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For Christmas this year I am asking my wife for a new palmtop computer to replace my aging DOS-based model.
As a writer I am keenly interested in knowing what readers experience. Therefore I want to use my new palmtop for reading ebooks and ezines. I plan to accout for whatever I learn from the experience in my writing. Perhaps I will love the experience and never go back to killing trees. Perhaps not.
If anyone has any experience reading from or writing for a palmtop I'd like to know about it. Which palmtop did you use? Do the controls of the palmtop give a significantly different reading experience?
It took a bit of getting used to, but I am now enjoying it and am able to lose myself in the work in e-format just as in any book. I particularly like being able to take a few minutes here and there to read without having to carry a book around.
I find that, as a writer, having the document in electronic format makes me more likely to move into critique mode, and I am a more critical reader.
I think the biggest factor in the experience, other than human preference, would be the reading program interface, and not necessarily the technology. The Quickword interface is clunky, but then it's meant to read Word documents and not just as an e-book reader.
This book, and about 20 more, were on a CD that was attached to a library book I checked out.
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I must be getting to be a old fogey [at 32], I can't imagine truly getting into a story not in bookform. But if you can, more power to you!
Posts: 1275 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I do quite a bit of writing on Palm. I also have the scriptures on it. I'd like to get some other books on it, I'm just a little unmotivated to go looking for them. I think the worse part about it is when you tell someone something from it and they ask what page you got that from. No such thing as pages.
Posts: 1895 | Registered: Mar 2004
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When I first got my Axim, I did a good amount of reading on it. I really did appreciate the convience of not carrying around a book. The biggest difference I found was in the various formats and reader software out there. Better software does make for a nicer time. My favorite has an autoscroll feature that makes it so the text slowly marches up the screen without you having to manually advance it. The only downside I've found there has been that the backlight goes off since it thinks I'm not doing anything.
The biggest drawback for using a reader is the small screen, on average about 1/3 the text of a paperback page visible at any time.
Lately I picked up so many real paperbacks that it will be a long time till I need to go back to the reader.
One last quip. I personally think e-books haven't taken off for the same reason that music downloads (legal ones) have been slow to become popular, the publishers refuse to admit that 95% of their distribution costs have evaporated when they go to an electronic format, and they still price them as though they were printing, shipping and stocking them. If e-books were priced at $3 a piece with $1.50 going to the author, I think they would be much more popular.
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The Gutenberg Project, http://www.gutenberg.org/ , is a website that has all kinds of books available in all kinds of formats for downloads. They only have books whose copyrights have expired, but there's a huge selection and it's still growing. I've been getting books there to read on my palm pilot. Posts: 1041 | Registered: Aug 2004
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I read novels on my Palm Zire 72. I also subscribe to F&SF and Asimov's electronically. I also read the NY Times and the BBC news on there. I love the convience of always having something to read. Though it took a little getting used to the new way of turning pages, I can loose myself in an e-text just as thoroughly as a paper book. The major difference I noticed is that with some of the software, I don't know how far through the article or story I am. With a mystery novel, in particular, it actually heightens the suspense because I can't use the distance to the end to help me decide if the detective is really about to solve the crime, or if it's a plot twist.
I'd recommend getting WordSmith, from Blue Nomad. It's fully compatable with MSWord and is great for reading and writing. I wrote sizable portions of a novel on my PDA.
MaryRobinette, are you saying that you write in a Palm Zire 72? Is the interface adequate for that?
I was thinking about asking for one of the Zire or Tungsten models. I thought the Zire 72 didn't have a keyboard. How do you write? Do you click each letter on the display?
LOL MaryRobinette's a puppet mistress! She's all over those PDAs. Much easier to work than a puppet. Unless, of course, the puppet has smaller fingers? I can see her now, puppet-writing her next novel, in Dallas, trapped there on her way home from Reykjavic.
Have you considered a Clie? I was looking at them for a present for my wife and some models have keypads.
I personally shudder at the idea of writing extensively on my PDA. MaryRobinette must be an alien if she can do that. (A nice one, but still an alien.)
I have a Palm Tungsten E, and I absolutely love it. I got it on a holiday special which threw in a miniature folding keyboard. It's the best thing I've ever gotten for myself.
I do a lot of writing on Gregorian (I was told I had to name all of my electronics with a scifi characters theme after I named my computer Jane), and it's really convenient. The PDA and keyboard fit in my purse (although that might not be a concern for you), and whenever I have a spare moment I pull them out, set them up, and do some writing. I use it to write in the car, in waiting rooms, on trains, and before classes. And even when I don't feel like writing, I use it to read the books that I download.
I don't know what other models have it, but the Palm Tungsten E comes with a version of WordToGo, which interfaces very easily with Microsoft Word on your regular computer. I've always been a WordPerfect user, but this is just so convenient that it made me switch over to using Word.
After having Gregorian for about a year, I am completely and utterly sold on the model. I'd definitely recommend it. I'd be happy to answer questions if you have any...
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I have a now discontinued Sony Clie....it is nice. Nice color screen, even has it's own keypad. I've read several books on it, and whenever I'm roaming to different places I can carry a nice collection of books with me.
The down side...it isn't a book. I still love my overflowing bookshelves of dead trees. I have absolutely no intention of slowing my collection either. But once you get used to it, they aren't bad. Still not like a real book.
Just me though, I know several people who prefere the ebook to the real thing.
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I write in grafitti and with a wireless keyboard. I've gotten to the point that grafiti is as fast as handwriting, but usually prefer the keyboard. Like Jerialy, the fact that I can take it anywhere with me, and that it sets up faster than a laptop makes writing an activity I can do anywhere on the spur of the moment.
I've tried Documents to Go and WordSmith, and couldn't stand Documents to Go. The interface was clunky and doesn't handle formating as well. But that might just be me.
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Graffiti is much faster than a thumboard, at least for me. The only draw back is that my handwriting sometimes falls into graffiti mode now. P.S. And I did a lot of outlining for my Nanowrimo while riding in the car.
[This message has been edited by franc li (edited December 08, 2004).]
A wireless keyboard, eh? That sounds like it would be very useful for writing. But what's it like to carry these suckers around? I do not carry a purse. I would probably want some sort of holster.
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