I bought my Kobo Mini 3-4 years ago. I was broke at the time, but it was a great purchase. When I started working again in mid 2013 I upgraded to a Kindle Paperwhite.
Though I love my Kobo Mini, and it was a good friend to me, I've gravitated more and more to reading books on the Kindle Paperwhite, especially since the Kobo will no longer hold a reasonable charge. In essence, I no longer use the Kobo at all any more. Which is a shame, because I have some great books on there.
While I can still use the Kobo App on my phone, or use both the Kobo and Kindle apps on my Android Tablet or PC, I'm not likely to do that. I'm not in the habit of reading books on my PC or laptop, and we actually sold the Android Tablet, which was a gift I rarely used. Though it was briefly useful for reading Kindle graphic novels.
In short, this has been a barrier to finishing the six unread books I still have on my Kobo. So I've spent the last few hours transferring them onto my Kindle, as well as converting them into a handy PDF format.
This has involved a great deal of frustrated googling.
It turns out the Kobo desktop app does not create a save file on your PC, so it cannot be used to manipulate books by opening the files in Calibre or transferring them. What you actually need to do is follow the directions here. In short, you download Adobe Digital Editions, create a log-in, then download your books from kobo.com. This then creates a folder called 'my digital editions' which contains the actual save files for your books. These you can upload into calibre and do kinky things to.
After converting the files to PDF or another format that Kindle can open, simply plug your Kindle into your PC and drag the files from the Calibre folder to the Kindle folder. I just dragged the entire folder which was labelled with the books name rather than individual files, and that seems to work.
Edit:
My Kindle claimed it was too full for me to read beyond a certain point of a PDF. It's also had a 'ghost' copy of Peony in Love on it for a while - by 'ghost' I mean I deleted it from the Kindle, but it's still there and refuses to be deleted again. I also noticed a load of what appeared to be junk files when I plugged it into the PC.
So I've performed a factory reset after noting down the titles I had downloaded. This time, I moved the PDF files from Calibre alone, without all of the other files that go with them, and it worked just fine.
Showing posts with label Kindle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kindle. Show all posts
Sunday, 25 October 2015
Monday, 15 July 2013
In Which We Discuss the Kindle Paperwhite
Contents
The Device
The Kindle Paperwhite is a device made by Amazon. It has a 6" screen which is good for reading but which is a little hard on my hands; after reading for a few hours last night, I had some tingling and nerve pain from how I'd been holding it.
The screen lights up with varying degrees of brightness which is easy to change. The screen is clearly visible both in darkness and bright sunlight.
The Paperwhite comes in black, and you can buy decals from decal girl or a variety of cases from Amazon to decorate it.
I've just checked, and the device will fit into a jacket pocket. Theoretically, it fit into my jeans pocket too, it just wasn't terribly secure.
The touch screen is very responsive.
Price
The Kindle Paperwhite currently sells at £109. With built-in 3G access it's £169, but I believe you'll have that 3G access for life.
Selection
The Kindle Store has a huge selection, many of which are available for free. However, you cannot read non-Kindle books on the device.
Kindle books can often be heavily reduced, so if you keep an eye on a site like Kind of Book it's possible to get great bargains.
Battery Life
I read for 2-3 or more hours a day, and I doubt that the Paperwhite would stay charged for more than two weeks at that rate. The USB charger is exactly the same as the Kobo charger, which is handy if, like me, you have both.
Wi-Fi
You can sign into Wi-Fi hotspots, pay £60 more for 3G access, or simply edit your library from the desktop application.
Apps
Both the desktop and iOs app work extremely well.
Page Count
The Paperwhite has a time-to-read feature which tells you how long you have left in your current chapter and in the book as a whole based on your reading speed. Some books feature "real page numbers" which tells you which page you'd be on if you were reading a physical copy. All Kindle books use 'locations' which really just annoy me. I really don't find it encouraging to know that I'm looking at location 2247 out of 7768, and nor do I find it helpful when my bookmarks give their location like that.
Text
You can choose from a variety of fonts, font sizes, margins, and justifications. They're illustrated with little pictures, rather than on a sliding scale, so you can see what it'll look like before changing it.
