<p>Anyone own them? I used to be totally against them, I guess I like the feel of paper. However, as a humanities major I'll be reading tons of books, mostly paperbacks. I'm thinking of just buying an E-Reader for about $200 bucks and spending less than half the price on actually downloading them books. </p>
<p>I'm a second semester freshmen, so figuratively this should save me money in the long run. Any one else thinking of doing this?</p>
<p>Pros? Cons?</p>
<p>I have a nook and love it. While there aren’t any of my school books I could buy for it any pdfs/documents assigned can be put on it. You also don’t have to pay for books if you know how to find them online, often found at the same place free music is found. I have a bunch of books for pleasure on mine, even though I don’t have much time right now to read. It means having a variety of books all the time without actually having to bring a bunch of books to school.</p>
<p>I have a kindle and do not use it for school because of the whole no page numbers thing. It is more trouble than it’s worth to me.</p>
<p>I’m also thinking about getting one. A Kindle, that is.
My desk is extremely cluttered and my room is overcrowded, reducing the number of books would be amazing. Plus I like to read when I go to the gym and holding pages down started to irritate me. Planning on using it mostly for leisure reading, as if that exists in college.
However, I’m leaning towards the Kindle because a) cross-compatibility, you can download a Kindle app for any other device (PC, Mac, iPod/phone/pad, Android) and read all your books not just on the kindle and b) I was going to wait for the iPad, but the Kindle is cheap enough that I can treat myself without going broke
Note, I wasn’t a fan of e-readers until recently too. But hey…it seems like a neat gadget.</p>
<p>I would like to add that I do love my kindle for pleasure reading, that is what I use it for-- and for reference books I don’t intend to use much, as I can often get the kindle version for pennies. I am a fan of real books, too, and I still buy them if it’s a book I really like or a series I like. But if it’s just some random book I’ve picked up, I don’t need more books taking up space in my place. If I really like it I’ll buy the real one to keep and read again.</p>
<p>Sounds like a good idea to me. Although, most of the books I like to read are out of print, because I buy then for a buck at the thrist store. I heaty rd about that no page numbers thing… It shouldn’t be too hard to fix that (as far as I know). personally, I doubt I couyld handle it. The tactile feel of the book in your hands, the smell of the paper, the texture, the illistration on the cover, are part of the experience.</p>
<p>hmm actually, I but them for a buck at the thrift store.</p>
<p>I just got a kindle. I got one of my books for a Lit class for free on kindle, but mostly I got it to save money due to my huge book appetite. I buy many, many books every year, but now that I’m at college, I don’t have the space for them (or the money for the matter). E-books are generally cheaper and don’t take up space.</p>
<p>I would not, however, use it for textbooks or the like. Novels? Sure. Small nonfiction works? Sure. </p>
<p>If it’s something I need to bring to class though, I’d prefer to have a hard copy due to the page number differences.</p>
<p>The no page numbers can be an issue, but there are ways around it (also remember that page numbers can and do change between different runs of physical books). It is slowly becoming more acceptable to use location numbers to reference quotes from ebooks. I would highly recommend talking to each professor individually about this to learn their stance on the issue. </p>
<p>As for being cheaper, that’s debatable, sadly. Many of the big publishers forced something called the Agency Model onto retailers like Amazon and B&N. The very short explanation of this is that the publishers, not the retailers, set the price. This has been a huge sore spot with many since some ebooks have been known to go for as much as a suggested retail price of a hardbound ($25-$30). Amazon’s original model kept all books at $9.99 or less. I have found that many of my old, favorite books that are over a decade or even several decades old have been as much as $15. I have also found that paperbacks are cheaper quite often as well.</p>
<p>However, there are a ridiculous amount of free books (including many not in public domain) that can be found day to day. Some of these deals will last for days, others for only hours.</p>
<p>The other hiccup you could find is that several of your books may not have ebook versions. There are many well-known authors who refuse to publish their works into a digital medium. For example, you will not find To Kill a Mockingbird as an ebook (legally, that is).</p>
<p>If you choose to go with an ereader like the Nook because of the library book borrowing, be sure to check your local library for availability. I checked my own library in my hometown and there were zero ebooks. I have read complaints from others who say that although ebooks are offered, there is often wait times of weeks to months to borrow a book. Also avoid the Nook Color. It is much heavier than its eink counterpart along with several other negatives. If you’re looking for a tablet, get a tablet.</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies guys. I think I’m just gonna go ahead and get the nook, purely for academic purposes that is. For at least one class the price was pretty much $80 dollars for 5 hard copies vs. $20 for the e-books on the nook. I still can’t see myself reading for pleasure on this thing though, seems too unreal. :/</p>
<p>
