How many people use e-books as opposed to traditional books?

How many trawler people use e-books (kindle, etc) instead of paperback books? With space being a premium aboard most boats, it seems to make sense that e-books would be good to have.

I have found that lots of people think you have to have a "reader" device to read an e-book, but there are lots of tablets, phones, pc's, laptops, etc that can read different e-books.

Amazon Kindle e-books have a free reader app that you can download and read all the kindle e-books on just about all phones, tablets, laptops and desktops. Another nice thing is that you can see all the e-books on your account on each of your devices if you like, and when a typo is fixed, it is updated on your cloud account.

Both my wife and I enjoy reading. Most of our books are read on iPads. I do enjoy being able to pick up where my book is on my iPhone during lunchtime at work. However, our library of paper books continually expands also.

We use ebooks almost exclusively. We have an extensive library. E-books can be downloaded from many local libraries although you may have to be placed on a waiting list for more recent titles. Library downloads have a reasonable time limit after which has the book may no longer be read. Our library, Anne Arundel County (Maryland), allows downloads in both Kindle format and the "other" format.

We are in the process of switching to e-things. Part of that is about reclaiming space (i.e., removing or re-purposing shelving units, etc.), part is about "easier" (lighter weight) travel reading, and part is about the boat library. (I think we've given away or donated about 1000 books, so far...)

For the boat, I've been not only swapping real books for e-books (Chapman's, for instance), but also ensuring all our systems docs are softcopy, too.

I've found it necessary to use Play Books, Kindle, Nook, and Adobe's e-reader apps to get everything... given that some titles aren't available from all providers or in all formats (Chapman's, for instance).

And then there's the actual scanning project I'm doing, for our boat's owners manual... which came to me in hardcopy (I haven't been able to find an exact dupe in softcopy)... and which contains the various system schematics.

-Chris

I have used a Barnes & Noble NOOK for years, I still use the first generation machine that uses eInk. Battery lasts weeks.

Here is the latest incarnation.
NOOK GlowLight eReader - Barnes & Noble

I have Kindle on an Ipad Mini, Iphone, Android tablet, and computer. All ebooks unless not available from Kindle.

Tom

I would love a e-book version of Chapman's!

I have done the conversion thing a few times but you really have to want it to make it worth the effort to go through scanning, OCR, and reformatting. In most cases, a PDF is the best thing, but not on a smaller device.

We both use Kindles and love them. I bought one for Lena 2.5 years ago at Christmas. She said didn't want one. After a week I think she had it surgically attached. Now what to do with all the vacant books shelve space on Hobo?

stubones99 said:

I would love a e-book version of Chapman's!

I have done the conversion thing a few times but you really have to want it to make it worth the effort to go through scanning, OCR, and reformatting. In most cases, a PDF is the best thing, but not on a smaller device.

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Nook has Chapman's 67th.

Yeah, scanning is last resort. Could have been easier if my auto-feeder worked, but the owners manual paper stock is so heavy it won't bend through the runway... so it's been a page at a time.

And I'll have to take the 11x17 schematics out for scanning.

At least this is the only doc I expect to have to do this way. I even have the engine service manual on DVD (which is not as easy as PDFs, but that's the way Cummins does it).


Yes, tablets for viewing, not smartphones; need the screen size. I fact, we've also found the 10" tablets are better for "magazines" than the 7" tablet display. Smaller devices get sorta useless for some media at some point.


The engine DVD does bring another issue; need an actual computer/DVD player, which means laptop (in our case). Not a hardship, since we keep one on board anyway, but it also means its less portable.

-Chris

We started with Nooks, but the versatility of the iPad won out for us. One device, for reading, weather research, nav planning, etc. And with the Nook app, we still have all our nook books on the iPad.

Yes, I forgot to mention, I have the Nook app on my iPad as well. The nice thing about the eInk readers like Nook & Kindle is the low cost and battery life.