Menu
I hate the Kindle Paperwhite's menu screen.
In cover view, your menu screen will first show you three books in your library - in order of recently read, author, title, or collection - along with a 'we suggest' section at the bottom, showing four books they want you to buy. You can also clearly see the little shopping cart icon, and what bugs me about both of these is the sense of being sold to all the time. Sure, if I go to the amazon website I expect them to try to sell me things. I don't want them to keep nudging at me every time I want to read a book.
In list view, you can, again, see your books in order of recently read, title, author, or collections. Collections are like folders that you can put books into, only books can be in more than one at a time. I currently have Cookbooks, Light Fiction, Dark Fiction, Detective, Non-Fiction, Sci-fi/Fantasy, Short Stories, and Stephen King.
Archiving/Downloading
Like the Kobo you can either view books on your device or all books in your collection. It takes less than a minute to download a book.
Interactivity
I haven't noticed any. Oh, wait, they once did this thing where if you linked your Amazon and Facebook accounts you could win a prize.
Subscriptions
There are a number of subscriptions available for e-ink devices. I haven't currently tested any, but I did just get a free subscription to a magazine, so I'll let you know how it works. There are a few free magazine subscriptions available, but no free newspaper subscriptions so far.
- The Device
- Price
- Selection
- Battery Life
- Wi-fi
- Apps
- Page Count
- Text
- Menu
- Archiving/Downloading
- Interactivity
- Subscriptions
The Device
The Kindle Paperwhite is a device made by Amazon. It has a 6" screen which is good for reading but which is a little hard on my hands; after reading for a few hours last night, I had some tingling and nerve pain from how I'd been holding it.
The screen lights up with varying degrees of brightness which is easy to change. The screen is clearly visible both in darkness and bright sunlight.
The Paperwhite comes in black, and you can buy decals from decal girl or a variety of cases from Amazon to decorate it.
I've just checked, and the device will fit into a jacket pocket. Theoretically, it fit into my jeans pocket too, it just wasn't terribly secure.
The touch screen is very responsive.
Price
The Kindle Paperwhite currently sells at £109. With built-in 3G access it's £169, but I believe you'll have that 3G access for life.
Selection
The Kindle Store has a huge selection, many of which are available for free. However, you cannot read non-Kindle books on the device.
Kindle books can often be heavily reduced, so if you keep an eye on a site like Kind of Book it's possible to get great bargains.
Battery Life
I read for 2-3 or more hours a day, and I doubt that the Paperwhite would stay charged for more than two weeks at that rate. The USB charger is exactly the same as the Kobo charger, which is handy if, like me, you have both.
Wi-Fi
You can sign into Wi-Fi hotspots, pay £60 more for 3G access, or simply edit your library from the desktop application.
Apps
Both the desktop and iOs app work extremely well.
Page Count
The Paperwhite has a time-to-read feature which tells you how long you have left in your current chapter and in the book as a whole based on your reading speed. Some books feature "real page numbers" which tells you which page you'd be on if you were reading a physical copy. All Kindle books use 'locations' which really just annoy me. I really don't find it encouraging to know that I'm looking at location 2247 out of 7768, and nor do I find it helpful when my bookmarks give their location like that.
Text
You can choose from a variety of fonts, font sizes, margins, and justifications. They're illustrated with little pictures, rather than on a sliding scale, so you can see what it'll look like before changing it.
Menu
I hate the Kindle Paperwhite's menu screen.
In cover view, your menu screen will first show you three books in your library - in order of recently read, author, title, or collection - along with a 'we suggest' section at the bottom, showing four books they want you to buy. You can also clearly see the little shopping cart icon, and what bugs me about both of these is the sense of being sold to all the time. Sure, if I go to the amazon website I expect them to try to sell me things. I don't want them to keep nudging at me every time I want to read a book.
In list view, you can, again, see your books in order of recently read, title, author, or collections. Collections are like folders that you can put books into, only books can be in more than one at a time. I currently have Cookbooks, Light Fiction, Dark Fiction, Detective, Non-Fiction, Sci-fi/Fantasy, Short Stories, and Stephen King.
