Scots Taffer on 17/1/2011 at 07:04
I've amassed a PDF collection of screenplays over the past year and since I have little time to read them all onscreen (plus who wants to, ugh eyestrain) coupled with a desire to save the trees, I bought a kindle.
Anyone else using e-readers? I'm incredibly happy with the kindle and comfortable that eyestrain shouldn't be a problem due to it not being backlit. The contrast is amazing and (I know this sounds odd) it's great just how "paper"-like it is. The viewing angle is insane as well, quality little item.
So to the point, does anyone know of any collections of free e-books online? I've stumbled across (
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page) Project Gutenberg and the (
http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=2245146011) Amazon Free Book Collection. More stuff there than I'll probably ever read in a lifetime, but are there any others people have found?
I'll probably buy e-books sooner or later as well, so to that end I'm keen to hear people's thoughts on the greatest reads they've had in the past few years - fiction or non-fiction.
Angel Dust on 17/1/2011 at 07:40
What are the dictionary features like on it Scots? What about the web browser? I'm not really up to making the move to e-books until it offers some real benefits over the dead tree version and the ability to easily look up new words or obscure historical/cultural references (I'm looking at you Pynchon) would probably seal it.
As far good reads of the few years, the following is a list of book that have totally rocked my shit that I reckon you might like (I'll stay away from the classic literature recommendations :p):
Consider the Lobster (non-fiction collection) - David Foster Wallace
The Corrections - Joseph Franzen
Some Kafka is always good for a bizarre short story fix- try The Metamorphosis or In The Penal Colony
Then We Came To The End - Josuha Ferris
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz
Motherless Brooklyn - Jonathan Lethem
Invisible & New York Trilogy - Paul Auster
Scots Taffer on 17/1/2011 at 07:45
Oohh, the dictionary functionality is awesome. One of the first features I tout of it when showing it off. You just browse down to the word and the definition softly pops up at the bottom of the screen.
Thanks for the reccs. Motherless Brookyln and The Corrections I've seen too many times to ignore... what of Infinite Jest the other Dean Foster Wallace one that gets a lot of mentions?
Angel Dust on 17/1/2011 at 09:03
Infinite Jest is phenomenal and is one of the greatest books I've ever read; funny, smart, thrilling and ultimately very moving. It's challenging to be sure but very readable, far easier than other behemoths like Ulyssess or Gravity's Rainbow and more immediately rewarding on a page by page basis. On one hand the e-reader would be great for it (the dictionary features will be sure to come in useful) but I do wonder how the footnotes would be handled. When I read it I used two bookmarks: one for the normal text and one for the footnotes. Would anything like that be possible on the kindle? Anyway I figured some of his non-fiction might be a good place to start, and it's excellent in its own right too, but if you're up for a big, deep (and fun too) read, go for it.
quinch on 17/1/2011 at 10:32
I got myself one for Christmas and it's one of the best things I have bought. The pdf capability was a killer app' for me but I was initially disappointed in it's inability to manipulate text. However, even though I learned you can change them to mobi format using a converter software such as Calibre, I prefer now to leave them as they are and use landscape mode. Landscape mode makes a nice change.
I have been getting into the habit of grabbing a load of website text and slapping it on the thing to save my eyes. I even used the text-to-speech functionality for one of the longer stories on the SCP website and it worked really well and added to the atmosphere. It's probably not so good with Shakespeare's sonnets mind. The little speakers are superb, better than my laptop and with decent bass.
I'm about to embark on Vanity Fair once I have finished The Moonstone (both free) but I intend to buy the book as well because I need a badge of some sort and the free books don't have footnotes, appendices or any third party introduction which I like. It won't stop me buying books, it may have me buying more if anything. The hands-free reading experience is also very liberating.
Scots Taffer on 17/1/2011 at 12:41
Quote Posted by quinch
The pdf capability was a killer app' for me but I was initially disappointed in it's inability to manipulate text. I prefer now to leave them as they are and use landscape mode. Landscape mode makes a nice change.
Yeah, at first I was hoping for more but realised that landscape mode pretty much gave me what I wanted and does offer a different usage of the device.
Rug Burn Junky on 17/1/2011 at 18:28
First the technicals, (
http://calibre-ebook.com/) Calibre is a must have. It organizes, converts, edits (and pulls) metadata, and just all around makes things easier.
Oh, and it will automatically scrape newsfeeds (since most newspapers aren't full text RSS) and e-mail them to you, because who the fuck is going to pay $20/mo for a single newspaper? I have the NYTimes on my kindle for the subway ride to work every morning.