As an author I initially resisted e-books. Then my wife got a Kindle several years ago, I took it with me on a shoot at our 787 plant in South Carolina, and I've not read a traditional book since outside of photo-heavy specialty books.

All our devices-- Kindles, iPads and iPhones are on the same account so we can read the same book on all of them. I don't like reading a book on my iPad because the backlit screen is easily washed out, looking at a backlit screen for long periods of time is hard on the eyes (something I'm well aware of from all the editing I do) and an iPad has a very short battery life compared to a Kindle.

With all the international traveling I do for work one thing I really like about the Kindle is the ability to download a book just about anywhere. We have the cellular models and I've downloaded books in a coal mining town in the middle of China, in a hotel room in Norway, in remote manufacturing plants in Brazil and Malaysia, and sitting in airports all over the world. For free (the download connection, not the books).

We keep a number of books permanently on the boats-- cruising guides, bird and plant/tree identification books, first aid books, etc-- but for general reading we read almost exclusively on our Kindles unless we want to read a book that is simply not available for e-readers.

I read the news on an iPad but I love my walls of real books.

I use a traditional Kindle. We have iPads, however the Kindle battery is recharged every few weeks rather than daily. The backlit devices like iPad's burn through battery time. The kindle is like reading a paperback in direct sunlight. The iPad is not as good in direct sunlight.


Just my .02

Shrew said:

The iPad is not as good in direct sunlight.

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Absolutely true

The ebook readers are now in the majority in the Caribbean cruising community (English speaking). Watched someone last night at dinner download a book which had been mentioned in passing.

Bay Pelican said:

Watched someone last night at dinner download a book which had been mentioned in passing.

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That's the huge advantage of them. My camera crew are avid readers and we often talk about what books we're reading or have read. It's great to be able to download a book on the spot, even in the van on the way to a shoot, instead of trying to remember the book or jot the title down on a piece of paper that you then lose.

All of us are musicians to one degree or another and we do the same thing with music on iTunes.

Since getting my first iPad some years ago I have been trying to go as paperless as possible. I handwrite notes in meetings on the iPad, draw storyboards and work out blocking and camera moves on the iPad, and so on. The Kindle has been great because it's eliminated the need to deal with a physical book, where to put it, what to do with it when I've finished.

They are not perfect though, since Kindle won't let you do a text search like Google (within the book). If you search for word1 and word2 it shows either, with no way to require both. It ignores quotes so you can't search for a phrase.

And last but not least, you can't search for a specific term, without searching for all occurrences of the term in the book. There is no way to code a dictionary type book without finding all occurrences of the search term used in the definitions of other terms.

I've been working on a dictionary of nautical terms if any of you have the time to proof it. It's not huge but has all the words I can think of.

Thanks!
Stu

The wifey and I first talked about moving onto a boat 15 years ago. One of the things that stopped us was books. I have thousands of them and continually read magazines, books, and now a days, Internet forums. Back then there was no way for me to travel with books. Simply not possible because I read so much. If I have time I will read a book in a day or so.

So many of my paper back books are turning to dust so I buy Kindle editions to reread them. It is just too easy, simple and fast to buy a book on Kindle. Tis Magic.

Some boat related books I will buy the physical book to have on board when we finally get a boat. Those books, like Chapman's, would be needed if we did not have power for some reason or lost the Kindles. Basically for books that we might need in an emergency we buy the physical edition. Some books I will buy both the eBook and physical edition.

I have cut back drastically on magazine subscriptions because I simply do not read the physical magazine anymore. I want the magazine on the Kindle. I do still subscribe to a few magazines because they are so good but I have really cut back on subscriptions.

I bought my first Kindle because the electronic version of the Wall Street Journal was cheaper than the paper edition. In the first year, the savings between the electronic and physical editions paid for the Kindle. The ability to down load the WSJ where ever I am, at any time, AND save articles is a huge improvement. Tis Magic.