Archiving/Downloading
Like the Kobo you can either view books on your device or all books in your collection. It takes less than a minute to download a book.
Interactivity
I haven't noticed any. Oh, wait, they once did this thing where if you linked your Amazon and Facebook accounts you could win a prize.
Subscriptions
There are a number of subscriptions available for e-ink devices. I haven't currently tested any, but I did just get a free subscription to a magazine, so I'll let you know how it works. There are a few free magazine subscriptions available, but no free newspaper subscriptions so far.
Sunday, 14 July 2013
In Which We Discuss Opal Kobo and Melinda Kindle
...yes, of course I name my electronics, don't you?
I bought my Kobo Mini back in December, just before going away for Christmas. Before buying an eReader, I'd take piles of books away with me, which left barely any room for clothes. Also, they were heavy and hard to carry around. When I saw that Kobo Mini's were reduced to £49.99 I made a split-second decision that I'd rather pay £50 than cart books around with me for a week like I did in 2011. If you were wondering, Opal Kobo is a reference to Opal Koboi, a character in Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl books. I reread them just before Christmas, so they were on my mind.
Melinda Kindle (a Paperwhite) I bought just yesterday. I start work on the 29th (!), and a bit of calculation showed that if I am very careful not to eat too much I can afford to buy her now without being unable to pay my bills. I was going to wait until my birthday, on the 12th of August, but then I remembered that I am a grown up and can give myself presents whenever I like, bank account willing. I wasn't too ingenious with her name, I've just been watching a lot of Charmed lately.
I love my Kobo Mini. It fits right into my pocket, has a touchscreen, and is so much lighter than physical books. It's really convenient for reading on packed buses, and for general carrying about purposes. It was also super cheap, and does this cool thing where it tells me how many pages are left in a chapter.
I wanted a Paperwhite to fill in a few gaps. Although it is often convenient to have an eReader in my pocket, I wanted to have a bigger screen to look at sometimes. I also wanted something that lit up - over Christmas, I stayed in a youth hostel, and it would have been nice to be able to read without a light on. I've felt that urge at night, too. I wanted a Kindle specifically because the chapter page count thing goes weird if you read a Kindle book on the Kobo, and I really liked the idea of the timing thing that it does - it tells you how long it'll take you to finish the current chapter and the entire book, based on your previous reading speed. It needed to be touch screen, which ruled the original Kindle out. That thing doesn't light up anyway. I didn't feel the urge to go up to a Kindle Fire simply because I want just an eReader, not a tablet.
Of course, both Kobo and Kindle have iOS apps, and I have both of them on my phone. I just rarely look at them. I really don't like reading books on my phone. I think it has to do with the size of the screen.
Anyway, my next two posts will describe both devices. I don't want to put them into one post, because then it looks like a comparison, which it isn't. If I thought one device was better than the other, I'd have sold one by now.
I bought my Kobo Mini back in December, just before going away for Christmas. Before buying an eReader, I'd take piles of books away with me, which left barely any room for clothes. Also, they were heavy and hard to carry around. When I saw that Kobo Mini's were reduced to £49.99 I made a split-second decision that I'd rather pay £50 than cart books around with me for a week like I did in 2011. If you were wondering, Opal Kobo is a reference to Opal Koboi, a character in Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl books. I reread them just before Christmas, so they were on my mind.
Melinda Kindle (a Paperwhite) I bought just yesterday. I start work on the 29th (!), and a bit of calculation showed that if I am very careful not to eat too much I can afford to buy her now without being unable to pay my bills. I was going to wait until my birthday, on the 12th of August, but then I remembered that I am a grown up and can give myself presents whenever I like, bank account willing. I wasn't too ingenious with her name, I've just been watching a lot of Charmed lately.
I love my Kobo Mini. It fits right into my pocket, has a touchscreen, and is so much lighter than physical books. It's really convenient for reading on packed buses, and for general carrying about purposes. It was also super cheap, and does this cool thing where it tells me how many pages are left in a chapter.