I’m definitely going to my local library and see if they have anything. Maybe some of the libraries here have some as well, hopefully. And I just want the most basic Nook with WiFi. The Nook color looks silly, if I wanted a tablet I would just go ahead and get an iPad, well not really, I wouldn’t want either, but you get the point.</p>
<p>I would honestly recommend against getting an ereader just for school. If you’re not going to use it mostly for pleasure reading, it’s a waste of money. Remember you might run into professors who will not let you use an ebook version of a book for their class or your books may not always be available as ebooks. It’s hard to predict even through next semester, let alone all the way to your senior year, what books you’ll need, prices, and availability.</p>
<p>Do you live on campus? Do you have campus WiFi? Or are you off campus relying on your own WiFi at home? If the former, do you (and how if so) log in? For my campus, it’s a pain in the neck to use the WiFi on campus. I would have to log in through a web browser just to have access.</p>
<p>WiFi is fine if you know you’ll be able to access it somewhere (places like B&N stores have WiFi you can use). You can still load via a data transfer cable as well. Personally, though, I think the 3G is “the best thing since sliced bread.” Although I have no need to download books out and about, it has proved useful not only in letting me check the price of ebooks while I’m at the bookstore, but it also allowed me to look up the hours for a store I needed to go to while I was downtown and which bus to take to get there so I would be there before they closed (the latter done via google maps). It’s free for life and it is very nice to have.</p>
<p>Also, if you do plan to go for a Nook, I’d wait to see if they release a version with eink Pearl. The current eink that Nooks are using is the older technology. There is a significant improvement from the older eink to the newer eink. Many (including myself) were convinced that the screen had a printed film on it before realizing that was the screen displaying its eink (the screen displayed instructions for how to boot the ereader up the first time). It is absolutely unreal how much like a real book page the eink Pearl makes the screen look.</p>
<p>You usually can check online to learn if your library has ebook lending and you should be able to get a rough idea of wait times if they do have ebooks. Also look at what kind of ebooks they get. There are legal and not so legal ways to get library books onto Kindles, by the way. Some libraries do have mobi format ebooks. All it takes is knowing a specific identifying number for a Kindle to be able to read these on one (Kindle can natively read mobi, the DRM is the issue). The problem lies with epub format ebooks that have DRM. These are the ones that cannot be natively read by a Kindle without illegally altering the files.</p>
<p>I would also check to see which store has the books you’re interested in. Amazon from the last numbers I saw has the largest collection of ebooks. But better to look to see which retailer carries which books you want. Any books by major publishers (who have agreed to the Agency Model) will be the same at any retailer you go to.</p>
<p>For me this quarter, my books that I could get as ebooks worked out to about $20 more buying them as ebooks rather than physical books. One I looked at by Penguin Publishing was $6 new for the paperback, but $9 for the ebook version. Obviously mileage varies as you’ve seen from pricing out your own books this semester ;)</p>
<p>Thanks for the lengthy reply Kender.</p>
<p>I haven’t bought any of my books this semester but as a future history major I’ll be buying tons of paperbacks for each class. We usually don’t read them in class (not that I’ve heard of anyway). I’ve only gotten two syllabuses so far and that’s already about 8 paperbacks all of which are cheaper when purchasing the E-Book. </p>
<p>I’m pretty sure of my major, but I guess the only thing holding me back is if I suddenly have a change of heart and start leaning towards math/science field, where buying a nook purely for educational purposes is pretty pointless.</p>
<p>As for WiFi, my dorm doesnt explicitly state WiFi is included in all the dorm rooms. It’s only in my common area, luckily my room is close enough for me to get a decent connection without an ethernet cord. I’ll probably be moving off-campus next semester and already bought one of those wireless things. I don’t really think I’ll go ahead and get the 3G, since WiFi is all over campus. I haven’t really looked into it, but if I have to pay monthly I definitely won’t be buying it.</p>
<p>I did spreadsheets comparing the value of getting an ereader for college purposes and the different ereaders available so I’m a bit too full of information on this, haha! Sorry :)</p>
<p>I’m a literature and theatre arts major myself so I definitely feel where you’re coming from with anticipation of lots of novels to read. I also did not have the worry of potentially changing my major since I transferred in as a junior last winter quarter. I really don’t have the time to change ;). That is a good point, though, that you should keep in mind.</p>
<p>Anywho, no, you do not pay any monthly fees for the 3G. It is an extra $50 on the Kindle (I believe it’s a similar premium on the Nook as well) for the 3G/WiFi model and that is the only “extra” charge you will have. The 3G operates off of AT&T’s network (at least for Kindle) and would be something to make sure your area has. Where I am in Santa Cruz (even in the middle of the redwood forest my college is nestled into) I get phenomenal coverage for AT&T 3G. But mileage always varies from location to location across the country.</p>
