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kamreadsandrecsI just got the news a couple of days ago that Amazon will finally release an international version of their infamous ebook reader the Kindle - and thank God for that! Ever since I found out about the Kindle I'd been panting after one, but this particular piece of news is especially good because my parents gave me an ultimatum for the number of books I can purchase now. Ever since my mom had the new bookshelf made, I've been told that once it's been filled up, I can no longer buy another book without giving one away - and the last "spring cleaning" I did to free up shelf space was done with much misery and heartache.
Which is why the Kindle International coming out is very good news indeed. I know that all books aren't available on the Kindle (and comics and manga certainly aren't either) but a good deal of others are. This means that I can save shelf space for the books that I really do want but can get no other way except in printed format, and then just read everything else on my Kindle. Also, owning a Kindle means that I have more bag space, since I cannot bear to leave home without a book as some form of staving off potential boredom, and while I've heard talk that the Kindle is actually heavier than it looks, I'm sure it isn't as heavy as the usual paperback book I like to tote around.
Then there's also the fact that as a Lit prof, I need to actually tote around a lot of texts for in-class reading and other such purposes. The Kindle will allow me to bring texts I use in my classes, plus the stuff I read for fun, without breaking my shoulder because I stuff my bag with all the texts I need (and want) to bring. If I could photocopy text directly from my Kindle for my students that'd be really fun, but I doubt the Kindle would survive such a thing.
And then there is price. The Kindle books are generally priced much more cheaply than printed books, even if I'm paying in dollars. And it also eliminates the "I have to wait for the paperback version" problem, since new releases generally cost ten dollars at most on Kindle, which is still much cheaper than buying a hardbound book. Case in point: I generally use 1$ = 50PhP as a basic unit of conversion, even if the conversion rate fluctuates to something lower. A hardbound book generally costs 800-1000+PhP, regardless of where you get it. However, if I order the book from Amazon for the Kindle (usually priced at 9.99$, but I round that up to 10$), it comes down to 500PhP, which is the same price I pay for good-quality paperbacks. In essence, I am paying almost half the price I would normally pay for a new release, since new releases always come out in hardbound format, and yet I'm reading the book just as it's fresh off the presses, as it were. And of course, there are third-party sources who supply open-source books for free, which means not having to pay for them at all.
Another feature which intrigues me is the fact that the Kindle International will allow other document formats like .doc and .pdf to be read on the Kindle after reformatting. The process of reformatting these files for Kindle is a bit fuzzy, and I'm not sure how they're going to look on the unit itself, but if it does, it opens up a whole world of possibilities, especially in terms of PDF readability.
Of course, there are rumors circulating about the Kindle International, particularly regarding the availability of books for download, with many people saying that Amazon won't make their entire Kindle library available to international users, citing copyright laws as the problem. This makes me worried because the Philippines has had a very tenuous relationship with such laws, and hence it's possible that the selection of books for download will be very limited. I hope that isn't the case, though, as I'd be more than willing to actually pay for the books I get on the Kindle as long as my selection isn't limited to just a paltry ten thousand books whose content I don't like anyway.
There's no doubt right now that I will likely get a Kindle International, as will my mom and my aunt, both of whom are readers themselves and would love to get their hands on one for more or less the same reasons I want to. But I've advised them to wait until December or January - after all, we need to see how other users have fared with this new version of the Kindle. If the product reviews aren't favorable, then I can live without one.
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So![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
coffeebased managed to talk me into joining ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
mini_nanowrimo in anticipation of National Novel Writing Month in November. It's callled "Mini" because the demands it makes on writers are not as overwhelming as the ones for the actual NaNo. Participants are asked to commit to a word-count (lowest is 100), and they must fulfill writing out that word-count every day; of course, going over your word-count is encouraged. At the end of the month, participants will hopefully have a completed piece of fiction at around novella-length. If it isn't done, then they will hopefully keep on writing it until it does - maybe even going for the actual NaNoWriMo challenge the following year.
At this stage, I've committed to writing 150 words everyday, since I feel that a hundred words is a bit short, and two hundred is too much. A hundred and fifty strikes me as a comfortable number I can do everyday, with hopes of exceeding it if possible. I've also decided, more or less, on what I want to write: a Hellboy/Trese crossover. I'm hoping Trese 3 comes out soon, because I want to have the latest details on the Trese'verse and see how it fits in when put against the Hellboy'verse. I especially want to read that piece about Anton Trese, and to find out more about the Kambal; I have plans for them.
