News - Kindle book sales overtake print at Amazon

[HEXUS]

Amazon UK now sells 14 per cent more eBooks than printed books.

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[AGTDenton]

As a reader of computer books, I cannot replace the physical media. I find it so much easier with the real thing than PDF or Kindle.

[crossy]

I'm a recent convert to a physical Kindle, (not being a fan of eInk screens redraw flashing - but I found a setting that flashes it less, so me and the Kindle get on ok now), I'm struck by how easy the whole purchase experience is - worryingly so (for my bank balance). For example, I was reading an old eReader.com purchase the other day that I bought in 2008 - discovered it was a 2 part work and within 5 minutes I had the next part purchased and installed on the Kindle.

Even better when I found a piece of software that let me convert my old eReader.com library into files that the Kindle could read - so that was another 70+ books I could access, some of which I couldn't buy from eReader.com today (thanks to Barnes and Nobles moronic geography restrictions).

Only thing I will say is that I wish that the quality of some of the conversions was better. I just finished one book and it was shot through with missplit words, spaces missing before after italic text, and some "interesting" typos.

As to the Kindle itself, I've got mine in a faux book cover (Klevercase) and it looks great. Just wish I had more control over the way that the books are presented (e.g. I've got a lot of Star Trek novels and it'd be handy to see which number in the set a particular books was - kind of like having a track id on a music album).

That said, I'm giving very serious consideration to trading back some of my sci-fi paperbacks to get money off of the digital versions - since the latter would be a lot easier to access than having to wade through closets, lofts, etc looking for that must-read volume!

[Zoom]

I'll consider buying a Kindle when the price drops to about £25, and my local library service starts lending ebooks. Meanwhile I'll continue to obtain 95% of my books for free from said library service, with the remainder being impulse secondhand purchases for no more than 50p a book.

Summary:- I'll probably never own an ebook reader.

[AlexKitch]

For something like a 700 page C++ reference book, there's just no replacing the physical, real thing - imho.

[vicar]

True, but it can be used as a reference /back up unit and the ability to carry lots of books with you all the time is a plus for the Kindle and other e-readers.

[Goozeman]

Kindle is great for when I'm traveling but I still prefer a good old hardback edition.

[GravitySmacked]

Really??? Wow I didn't see that coming, I mean you can't even read one in the bath.

[aidanjt]

For something like a 700 page C++ reference book, there's just no replacing the physical, real thing - imho.

yeah, because there's nothing more productive than cut/pasting reference material with a real book, a pair of scissors and boiled animal fat, to the monitor. And of course, searching is practically instant, providing instant means half an hour or more.

[Hicks12]

hopefully I have read aidanjt's post correctly... as I agree Kindle is so much better than reading via paper, easy to insert notes and reference pages its piss easy to find a page and notes... no competition compared to slugging around some hefty programming books!

[aidanjt]

hopefully I have read aidanjt's post correctly... as I agree Kindle is so much better than reading via paper, easy to insert notes and reference pages its piss easy to find a page and notes... no competition compared to slugging around some hefty programming books!

They are completely superior in one aspect, whacking someone across the head when they say something stupid. That doesn't work quite as well, either with, or for the kindle.