<p>The thing I liked about the Kindle versus the Nook was that the 3G is global for the former. The Nook’s 3G only operates in the US. Now, not that I plan to be regularly leaving the country or anything, but I feel it is a good option to have. I would imagine it would be even better for someone who is early into their undergraduate years in case they plan to study abroad at some point. Note that the web browser does not work in every country, though. However, the 3G will always work to go to the Kindle store and I believe Wikipedia in any country.</p>
<p>If you’re going to live off campus and have your own home wireless, then you should be fine with a WiFi only model, though :). I still prefer the access wherever I am, but it is an extra $50 up front (although, as I said, there are no additional fees for either the Kindle or the Nook after that to receive books).</p>
<p>There are a lot of sites that go a lot more in depth about each ereader and some that compare them. I highly recommend exploring these before making a final decision.</p>
<p>D wanted Nook for xmas. We did research and got it. She bought 1 of her english class books online, but will now buy the hard version. She likes to pull the nook out (the online version was only $9)…so she pulls it out when she is around the campus and don’t want to carry all the books. It is also quicker and easier to see if she does a google search (doesn’t pull out laptop and bigger than her droid).</p>
<p>The color version has some great picture quality, so you can also see magazines, etc. quite nicely.</p>
<p>She probably didn’t “need” it, but seems to like it. </p>
<p>Most use somehting called EPUB, Amazon may have there own system. I believe you may be able to go into your schools library and download books, etc.</p>
<p>Cost, I like that it is have the cost of cheapest iPad…she already has droid. That way if they upgrade the nook, it isn’t that pad of a deal.
good luck.</p>
<p>The Nook Color is essentially just a subpar tablet. It loses the main benefits of the eink technology which is less strain on the eyes and longer battery life. It takes a lot of energy to power the LCD screen. One might as well get a real tablet if one is going for the Nook Color. They have much better battery life (although it still pales in comparison to an eink ereader; I get around three to four weeks out of one charge on my Kindle if the wireless is off, two to three weeks with wireless on and actively using it… and one week if all I’m doing is several hours a day of goofing off with the web browser and playing music rather than actually reading). Ereaders measure their battery life in weeks and days, tablets measure their battery life in hours.</p>
<p>And yes, I mentioned it earlier that Amazon does not support epub. This is the common format used by many libraries and it is specifically the DRM epubs that are a problem for the Kindle. To convert the epub to a readable format for the Kindle, it would require illegally stripping the DRM.</p>
<p>I can’t find the thread now I saw on another site, but a librarian was discussing why epub is being used more often rather than mobi. Mobi is apparently much more expensive for libraries to use. I also found out that libraries pay a fee to Overdrive (an ebook lending site that many libraries make use of to manage their collections) for every book loaned out on top of fees paid either to Adobe (epub) or Amazon (mobi). No idea of the truth to this, though, since anyone can claim to be a librarian on the internet ;)</p>
<p>Something else interesting, although it hasn’t come up about Sony ereaders specifically in this thread, is that Nook can read Sony store books, but the Sony ereader cannot read B&N books.</p>
<p>If you have to read older books that are past copyright, they are often free on Kindle.</p>
<p>You can also download the first couple chapters of most books for free on Kindle. Particularly for non-fiction books, the first couple chapters tell you much of what you want to know. They also help you decide whether the rest of the book is worth the money. </p>
<p>Kindles are particularly useful for reading on public transit. </p>
<p>Compared to an IPad, a Kindle is much less likely to be stolen. Also, it has many fewer distractions for a college student - you get your readings done without being distracted by email and facebook, etc.</p>
<p>The Kindle has a very long battery life, particularly if you turn off the wireless when you don’t need it.</p>
<p>I have a Kindle. Personally, I found used books on Amazon are often cheaper than their ebook counterparts. Granted, they are used. </p>
<p>Kindles are a bit uncomfortable for academic reading–there’s no page numbers and you might not have the right edition available as an ebook. </p>
<p>I don’t think it’s a good investment; I only bought it to encourage myself to read more. The only real benefit is free illegal copies of expensive texts if you’re willing to torrent.</p>
<p>Although, as others mentioned, classics written before 1920s are free. As opposed to like $2 if you buy a hard copy.</p>
<p>I have a Kindle and I use it constantly, mostly for pleasure reading. I have almost 200 books on it right now and it definitely saved me so much space as well as money, since many of my books are classics. I also use it for school a lot, especially because many of my classes are article based. Since I read the article before class, I can just search up the term that we’re talking about, solving the page number problem. It’s a lot more environmentally friendly, at least on my end, and I don’t have to pay for as much paper and ink. I think I may have convinced a few of my teachers to get it too. :)</p>