No, but it seems that printed books are much more expensive in NZ - or E-books cheaper. Leaving aside all other issues, E-books are just not worth it at the moment for me or for a lot of other people.Blind groper wrote:If the NSA wants to check what books I buy, they are welcome. Such uninteresting data will whittle down their numbers as they die of boredom.
I bought my kindle for about $NZ 200. I buy about 50 books a year, and save about $NZ 20 per book compared to what I would pay for the same book in paper form. The arithmetic is not exactly complex!
I also get a much wider selection, since the ebook libraries are well over a million titles. No book shop has that number of paper books.
I prefer to read the ebook, since it is lighter in weight than a paper book, and turning pages is easy. When my vision starts to deteriorate, I can use a larger font. A computer or iPhone or a tablet is not as good as an ebook, since the screen technology is different. An ebook screen is just like black ink on paper, and can be read just as easily in full sunlight.
My wife now has the new kindle paperwhite, which has a built in light, so she can read it in any lighting conditions from full sunlight to dark night.
Recharging is overnight once per fortnight at most. Anyone who thinks this is a problem should return to his wanking.
For the E-books (or equivalent) that I do read - all free - I'm happy with a cheap Android tablet, or my 11.6-inch laptop, or whatever else is to hand.
Another point is that a lot of books and reference material (journals, etc.) won't work well on an e-book. This is especially the case with anything large-format & complex layout, or indeed for most web content. A large tablet or laptop makes much more sense - or a desktop/TV screen for that matter. They are much more versatile.
