Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one

Subject: RE: Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one
From: EBarnacle
Date: 14 May 13 - 11:54 AM

I've been quite happy with the Nook for PC app on my mini notebook.

Subject: RE: Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one
From: Jack Campin
Date: 14 May 13 - 10:57 AM

OK, Calibre seems to do it. Gruesome user interface though.

Subject: RE: Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 May 13 - 09:33 AM

Google free ebook reading software and you'll find lots of reviews and recommendations.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 14 May 13 - 07:35 AM

There's also Calibre. It's available for Win/Osx/Lin. It's an ebook librarian program, but does have a viewer and format conversion. I use it under Ubuntu Linux interfacing with a kindle and converting other formats to mobi for the kindle (varying degrees of success - not so good with scanned image pdf input, but good for most other formats). You can also use the viewer to create a normal pdf you can read on the computer with any pdf reader.

Mick

Subject: RE: Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one
From: Jack Campin
Date: 14 May 13 - 04:32 AM

Adobe Digital Edition looks like the nearest of those solutions for the Mac, but it's Intel-only (my main machine uses a PPC).

Anything else?

Subject: RE: Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 14 May 13 - 04:23 AM

If you do want to get a Kindle edition of anything but don't have a Kindle (as I don't: iPad is my weapon of choice) you can just download the Kindle Reader for free. I have an app for the iPad (c'mon, they're not going to be dumb enough to miss out on that market) which works fine, and Kindle do actually offer some free and very cheap e-books, believe it or not.

I used to have an app for my elderly Mac (v.10.6.8) but it went west when Apple brought out the new OS. But I can still read my Kindle stuff through the reader in my browser - which isn't really any different from how the app worked.

None of this cost me a penny, so it's worth checking out as another alternative. Failing that, I use e-pub. In addition to Gutenberg and Bartleby, don't forget Archive.org. Lots of free goodies there, including sheet music and audio stuff. Also the good old University of Adelaide:

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/meta/titles/A.html

Subject: RE: Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one
From: Penny S.
Date: 14 May 13 - 03:54 AM

I do want to reduce my activity with Amazon because of their attitud to taxation - I've been able to get into contact with booksellers independently of them, and I don't want to get tangled up in them via Kindle at the moment.

Thanks for advice - NOOK looks a likely one to follow.

Penny

Subject: RE: Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one
From: GUEST
Date: 14 May 13 - 01:57 AM

Amazon has a kindle reader to download to your computer
Barnes and Noble has one available for nook

If your ebook is available from either Amazon or Barnes and Noble, that's probably the easiest thing to try

Subject: RE: Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 13 May 13 - 08:24 PM

Well, John, it's readable anywhere there's a computer and electricity- until the batteries go dead.

We've done enough camping to be pretty well prepared for dead batteries and down power. Aux Generator in the garage, and goodly stocks of fresh batteries for all occasions. In most cases though, I'll expect to have things to do that make sitting down with a good book a little below other priorities if all those things happen at the same time.

New books are possibly the easiest to find in eBook form, and there are lots of old books that aren't in e-format. There also are a lot of old books that are out of print and "unobtainable" on paper that are in reader form. Looking for your preferred format first is good, but knowing where else you can look when you need to is also a handy sort of thing.

No decently accessible way of getting information should be dismissed, but it makes things a lot easier if you can use the right method for the particular thing you want right now, and use another when it fits a different need.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one
From: artbrooks
Date: 13 May 13 - 07:00 PM

NOOK for PC and Adobe Digital Edition are both available free and read ePUB files as well as other formats. That is, they are available free in the US.

Subject: RE: Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one
From: Greg F.
Date: 13 May 13 - 06:48 PM

Well, John, it's readable anywhere there's a computer and electricity- until the batteries go dead.

Don't have shelf space? There's these things called "Libraries".

I know that many NEW titles are not available in print, and that's both a major pain in the ass for a lot of people AND a profit windfall for the "publishers".

In turn, you might be surprised how many older books, scholarly books and historical books (by which I last century & before) in particular - are NOT available electronically and never will be.

But then I guess I'm just a Luddite curmudgeon.

Best,

Greg

Subject: RE: Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one
From: Penny S.
Date: 13 May 13 - 06:16 PM

The Palm Pilot is not a phone, it's a retro device called a PDA. It does have ebooks available for it, but a very small screen. My phone is a phone, not a smart one.

The "book" is only electronically available. Pah!

It looks as though I can get a reader for the ePub version which is available.

Since it is part of the BBC marketing for the programme, and possibly carries some important plot information, I think they should have it available with a link to the free download reader for it on purchase. For us antediluvian watchers.

Penny

Subject: RE: Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one
From: Jack Campin
Date: 13 May 13 - 05:55 PM

Anything that works on a (fairly old) Mac?

epub and mobi format at least.

Cool Reader isn't available for any kind of MacOS or iOS.

The Wikipedia page is no help at all.

Subject: RE: Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 13 May 13 - 05:25 PM

Greg F -

I've sometimes got the hard copy, just so I can cut it apart and scan it to PDF, which is readable almost anywhere - including on some of the eReaders. I don't have shelf space for all the books I want.

If you haven't looked, you might be surprised how many interesting "books" are available in e-form and NOT OBTAINABLE in print.

If you can't get oranges sometimes you just have to put some salt on a lemon.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 13 May 13 - 05:18 PM

There is a good summary and comparison of eBook formats at Comparison of e-book formats (Wikipedia).

The number of different formats in some use is staggering and won't be of much interest to most people, but if you can zero in on the specific formats you're interested in and ignore all the rest, it may offer some good information about what approaches to using a few files different from your usual ones might be useful.

As posted, the page is quite large. (I had to copy in four separate "segments" to paste into Word to edit for readability, even with my "obscenely excessive" RAM installation) Snatching the bits of interest shouldn't be a problem for anyone, and (IMO) removing some of the extraneous stuff does make for easier comprehension - especially for Wiki stuff. Of course you have to remember you don't really have to save every document you create just to make something easier to read.

Probably not really of much interest to the originator of this thread, but might be worth a look for more "tech oriented" people, or any one with an interest in looking at several different formats(?).

John

Subject: RE: Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one
From: Greg F.
Date: 13 May 13 - 04:01 PM

Get the hard copy. You know one of those watchimicallits BOOKS!- Problem solved.

Subject: RE: Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 May 13 - 03:31 PM

Does your phone service have applications you can download for free or for a fee? There are so many for Google and i-devices, I've never looked at what is out for the Palm phones.

I tried to google "Palm phone reader applications" and came up with a bunch of online palm reading sites. The old fashioned type!

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one
From: Bill D
Date: 13 May 13 - 03:18 PM

Well depends on the format the text is in...

I have several freeware 'reader' programs: for plain text I prefer Tom's eText reader

For text, HTML and RTF files there's yBook reader

For those and several other formats, try CoolReader (open source...cross platgorm)

Subject: Tech: ebooks - reading when I don't have one
From: Penny S.
Date: 13 May 13 - 03:00 PM

Being a bit sad that way, I want to read the Dr Who spin off which seems relevant to the story arc, "Summer Falls", but need to read it on my computer, not on a separate ebook device - unless in a format which will run on my Palm Pilot! And I want to do it without signing up to membership of Google or Amazon. Paying the £1.99 I'm fine with.

Is there a way to do this?

Penny