Kindle

[doodab]

Yeah, some books are missing, all you can do is buy those books in tree format, but over the years im sure the missing books will reduce in numbers.

Not some. Every one of the ones I bothered to check.

I just checked a few more and of those only one was available (the latest Iain Banks)

If you regularly go through a bestseller a week on the train it's probably ideal, but it's not for the sort of person who reads older fiction or non-fiction / reference books from outside of the IT sphere.

[kandr]

Not some. Every one of the ones I bothered to check.

I just checked a few more and of those only one was available (the latest Iain Banks)

If you regularly go through a bestseller a week on the train it's probably ideal, but it's not for the sort of person who reads older fiction or non-fiction / reference books from outside of the IT sphere.

I found a few classics like Catch 22, Ulysses and The Great Gatsby in pdb format. These can be converted to kindle format. Where are you looking?

[Durbs]

So, is an ipad any good compared to a kindle specifically for reading books?

I use my iPad a lot as an eReader (using the Kindle App, much better than Apples own) and a big plus is the backlight so i can read without a bedside light being on. But the backlit screen DOES affect my eyes after a good few hours of solid reading, a Kindle wouldn't.

Battery-wise, iPad is fine, lasts ages, seems to take a while to charge fully though. Weight-wise, you wouldn't want to be holding one up for a couple of hours!

[Lockhouse]

Not some. Every one of the ones I bothered to check.

I just checked a few more and of those only one was available (the latest Iain Banks)

If you regularly go through a bestseller a week on the train it's probably ideal, but it's not for the sort of person who reads older fiction or non-fiction / reference books from outside of the IT sphere.

Amazon has a "Request in Kindle Format" button to gauge interest in a book but I know what you mean. I'm using it to catch up on my "required reading" at the moment. Older books etc that I should have read but never got around to. If you have a PDF though you can get it converted as has already been mentioned.

[d000hg]

Not some. Every one of the ones I bothered to check.

I just checked a few more and of those only one was available (the latest Iain Banks)

If you regularly go through a bestseller a week on the train it's probably ideal, but it's not for the sort of person who reads older fiction or non-fiction / reference books from outside of the IT sphere.

Well someone has to make an eBook version of every book from before Kindle was created and that's presumably a fair amount of work unless you find the person with a nice printable version to work from, then you have to get rights. No doubt it will grow but considering the sheer number of books out there, this is kind of inevitable.

It's a good point that the device is aimed at those reading mainstream stuff... but on the other hand by definition that is the majority of people anyway.

[sasguru]

So there's no way of displaying mathematical symbols other than pdf, I assume?

[d000hg]

This book exists:

Amazon.com: Math Tables: Mathematical Symbols (Mobi Study Guides) eBook: MobileReference: Kindle Store

Also:

Amazon DTP Support : Formatting for a Mathematics Book ...

It can be a little tricky if you are using Greek characters for the math symbols and such. Fortunately, the updated Kindle software now supports the Greek character set.

We have a lot of experience in publishing economics texts for the Kindle which includes formatting for mathematical formulas.

[Ignis Fatuus]

Out of interest I checked Amazon for Kindle editions of the last 12 books I bought from Amazon:

Germania - Simon Winder
Guns, Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond
Fear of Freedom - Erich Fromm
Three Moments of Love: In Leonard Cohen and Bruce Cockburn - Paul Nonnekes
Breakfast in the Ruins - Michael Moorcock
The Grand Design - Stephen Hawking ... yes, £5.93
Ivanhoe - Walter Scott ... yes, £0.00
Pure Drivel - Steve Martin
Pandora's Seed - Spence Wells ... yes, £12.99
On Art and Life - John Ruskin ... yes, £4.49
The Glorious Revolution: 1688 - Britain's Fight for Liberty - Vallance
The Quick Red Fox - John D Macdonald

4 out of 12 available for Kindle. Better than I expected.

How is it for lending to people? Lend the whole Kindle I suppose?

[doodab]

I found a few classics like Catch 22, Ulysses and The Great Gatsby in pdb format. These can be converted to kindle format. Where are you looking?

Amazon.

The books I've checked for are either in the pile next to my bed, on the shelf or on my Amazon wish list, so it's not like I'm being deliberately obscure.

It's true that quite a few older books are becoming available, just not the ones I happen to have checked. I've found a few more that you can get (siddharta, Russell's history of western philosophy, Norman Davies history of europe)

[Freamon]

How does that work if you spend most of your time outside your country of residence?

I believe it works fine, just like any other 3G sim that is roaming. Amazon provide an AT&T SIM, in the UK, AT&T have a roaming agreement with Vodafone so all Kindles in the UK end up on Vodafone 3G. I'd imagine if you went to any other country where AT&T have a roaming agreement (which I suspect is most countries) it would work in the same way that it does here.

Since it's free anyway, the roaming doesn't make any difference to the cost (it's still free).

Disclaimer: I don't actually own a Kindle.