Later,
Dan

stubones99 said:

They are not perfect though, since Kindle won't let you do a text search like Google (within the book). If you search for word1 and word2 it shows either, with no way to require both. It ignores quotes so you can't search for a phrase.

And last but not least, you can't search for a specific term, without searching for all occurrences of the term in the book. There is no way to code a dictionary type book without finding all occurrences of the search term used in the definitions of other terms.

I've been working on a dictionary of nautical terms if any of you have the time to proof it. It's not huge but has all the words I can think of.

Thanks!
Stu

Click to expand...

The OP started with a focus on hard copy vs. eReaders. You can't do ANY of that with a traditional book. If we're talking about using an eReader for technical manuals, sure. If we're talking about reading for pleasure Fiction/Non-Fiction....is anyone actually doing this on a regular basis.

I've owned Kindles for years and never needed any bells and whistles.

No Mast said:

We started with Nooks, but the versatility of the iPad won out for us.

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Same route for us too. iPads are infinitely more useful than dedicated readers. Reading books in direct sunlight doesn't even sound appealing so that limitation does not concern us.

We have a limited library of real books I'll not part with and the rest are ebooks.

Shrew said:

If we're talking about reading for pleasure Fiction/Non-Fiction....is anyone actually doing this on a regular basis.

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Yes, I for one.

I use the Kindle app for my iPad. I'm over 650 books downloaded. I also downloaded the PDF versions of all the manuals that came with the boat and freed up an entire drawer for other stowage.

I read a lot and was reluctant to make the transition to reading books on a device. Once I tried it, I've never looked back.

Shrew said:

I've owned Kindles for years and never needed any bells and whistles.

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Me neither. I read a lot of British books and my Kindle has a British dictionary loaded on it so I can look up words I'm not familiar with. That and highlighting passages in books I refer to a lot so I can easily find the passages again are the only "bells and whistles" I find I need as far as reading books is concerned.

If I need to search words and stuff I use an iPad.

Speaking of e-books I'm just finishing a fascnating one. Called "The Brilliant Disaster" its the whole story of the Bay of Pigs, starting with its origins under President Eisenhower and its disastrous conclusion under President Kennedy. While the book covers the invasion itself, far more fascinating is the look into the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, both men as presidents, the CIA, and the whole political scene that prompted the attempt to unseat Castro. I knew nothing about the Bay of Pigs other than the very basics, but when I heard an interview with the author on the radio i became intrigued and downloaded the book.

Larry M said:

We both use Kindles and love them. I bought one for Lena 2.5 years ago at Christmas. She said didn't want one. After a week I think she had it surgically attached. Now what to do with all the vacant books shelve space on Hobo?

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Lena must be my long lost twin.

Having eschewed e readers for years, I was given one by my colleagues and just before re-gifting it, I tried it and loved it.

We probably have 200 books on it. I'm on my third one, having broken two.

I tried the kindle bright, but didn't like it, so it's Julie's now.

I also use the app on my Samsung note and tablet.

I use the tablet to read magazines, mostly Science News.

The phone is best for reading newspapers, like the WSJ, every morning.

The kindle itself I like best for books.

I also take photos of all schematics.

Started using the Kindle app on my Samsung Galaxy tablet couple of years ago. Only paper books I buy now are those unavailable on e reader.

Ted

GW and I both use Kindle's. I got mine a couple of years ago and before that didn't read much. Now I go through about a book a week. I download them from our local library connection into Outlook.

I've also put almost all of my boat equipment manuals on my kindle and have a NOAA weather on it. I wish they had better weather forecasting information for the kindle. Maybe some day.

Not I. Never. Got enough practice looking at a screen as it is, especially during the last decade of my professional career writing, editing, and reviewing on a computer.

We have 1000 plus E-books in our library. We've found Calbre is a great management tool. It's open source for Macs, Windows and Linus. It makes organization on the Kindle or any E-ready pretty simple.

calibre - E-book management

I typically read hard copy, but there can be some advantages to eReaders. There is just something nice about a hard copy vs an electronic one.