Which is why the Kindle International coming out is very good news indeed. I know that all books aren't available on the Kindle (and comics and manga certainly aren't either) but a good deal of others are. This means that I can save shelf space for the books that I really do want but can get no other way except in printed format, and then just read everything else on my Kindle. Also, owning a Kindle means that I have more bag space, since I cannot bear to leave home without a book as some form of staving off potential boredom, and while I've heard talk that the Kindle is actually heavier than it looks, I'm sure it isn't as heavy as the usual paperback book I like to tote around.
Then there's also the fact that as a Lit prof, I need to actually tote around a lot of texts for in-class reading and other such purposes. The Kindle will allow me to bring texts I use in my classes, plus the stuff I read for fun, without breaking my shoulder because I stuff my bag with all the texts I need (and want) to bring. If I could photocopy text directly from my Kindle for my students that'd be really fun, but I doubt the Kindle would survive such a thing.
And then there is price. The Kindle books are generally priced much more cheaply than printed books, even if I'm paying in dollars. And it also eliminates the "I have to wait for the paperback version" problem, since new releases generally cost ten dollars at most on Kindle, which is still much cheaper than buying a hardbound book. Case in point: I generally use 1$ = 50PhP as a basic unit of conversion, even if the conversion rate fluctuates to something lower. A hardbound book generally costs 800-1000+PhP, regardless of where you get it. However, if I order the book from Amazon for the Kindle (usually priced at 9.99$, but I round that up to 10$), it comes down to 500PhP, which is the same price I pay for good-quality paperbacks. In essence, I am paying almost half the price I would normally pay for a new release, since new releases always come out in hardbound format, and yet I'm reading the book just as it's fresh off the presses, as it were. And of course, there are third-party sources who supply open-source books for free, which means not having to pay for them at all.
Another feature which intrigues me is the fact that the Kindle International will allow other document formats like .doc and .pdf to be read on the Kindle after reformatting. The process of reformatting these files for Kindle is a bit fuzzy, and I'm not sure how they're going to look on the unit itself, but if it does, it opens up a whole world of possibilities, especially in terms of PDF readability.
Of course, there are rumors circulating about the Kindle International, particularly regarding the availability of books for download, with many people saying that Amazon won't make their entire Kindle library available to international users, citing copyright laws as the problem. This makes me worried because the Philippines has had a very tenuous relationship with such laws, and hence it's possible that the selection of books for download will be very limited. I hope that isn't the case, though, as I'd be more than willing to actually pay for the books I get on the Kindle as long as my selection isn't limited to just a paltry ten thousand books whose content I don't like anyway.
There's no doubt right now that I will likely get a Kindle International, as will my mom and my aunt, both of whom are readers themselves and would love to get their hands on one for more or less the same reasons I want to. But I've advised them to wait until December or January - after all, we need to see how other users have fared with this new version of the Kindle. If the product reviews aren't favorable, then I can live without one.
So
coffeebased managed to talk me into joining mini_nanowrimo in anticipation of National Novel Writing Month in November. It's callled "Mini" because the demands it makes on writers are not as overwhelming as the ones for the actual NaNo. Participants are asked to commit to a word-count (lowest is 100), and they must fulfill writing out that word-count every day; of course, going over your word-count is encouraged. At the end of the month, participants will hopefully have a completed piece of fiction at around novella-length. If it isn't done, then they will hopefully keep on writing it until it does - maybe even going for the actual NaNoWriMo challenge the following year.At this stage, I've committed to writing 150 words everyday, since I feel that a hundred words is a bit short, and two hundred is too much. A hundred and fifty strikes me as a comfortable number I can do everyday, with hopes of exceeding it if possible. I've also decided, more or less, on what I want to write: a Hellboy/Trese crossover. I'm hoping Trese 3 comes out soon, because I want to have the latest details on the Trese'verse and see how it fits in when put against the Hellboy'verse. I especially want to read that piece about Anton Trese, and to find out more about the Kambal; I have plans for them.
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no subject
Date: 2009-10-10 08:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-10 08:50 am (UTC)I do hear there are better readers out there; Sony has one that's nice and big and shiny with touchscreen capability, with better compatibility with other ebook file types, but it's really tough to beat Amazon's promise of getting a book in under 60 seconds if you connect to Wi-Fi. And then there's Amazon's massive library, though I'm worried about the idea that international users might not have access to all the books.