Online/offline reading

Darren Wright

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So how many of you actually read books and articles using an ipad, kindle, nook, or other e-reader?

For books, I've started using Kindle, but I get frustrated with not knowing how far into the book I am, but I like the way you can increase font sizes for smaller devices. I've been using the bookmark feature to keep track of where I'm at as I'll sometimes read the same book on my phone, then on my computer, then on a tablet or other computer.

As for reading blogs and articles, I've avoided it for a long time. The extra clutter on a page I always find way to distracting. A while back I signed up for Readability.com (free) and installed their chrome browser extension. It's got a cool feature that will capture the article on the page and display it without all the other clutter and navigation. You can also send it to your Readability account or kindle for later reading. They've got apps for reading articles on most mobile devices too.

Just an example of a before/after:
before.jpg after.jpg

It doesn't work with all sites, like members only articles on Finewoodworking.com where you have to sign in to view them, but it works great for most sites.

So anyone else using apps like these? Just curious if there are others I should take a look at...Thanks
 
Cool - I'll have to check it out!

Regarding "not knowing how far into the book I am" ... which Kindle model do you have? On my touch-enabled Paperwhite model there is a "status line" along the bottom of the screen. By tapping on the line I can toggle between:
  • XX mins left in chapter
  • YY hrs ZZ mins left in book
  • Loc -----
In all 3 modes, the percentage complete is displayed on the far right of the status line.

My Kindle Fire (2nd edition, non-HD) doesn't seem to have the "XX mins left in chapter" mode, but everything else is the same.
 
I use Kindle on my iPhone. Other than that I preferred the book in my hand. For travel the Kindle is nice. Anything with an e-ink type display that isn't affected by light works well for me.
 
My Kindle Fire (2nd edition, non-HD) doesn't seem to have the "XX mins left in chapter" mode, but everything else is the same.

I'm just using the Android and iPhone apps, but looks like they may have changed it some. It used to change the number of pages depending on how far you zoomed in/out (so a normal 459 page book with show as 9500 pages when shown on a small screen, but as 2000 pages on a larger one), but it's listing actual page numbers now. So now if I zoom in to read a little easier, the page number stays the same until I've read all of the text associated with that page.
 
I have an older Kindle that took getting used to. The kids bought me a kindle hd 8.9 for fathers day and i like it much, much better. The status bar shows how much time left in chapter, the book, and all the other bells and whistles. I do read articles from time to time but don't read any blogs.

The only problem with the kindle is I can't play candy crush :(
 
I like the kindle for two things:
  • travel - I no longer need a separate suitcase for books
  • free books! There are a large number of ebooks available for free, especially really old books that are long out of copyright so I have ~2k years worth of literature available. (project gutenburg, archive.org, etc...)

For some types of books (where I like to flip back and forth or jump to page N) the interface is somewhat burdensome. For just reading a novel on the plane its pretty sweet.
 
I can't let a reference to [Project Gutenberg] go by without mentioning its "acoustical pal" [LibriVox].

LibriVox is a bunch of volunteers that record themselves reading out-of-copyright texts and making them freely available for download (or real-time listening) on [archive.org].

I've listened to several FREE LibriVox books over the last couple years, including:
  • Fighting the Flying Circus by Eddie Rickenbacker
  • The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  • Four Day Planet and The Cosmic Computer by H Beam Piper
  • The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
  • Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
  • The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
  • King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
  • Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad (Finished this one up on the way home from Burning Wood 2013!)
My wife has listened to lots of others ... by Jane Austen, L. M. Montgomery, P. G. Wodehouse, etc.

If you're into FREE audio books, look up a favorite classic today in [the LibriVox Catalog] ... or learn how to volunteer as a reader or "proof listener" or project manager, etc [HERE].

(I'm trying to get up the nerve to read a book for them myself!)
 
free books! There are a large number of ebooks available for free, especially really old books that are long out of copyright so I have ~2k years worth of literature available. (project gutenburg, archive.org, etc...)

I can't let a reference to [Project Gutenberg] go by without mentioning its "acoustical pal" [LibriVox].

Cool, thanks guys, will check them out. I need to get a couple of my other library memberships renewed. Our county one doesn't really participate in the ebook programs like the ones downtown and close to my work do. That is one thing I miss about not working downtown, which was spending part of my lunch hour at the library browsing the isles. I guess I do have one about a half mile or so from my new job, should probably get out and walk it, would be good for both my brain and legs.
 
Some more free books and stuff for your enjoyment:
http://makezine.com/2010/03/01/175-free-woodworking-ebooks/
Mostly links to evenfall but that's how I found it anyway.

Joel has been posting old scanned copies of "work" magazine at TFWW:
http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/store//store/blog/work
I'm behind on downloading/reading those. Really fun old stuff if you're into that sort of thing

If you have Kindle there are a lot of $0 books at amazon as well - unfortunately many of them are worth just what you pay but there are a lot of classics as well... and I admit to having bought a few books in series after getting sucked in on the first teaser free book (so apparently that worked :D)
 
If you have Kindle there are a lot of $0 books at amazon [...] a lot of classics as well...

In my experience, you can usually get better copies of the "free" classics by downloading them directly from the [Gutenberg Project]. The Amazon versions are almost always text-only, whereas many of the original Gutenberg versions have cover art, illustrations, etc. It takes a little more effort to install each book on the Kindle yourself (and it gets categorized as a "Document" rather than a "Book") but for me it's usually worth it.
 
In my experience, you can usually get better copies of the "free" classics by downloading them directly from the [Gutenberg Project]. The Amazon versions are almost always text-only, whereas many of the original Gutenberg versions have cover art, illustrations, etc. It takes a little more effort to install each book on the Kindle yourself (and it gets categorized as a "Document" rather than a "Book") but for me it's usually worth it.

Agreed for older books. There are a fair number of newer teaser novels though where the first in the series is free and then the subsequent ones are pay. I've read through a few series I found that way, its a good way to stick your toe in the water on them.
 
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