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e-books

Mikalcino...

I get my stuff from Fictionwise. They have free promotional stuff all the time, and pretty good deals.

I also get them from links from the Microsoft Reader site here - they have a Free ebooks link that I follow to get more free ebooks.

Project Gutenberg is also great for getting public domain works.

If you want non-free stuff, you can also visit Barnes and Noble in addition to Fictionwise.

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Hello???

This is a link to some Christian haranguing.

May I be excused from class today, sir? :rolleyes:
 
SillyWabbit said:
Settle down class!!!! :D
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sorry, i already out of hear, i mean who wants to have classes on sunday!! i'm going to the pub, who comes??
let the prof play the prof!! :D
 
e-books are an abomination and no self-respecting reader would get one. :p

Seriously, what's the point in sitting at a desk and reading from a screen? I prefer to read while sitting in a comfy chair where I can contort myself in comfort while holding my book. Plus, there's something about turning a page that an e-book cannot even come close to duplicating!
 
Ah Miss Shelf, one doesn't need to read ebooks directly from computers. I read all my ebooks via my PDA. Since I look silly carrying a handbag, I store several books inside my PDA instead, which I can whip out at any time to read. Typically when I get stuck in queues or during transit.

I do agree about the physicality of a book - the feeling of page turning, the smell, the feeling of actually holding a paperback, etc. Reading on the computer is too strenuous for me, but you can still "contort in comfort" with a handheld device. Plus you can read in the dark as well. :)

Then there's the issue of archiving. If you maintain an account from an online vendor, you'll never lose them at all (unless they close down, that is). They can be backed up and stored. You never worry about loaning. You can do an immediate search of a word you don't know (something I never do with a paperback). You can perform searches and it makes you coffee too! Plus there're so many books you can get free.

What's not to like? :D

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direstraits said:
Ah Miss Shelf, one doesn't need to read ebooks directly from computers. I read all my ebooks via my PDA. Since I look silly carrying a handbag, I store several books inside my PDA instead, which I can whip out at any time to read. Typically when I get stuck in queues or during transit.

I do agree about the physicality of a book - the feeling of page turning, the smell, the feeling of actually holding a paperback, etc. Reading on the computer is too strenuous for me, but you can still "contort in comfort" with a handheld device. Plus you can read in the dark as well. :)

Then there's the issue of archiving. If you maintain an account from an online vendor, you'll never lose them at all (unless they close down, that is). They can be backed up and stored. You never worry about loaning. You can do an immediate search of a word you don't know (something I never do with a paperback). You can perform searches and it makes you coffee too! Plus there're so many books you can get free.

What's not to like? :D

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Excellent argument. But suppose your PDA's battery runs out? What if you drop it? (I'm a closet Luddite in case you didn't suspect that already.) Books on PDAs make me think of Star Trek: TNG where whatshisname, Number One, was reading a play from a gizmo. I remember that because it made me sad that in the future people won't know how lovely a real book is.
 
A nice little argument going on here and I thought I would chip in. :D
Personally, I would prefer to read a "real" book rather than an e-book. But, of late I have read more e-books, bcos I am in front of my PC most of the time! In case of a real book, as Geenh and Miss Shelf pointed out, one can "feel" the book! This experience is no way found in an e-book. But, as direstraits pointed out, e-books are easier to carry, quite handy (especially when you are waiting for that train thats running late) and it has its own advantages like looking up a word which you dont know. Running out of a battery (etc...) is part of the package and one has to live with it! I am not making any new point here. Just that, e-books and "real" books have their own pros and cons and ultiamtely its upto the person what he/she likes more. :)
 
There's no reason a person can't use both! :) e-books probably save a lot of trees, too. I don't think I'd argue for one of the other, to me e-books just seem like a sacrilege. I think that'd be true for those of us who grew up before the computer age, and I'm sure that in the future, a "real" book would seem just as odd to a young person as a book on a PDA is to me now.
 
Well, my library of real books outnumber my ebooks by a magnitude of something like a 100. :D

And here's the clincher: I prefer physical books, despite my defense of ebooks. But what I'm saying is ebooks are not poor alternatives to physical books.

It comes down to one thing really - convenience. There are times (for me) that reading from a real book isn't an option. But I need to read all the time. So my solution is my PDA.

But when I'm home or when I can, I reach for a physical book.

In the end, we just want a good read. It's the fact that I've read and gained rather than how I've read and gained that matters to me personally.

Plus, if you get ebooks, then you wouldn't need to worry anymore about Missing a Shelf! :)

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direstraits said:
It comes down to one thing really - convenience.

In the end, we just want a good read. It's the fact that I've read and gained rather than how I've read and gained that matters to me personally.
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Well said! I completely agree!!
 
Perhaps, but if the book you're reading turns out to be terrible, you don't have the satisfaction of throwing it across the room! :D
 
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