I wanted a Paperwhite to fill in a few gaps. Although it is often convenient to have an eReader in my pocket, I wanted to have a bigger screen to look at sometimes. I also wanted something that lit up - over Christmas, I stayed in a youth hostel, and it would have been nice to be able to read without a light on. I've felt that urge at night, too. I wanted a Kindle specifically because the chapter page count thing goes weird if you read a Kindle book on the Kobo, and I really liked the idea of the timing thing that it does - it tells you how long it'll take you to finish the current chapter and the entire book, based on your previous reading speed. It needed to be touch screen, which ruled the original Kindle out. That thing doesn't light up anyway. I didn't feel the urge to go up to a Kindle Fire simply because I want just an eReader, not a tablet.
Of course, both Kobo and Kindle have iOS apps, and I have both of them on my phone. I just rarely look at them. I really don't like reading books on my phone. I think it has to do with the size of the screen.
Anyway, my next two posts will describe both devices. I don't want to put them into one post, because then it looks like a comparison, which it isn't. If I thought one device was better than the other, I'd have sold one by now.
In Which We Discuss K. J. Rabane and Sarah Lawson
Gosh, it's been ages since I've written an actual review rather than a discussion piece. Let's see how I do.
As you'll know if you've read the spoiler-free part of my previous post, I picked up K. J. Rabane's Who is Sarah Lawson for 62p from the Kindle store. I found out that it was heavily reduced through Kind of Book, and, seriously, go check them out.
It was the basic premise that drew me in initially. A woman goes home to find a family of complete strangers living in her house, insisting that she has amnesia and that she's a completely different person to who she thinks she is. That's an interesting start, and, as I said in my last post, I'd love to see what someone like Sophie Hannah would do with it.
The book itself is split into three sections, focusing on different times and characters. This means that the readers were made aware of a lot of information that the characters either didn't know or didn't have a particular reason to recall in the 'present' of the story, and a major problem I had with Who is Sarah Lawson was the way in which Rabane completely ignored this. Characters suddenly come to realisations after the audience has read the relevant section, rather than because they've seen or heard something to bring an idea to mind. It's not a bad story, but it's badly told. Things happen because the plot demands them, and, likewise, characters realise or know things because the plot demands them. The plot is the overarching puppet-master, rather than the story or the characters developing naturally and realistically. It simply doesn't hang together.
The timing is also off. For the first third, the plot seemed simple. Then it began to seem equally simple in another direction. The audience weren't held in suspense for more than a few pages at a time, and that's a problem in getting people to carry on reading a psychological thriller. Characters also seemed to ignore obvious ways to destroy the masque for the sake of the plot.
In short, my conclusion is that K. J. Rabane is not a skilled writer. That isn't to say that she isn't talented or promising - just that she was not able to make Who is Sarah Lawson hang together and flow properly, and it reads like the work of a talented amateur. It was worth 62p and the 2-3 hours I spent reading it, but probably not much more than that. That said, I do quite want to read some of her other work, but only if it's cheap. Maybe her short stories.
If you want to read something similar but better try Sophie Hannah, who writes similar impossible-beginnings thrillers, or Sebastien Japrisot's Trap for Cinderella.
As you'll know if you've read the spoiler-free part of my previous post, I picked up K. J. Rabane's Who is Sarah Lawson for 62p from the Kindle store. I found out that it was heavily reduced through Kind of Book, and, seriously, go check them out.
It was the basic premise that drew me in initially. A woman goes home to find a family of complete strangers living in her house, insisting that she has amnesia and that she's a completely different person to who she thinks she is. That's an interesting start, and, as I said in my last post, I'd love to see what someone like Sophie Hannah would do with it.
The timing is also off. For the first third, the plot seemed simple. Then it began to seem equally simple in another direction. The audience weren't held in suspense for more than a few pages at a time, and that's a problem in getting people to carry on reading a psychological thriller. Characters also seemed to ignore obvious ways to destroy the masque for the sake of the plot.
In short, my conclusion is that K. J. Rabane is not a skilled writer. That isn't to say that she isn't talented or promising - just that she was not able to make Who is Sarah Lawson hang together and flow properly, and it reads like the work of a talented amateur. It was worth 62p and the 2-3 hours I spent reading it, but probably not much more than that. That said, I do quite want to read some of her other work, but only if it's cheap. Maybe her short stories.
