5, like most older books in the Kindle store, I probably would.
You have to think it's more likely that they would sell 100 books at $5 each than 10 books at $94.
The Kindle comes today. I'll post a review once I have a chance to pry it from my wife's hands and play with it.
Posts: 50 | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I wouldn't pay $94 dollars for it either, but I'd be no more likely to pay that much if it had been written last week, and included all of Card's more recent work in its examination. The body of work examined in that book is incredibly rich in and of itself; if Card had stopped writing after 1990 it wouldn't negatively impact his standing as one of SF's great authors at all.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: I'm waiting for the price of the books themselves to dip, since they don't cost ANYTHING to make, it seems like even ten bucks is a little silly, and I'm waiting for the second generation to come out.
You are assuming that printing costs are a large factor in the sale price of a book, which is far from true.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well not necessarily a large factor, but there are other costs as well that don't have to be paid. There's no shipping and handling, no cost to store them, and yeah, no cost to make them. The money, whatever there might be, for advertising is already being spent, so whatever they make from this is just free money in a sense.
Amazon sells individual songs for 99 cents. There's a cd that I want from them that costs nearly $60, but it's $31 to download it. Other than new releases, you can get a lot of books from Amazon in the 10-15 dollar range anyway, so I don't really see the same premium there to go digital for books as for CDs.
I forsee the price coming down.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Why shouldn't the ebook cost include some of the expenses -- advertising, production (editing, etc.)?
Ebooks have been around for a while, and while they are usually cheaper than hardcovers, they are often only nominally cheaper than paperbacks. I don't expect that to change, regardless of fancy new formats.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, for the books that I want the most, I don't think those costs should matter at all. Most of what I want are historical texts, stuff that's been around for hundreds or thousands of years, just sitting on a database somewhere. There is no advertising, production, editing, etc cost involved with books that have been around since Caesar. Other books like history books that aren't primary sources, I think ebooks are a great way to make books that are usually really expensive because they are made to order (due to low demand) more easily accessible to the masses.
College text books I expect would still be expensive, but I want the history books more, and I doubt you could make an argument that'd convince me something Tacitus wrote 1800 years ago should still cost more than a couple bucks today.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
At least with the Sony Device there is a program out there to create the e-books with Project Gutenberg text files, Adobe documents and Word files. I imagine that the same exists or will soon exist for the Kindle.
I'm probably going to wait until I'm getting deployed or otherwise sent somewhere and I can't take stacks of books with me to buy an e-book reader. I spent the last 3 months in Hungary and used my HP IPAQ with Pocket PC to read a significant amount and while it wasn't great it was adequate. I'm hoping the "E-ink" technology will make it much better.
quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: Oh! Please post a review of the Kindle. I'm looking at it, but waiting for them to address texts more relevent to schooling before I plunk down the money for it. In other words, historical texts and college text books. But I'm really curious to hear a review.
I haven't had much time to play with it. My wife is using it constantly. So far the only complaint she has is that she wished the next page button was above the keyboard on the right, rather than on the side. I think that's a function of how most people hold it.
She used it on the train to New York twice this week. She loves the larger font capability and can now read far more than she could before she had it. Definately worth it for her.
Posts: 50 | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I have one and here's what I have to say about it.
The machine itself is absolutely wonderful. You can get on the internet, look up words in the dictionary it comes with, send questions to real people who promptly answer them (I use them to do my homework sometimes). I am disapponted by the selection. only about 5 OSC books. the weird thing is the have shadow of the hegemon but no other Ender's Game related books. I have also noticed a lack in many popular books I would expect them to have, like they have no Lois Lowry, and no I am Legend. I do find myself accidentally hitting next page and prev page on accident alot. But overall, if you enjoy reading, I would really recommend this machine.
Posts: 48 | Registered: Sep 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
I bought a Sony Reader for my mother for her birthday and she is also addicted to OSC. She travels a lot and loves it because she doesn't have to tote around bulky books.
A great feature with the reader is that you can put music on it to read to.
She puts audiobooks on it in mp3 format and listens while she reads or just listens. She really loves it.
Posts: 15 | Registered: Feb 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
Keep in mind that these reader devices are still relatively new. It will take a while before a good collection of any author's books and stories are available. Frankly, I'm surprised that OSC already has so many of his in Kindle format. It seems it's hard to find really good stuff for these devices as yet.
As fun as they'd be to take along on a long trip, I don't know if I'll ever love the electronic reading experience as much as I love good old dead-tree books. There's just something delicious about paper and a cover. I found a first-edition copy of The Left Hand of Darkness this weekend and I spent a very long time just touching and smelling it before I started reading it.
posted
I love audio books - and I love real books, but I'm not sure I could ever get addicted to "electronic reading".... it just seems like it'd be hard on the eyes!
On the other hand, text books in such a format might easily catch on. Those are the ones that are truly bulky!
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Jun 2006
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
