posted
So, I received my Kindle yesterday and thought that Ender in Exile would be a great first book to read on it. The book was great but there is another thread for that discussion.
What suprised me when I checked out the OSC collection for Kindle there were only 4 books, one collection and a book about OSC available. Up until the release date Ender in Exile wasn't shown and I think Enchantment just showed up.
So I was wondering if it is just an issue of his publisher (TOR) getting on board with Kindle books. And does anone in OSCs family know if he has tried a Kindle or the Sony equivilent? My guess is he would still prefer old fashioned books but who knows. Honestly it is probably best as I already own most of OSCs books in both old fashioned paper and from Audible. No need to tempt me with another format.
As for reading on the Kindle, for me it was so natural to the eyes that I caught myself reaching for a page a couple of times. The kindle's buttons are a little annoying as the next page button on the right side is so large I inadvertently hit it all the time but it is no worse than dropping my paperback book. The formatting of the book seemed to work quite well except that the linebreaks in the familiar e-mails at the beginning of chapters often made the addresses hard to read. But them most people don't pay too much attention to the to and from e-mails.
When I inevitably get deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan or some other remote place I will enjoy being able to take a whole library of books in a 10 oz device. I can't speak to the wireless function of the device as I'm in Guam and Sprint's network doesn't cover the island.
posted
Not sure. I know Goodkind's first book (Wizard's First Rule) is on Kindle and that is TOR.
Most of his other books are not, but Goodkind has never been a big fan of the internet, so it is more than likely a author thing for him.
I also know that TOR has had other books released on the kindle. When they launched their new website they actually gave away several books for free both on their website and on kindle.
btw: I have a kindle as well (I have for around 6 months now) and I love it.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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posted
Aside from the price factor, would owning a kindle in Eastern Europe be a smart move? How important is the wireless factor, and does it work with a Mac? What is the capacity, and how are the price points for books? Also, how accessible are books from public domain, ie: Free, sources?
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posted
and I had just decided to get a Wii for Christmas instead of a Kindle... you're making me rethink!
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Jun 2006
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Right now they won't export the Kindle outside of the US. I had to have it sent to Florida and then to me because even though I'm nominally in the US (Guam is a territory of the US) they wouldn't ship to me. Additionally, the Whispernet feature doesn't work here so I have to download the books onto my computer and then plug the Kindle into the USB to transfer. This isn't a big deal for me.
I have no idea if it works with a mac but it holds around 200 books (I think the memory is around 150 MB) but can be expanded with an SD card (I've heard tell of people using 4 GB and 8 GB cards). Most books out in hardcover run about $10, paperbacks are about a dollar and change cheaper than the print paperback. I think Ender in Exile was about $14. As for free books, you can find almost anything which is on project gutenberg formatted for the Kindle on other sites for free (the legality of downloading them depends on the laws of your local country on copywrite. They are ok to download in the US but other countries have more restrictive copywrite laws.) You can also use unprotected mobibooks.
posted
I don't know what the Kindle can handle exactly, as I use the Sony Reader myself, but many of OSC's books are available from other ebook stores. I would guess that the Kindle only supports its own format and plain text though.
So the only other option is a grey area. If you want a well formatted book that is not officially available you have to get it from an illegal source. I wouldn't recommend doing this and if you do I would encourage you to buy the book in some form.
It's sad that the illegal copies of media are often better and easier to get than the legal stuff. From what I understand of OSC, he is not a proponent of DRM (see "mp3's are not the devil") - I'd really like to see him release some of his books in a non-DRM format.
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posted
as others have mentioned, you don't need to use the wireless feature for the kindle to work. The kindle also comes with a USB cable that you can use to hook it up to your computer. You can then drag and drop files onto your kindle. I actually use that more than I use the wireless since I can put Gutenberg books on my kindle that way.
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