If you want to read something similar but better try Sophie Hannah, who writes similar impossible-beginnings thrillers, or Sebastien Japrisot's Trap for Cinderella.
Saturday, 4 May 2013
In Which We Discuss eBooks
I've never really understood the romanticism of physical books. I've heard people go on about the pleasure of cracking a spine, or the smell and feel of the pages, and it just doesn't really do anything for me.
I put off getting an ereader because...well, I don't know why. The cost, partly. The fact that I'd have to buy all new books for it, and couldn't just magically import my huge collection (in the thousands). I was a little squicked out by reading that you don't really own ebooks, and they can be edited at the publisher's discretion. I like owning things, and having them in my control. I also like sorting them. I like being able to put an author's books together on a shelf, and to make piles of unread books, and so on.
I bought my Kobo (her name is Opal) last December. I went away for Christmas, to work in a homeless shelter as I do every year. In 2011, I took a bunch of point horrors. I was able to finish one a day (actually, I can easily finish three point horrors in a day, but working in the shelter limited my time) so I had to take a lot. It was a nightmare carrying that giant bag down to London (on a train, obviously, I didn't walk), and I worried about running out of books. I think I also read Lorna Doone on my phone that week, but don't quote me on that.
Anyway, a week or so before I went, I was walking past a WHSmiths and saw that they had a sale on Kobos. I don't think I'd ever heard of a Kobo before, but I went in and played around, and saw that the mini-Kobos were only £50, which was the cheapest price I'd ever seen for an eReader. So I bought one, on a whim.
I love her. I love that she fits in my pocket. I like how she looks and feels. I love the menu screen, which lets me indulge my love of organising things. My brain doesn't work when things aren't organised, and a cluttered or badly designed menu screen would really put me off and ruin my enjoyment. I like the Kobo Awards (post about that coming soon) though it annoys me that they're not as supported as they should be. I like the Kobo website. I absolutely adore the way that I can see exactly how many pages are left in a chapter; it splits books into little popcorn sized pieces, something I do with physical books by working out which percentage I'm at, and how long to the next third/quarter etc. I like that I can put any kind of file on there (though it won't show the page count properly, so I prefer to read Kobo Epubs).
I'm planning to get a Kindle Paperwhite once I start work. On that note, new job are now saying June. This is my life right now.
The appeal of the Kindle Paperwhite is as follows; it has a bigger screen than Opal Kobo, and I think I'll like that, having a tiny eReader for ease of transport, and a bigger one so books seems like they have less pages. It lights up, so I can read in the dark. It works out how long it will take me to finish a chapter, and my brain likes the idea of this new data. It'll show the page numbers in Kindle books properly. And the menu seems less brain-irritating than in the normal Kindle (which I bought and returned; could not get on with that menu screen). At some point I do intend to write a full review of the Kobo, so I might wait till I have both and compare.
This then gave me the incentive to start getting rid of my books. That hurt at first. I used to hoard books. I'd read them once then keep them just in case I ever wanted to read them again. When I moved here, I had something like twenty-five boxes of books. It was a nightmare.
From now on, I only want one bookcase of physical books, and that's mostly books that look pretty as a set, like the sci-fi fantasy masterworks and Series of Unfortunate Events, and books which are simply not available as eBooks.
As I said, decluttering hurt at first, but once I'd got rid of a few, it got easier. I eventually reduced my books by two thirds. Of those I kept, as you saw in a previous post, a good two hundred were unread. I have my one bookcase, and the rest I intend to buy eBook versions of as soon as possible. I don't ever want to have to carry around piles of books again.
I also intend to keep my unread piles more manageable in future. I'm thinking something like only ten to fifteen unread books on any system (not combined, that's crazy talk).
On another note, I'd love to get a copy of Kim Newman's Life's Lottery. It's a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story, essentially, but with a few interesting twists. It's also aimed at adults, as opposed to the actual Choose-Your-Own-Adventure series for children, or the gamebooks, of which I have several (the latter, not the former). I've borrowed it from the library several times. Thinking about that book prompted this post; I was wondering if it would be possible for that sort of book to be on an eReader. It might be, but I think this is one of the few books that I really prefer as a physical object. I have a bad habit of folding pages over and marking choices with pencil just to make sure I don't miss anything.