Assuming you have one of the new wifi versions of the kindle, using the @free.kindle.com e-mail address with calibre is fantastic. I sent a use chunk of stuff by USB when I first set it up, but when I add books one at a time, I simply use the e-mail.
That said, it sucks for converting PDFs. (
http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/default.asp?Language=EN) Mobipocket Creator does a much better job.* Sometimes the PDF is the only way to read something, but I so much prefer flowable text, and will convert anything I can.
(
http://www.instapaper.com) Instapaper - online clipping service. Drop a bookmarklet on your browser, and if you want to read something later on the kindle, instapaper will collect it and e-mail them all to you, once daily/weekly. Unfortunately, instapaper's delivery is spotty, but Calibre will pull that feed for you as well.
(
http://kindlefeeder.com) Kindlefeeder - for full text rss feeds. first 12 are free. I think you have to manually tell it to send, unless you pay for the premium service. I've used it sporadically, and haven't found a use for it that isn't covered by something else. ymmv.
(
http://www.feedbooks.com/) Feedbooks - The free books are pretty much just the gutenberg project, but it's waaaaaaay easier to search and download from.
Oh, and it may be sacrilege to suggest this, but the kindle does a passable job with audiobooks as well.
As for things to read? I can't pass up the chance to hype IJ, since I still think it's the perfect entertainment, and I'm about 50 pages into my re-read. Motherless Brooklyn is still one of my all time faves, but I think I actually prefer his "Fortress of Solitude." Consider me biased, since both of them take place within 3 blocks of my apartment, and Fortress of Solitude even describes bits of '70's Brooklyn childhood which overlapped my own.
I mostly read non-fiction these days, and I'll throw an endorsement at Keith Richards's autobiography, "Life," and Michael Lewis's "The Big Short."
Oh, and the Momofuku cookbook may just be the greatest fucking cookbook ever written (chief among reasons is that it doubles as Chang's autobiography, and let's just say he's "colorful.") I have a hard copy (autographed, because my GF is amazing), but I've seen pdf versions floating around, and they aren't hard to find.
*Occasionally MP makes a png of every single page and throws that in to disrupt the flow - which is easy enough to fix by simply deleting all of the image files and converting the html file instead, but the text itself is usually spot on. Can't say the same for calibre pdf conversions, though it does great in everything else - I have a reader on my phone that likes epub, and with literally hundreds of books for that, once they're in my calibre library I don't think twice about letting calibre autoconvert anything that goes on to the kindle.
Xorak on 18/1/2011 at 00:32
I have nothing against these e-readers at all, because they might very well be the direction of the future and you can't sit in the closet afraid of the future, but buying them for environmental reasons I don't think does any significant good. Pulpwood for paper and paper products are a cash crop, just like oranges or corn or sod. Despite what we hear, huge tracts of forest aren't being cut down to produce these books. Local farmers make their living producing this wood, and books are biodegradable, while the Kindles and iphones and cellphones are just piled in landfills somewhere, and will outlive every single one of us and everyone who comes after and after. You can make a case that the production and transportation of pulpwood is damaging, but so is the production of electronic products. But whatever, in the end, nobody can really guess the longterm effects of any of it anyways, and we will never know if one thing is better than the other.
Scots Taffer on 18/1/2011 at 00:41
Quote Posted by Angel Dust
When I read it I used two bookmarks one for the normal text and one for the footnotes. Would anything like that be possible on the kindle?
RBJ might be able to field this one...
demagogue on 18/1/2011 at 00:59
Quote Posted by Xorak
You can make a case that the production and transportation of pulpwood is damaging, but so is the production of electronic products. But whatever, in the end, nobody can really guess the longterm effects of any of it anyways, and we will never know if one thing is better than the other.
Actually I think there are experts that know very well which one is better than the other in the long run, including the comparative long-term effects of production, transport, consumption, recycling, disposal, etc (what we'd call life cycle analysis). It's not exactly an obscure branch of science; you just have to dig up the right articles on it. (... which I haven't, but if I really wanted to answer this question I would.)
I've done research on these kinds of issues all the time, on comparative environmental costs ... There's always a hundred more things to take into account that you didn't think about at first.
I know the disposal of electronic products is worse than the production, and definitely worse than disposal of biodegradable paper (which is also more recyclable), except one device can hold the equivalent paper for hundreds of books and newspapers, but of course books last much longer (newspapers don't) and it doesn't take extra electricity to read a book (that you wouldn't already spend having the lights on). I'm sure there's some articles on it somewhere anyway.