I put off getting an ereader because...well, I don't know why. The cost, partly. The fact that I'd have to buy all new books for it, and couldn't just magically import my huge collection (in the thousands). I was a little squicked out by reading that you don't really own ebooks, and they can be edited at the publisher's discretion. I like owning things, and having them in my control. I also like sorting them. I like being able to put an author's books together on a shelf, and to make piles of unread books, and so on.
I bought my Kobo (her name is Opal) last December. I went away for Christmas, to work in a homeless shelter as I do every year. In 2011, I took a bunch of point horrors. I was able to finish one a day (actually, I can easily finish three point horrors in a day, but working in the shelter limited my time) so I had to take a lot. It was a nightmare carrying that giant bag down to London (on a train, obviously, I didn't walk), and I worried about running out of books. I think I also read Lorna Doone on my phone that week, but don't quote me on that.
Anyway, a week or so before I went, I was walking past a WHSmiths and saw that they had a sale on Kobos. I don't think I'd ever heard of a Kobo before, but I went in and played around, and saw that the mini-Kobos were only £50, which was the cheapest price I'd ever seen for an eReader. So I bought one, on a whim.
I love her. I love that she fits in my pocket. I like how she looks and feels. I love the menu screen, which lets me indulge my love of organising things. My brain doesn't work when things aren't organised, and a cluttered or badly designed menu screen would really put me off and ruin my enjoyment. I like the Kobo Awards (post about that coming soon) though it annoys me that they're not as supported as they should be. I like the Kobo website. I absolutely adore the way that I can see exactly how many pages are left in a chapter; it splits books into little popcorn sized pieces, something I do with physical books by working out which percentage I'm at, and how long to the next third/quarter etc. I like that I can put any kind of file on there (though it won't show the page count properly, so I prefer to read Kobo Epubs).
I'm planning to get a Kindle Paperwhite once I start work. On that note, new job are now saying June. This is my life right now.
 |
| ...so I'll read a book, or maybe two or three, I'll add a few new paintings to my gallery, I'll play guitar and knit and cook and basically just wonder, when will my life begin? |
The appeal of the Kindle Paperwhite is as follows; it has a bigger screen than Opal Kobo, and I think I'll like that, having a tiny eReader for ease of transport, and a bigger one so books seems like they have less pages. It lights up, so I can read in the dark. It works out how long it will take me to finish a chapter, and my brain likes the idea of this new data. It'll show the page numbers in Kindle books properly. And the menu seems less brain-irritating than in the normal Kindle (which I bought and returned; could not get on with that menu screen). At some point I do intend to write a full review of the Kobo, so I might wait till I have both and compare.
This then gave me the incentive to start getting rid of my books. That hurt at first. I used to hoard books. I'd read them once then keep them just in case I ever wanted to read them again. When I moved here, I had something like twenty-five boxes of books. It was a nightmare.
From now on, I only want one bookcase of physical books, and that's mostly books that look pretty as a set, like the sci-fi fantasy masterworks and Series of Unfortunate Events, and books which are simply not available as eBooks.
As I said, decluttering hurt at first, but once I'd got rid of a few, it got easier. I eventually reduced my books by two thirds. Of those I kept, as you saw in a previous post, a good two hundred were unread. I have my one bookcase, and the rest I intend to buy eBook versions of as soon as possible. I don't ever want to have to carry around piles of books again.
I also intend to keep my unread piles more manageable in future. I'm thinking something like only ten to fifteen unread books on any system (not combined, that's crazy talk).
On another note, I'd love to get a copy of Kim Newman's Life's Lottery. It's a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story, essentially, but with a few interesting twists. It's also aimed at adults, as opposed to the actual Choose-Your-Own-Adventure series for children, or the gamebooks, of which I have several (the latter, not the former). I've borrowed it from the library several times. Thinking about that book prompted this post; I was wondering if it would be possible for that sort of book to be on an eReader. It might be, but I think this is one of the few books that I really prefer as a physical object. I have a bad habit of folding pages over and marking choices with pencil just to make sure I don't miss anything.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)