Want to buy books (Kindle or Paper format) ?

PlaYITsmooTH wrote:

I am not sure which ones to buy but before that I am confused whether I should subscribe to ebooks service like Kindle or should I buy books in the paper format?

Both (formats) have their own charm.

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Having used/ tried audio books on 📼audio cassettes📼 as far back as 2005-06, I can say that (depending on the narrator, language) I loved even those.

It used to be very tough to get more than a handful of titles, in India. Even in metros it was not easy.

‎ Similarly, the choice or compulsion between physical books viz-à-viz digital content… that is a ‘journey’ @PlaYITsmooTH should choose for yourselves.

‎ The magic of ‘feeling’ the book, smell of the freshly printed, unopened book.

The sensation of dozing off with the book on your chest.

‎ While with a decentcollection of ebooks packed on any of one’s devices, one is good to go🙂 .. even on a long distance flight or a road trip.

‎ Personally, if not for eyesight issues, the feeling of just flipping through pages📚 is something I’d go for.

Have even made some interesting 👩🏻acquaintances👩🏻 too, when the 👩🏻co- passenger👩🏻 next to me decided to initiate a conversation by talking on the book/ subject.

Only LCC flew that sector, and I distinctly recollect the steward just serving me a coffee☕ .. with a friendly: “hope you would relish the coffee to go with ____” (book’s title).

And as I hadn’t ordered it, I started to shuffle to get my wallet.

He noticed and simply said “____ sir, compliments of ✈”.

I wasn’t too fond of the airline, but that chap noticing me reading that title and deciding to offer me (on the house) coffee.. has been a memory.

It may not have happened if that were an e-book or audio book.

(Both things, the young lady striking up a conversation with me and cabin crew noticing, deciding to offer me complimentary tidbits, happened on the same flight).

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For economy and convenience, go for Kindle. For collection & Pride of ownership, go for physical books. Also all your ebook collection & your bookmarks, highlights, notes are synchronised across your devices if you use Kindle, that’s very good feature I enjoyed. Also ebooks are cheaper than physical books

Start with “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus”. In fiction, read all Dan Brown books. Start with Deception Point, Digital Fortress etc. If you get hooked on, they’re “unputdownable”.

Depends on your eyes, many people feel their eyes strained after keep looking at a screen for reading purpose even if no such issue while watching videos. Try reading a long pdf on laptop screen at mid to low brightness for an hour or so to see if the same happens to you.

Visit a local retailer like Croma and personally test the kindle devices (Basic/Paperwhite). The E-ink displays on kindle hardware are much better compared to IPS or even amoled displays (w.r.t Eye-strain) on mobiles/laptops. Another advantage with E-ink readers is the battery life, it is way too long (lasts weeks with one charge)

That being said, the paperback reading experience is unique (Some even love the smell of these books – Old/New). If you got good storage options & got time to maintain them + budget, then opting for physical books is not a bad choice (You do get a lot of useful useful digital features though with kindle devices)

And.. regarding subscriptions, if you’re a prime subscriber then there’s a free service called “Prime Reading”. There are lots of books here and you can give this a try before opting for paid subscriptions like “Kindle Unlimited”

getready wrote:

The E-ink displays on kindle hardware are much better compared to IPS or even amoled displays (w.r.t Eye-strain) on mobiles/laptops. 𝑨𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒅𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑬-𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆, 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒐𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 (𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒆)

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Theoretically, (in the monochrome ones) since there is sort of a physical toggle (change of state, position), the text/imagery on the display ought to be maintained 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴.. even years after power is turned off to those toggle element/ cells.

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The innovations, technologies to add (even limited) colour capabilities with true e-ink nature and making it mainstream might still be a long way, i feel.

I would recommend two psychology related old books – Psycho Cybernetics & 48 Laws of Power. 

bairagiatma wrote:

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Theoretically, (in the monochrome ones) since there is sort of a physical toggle (change of state, position), the text/imagery on the display ought to be maintained 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴.. even years after power is turned off to those toggle element/ cells.

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The innovations, technologies to add (even limited) colour capabilities with true e-ink nature and making it mainstream might still be a long way, i feel.

It’s possible to completely shutdown jailbroken Kindles. In that case the Welcome screen stays on forever. 

LIMBO wrote:

It’s possible to completely shutdown jailbroken Kindles. In that case the Welcome screen stays on forever. 

Is it possible to buy Kobo / Onyx / Pocket Books e-reader online in India? If yes, how? @LIMBO @timtimtara001300 @guest_999

Juniper wrote:

Is it possible to buy Kobo / Onyx / Pocket Books e-reader online in India? If yes, how? @LIMBO @timtimtara001300 @guest_999

Not to my knowledge. Its not viable to directly purchase them due to the very high custom duties. E-ink readers were supposed to be taxed at a lower rate (20% vs 40% for standard Android and iOS tabs) but the Android based ones in particular were charged at the higher rate. Parcel forwarders make it more expensive. This info is over 2 years ago. I haven’t kept track ever since. 

If you have someone coming from the US then it’s doable.

P.S. I had the opportunity to buy a Kobo HD? years ago when Croma was getting rid of their inventory for a mere Rs 2k but I didn’t for some reason or the other. Had to wait a few more years before getting a KPW3. 

Android based e-readers suffer from much higher power usage compared to Kindles and even Kobos. Plus only a few apps handle the e-ink screen properly w.r.t. it’s B/W nature and screen refresh. 

Juniper wrote:

Is it possible to buy Kobo / Onyx / Pocket Books e-reader online in India? If yes, how? @LIMBO @timtimtara001300 @guest_999

As mentioned already, best way to get these devices is via someone returning from abroad.

The main advantage of a kindle is space. You can have 100s of books in kindle format. Storing them physically in your home is difficult, particularly if you are staying in a city with 2/3BHK flats. You can purchase directly from Kindle store or opt for Kindle unlimited and “borrow” books like in a library. Then there is also the option to sideload books. There are many books available in epub format that you can convert and sideload.
Unless you are thinking of reading comics or graphics based ebooks, the normal Kindle with backlight is good enough. Paperwhite would be overkill. 

PS -Based on last 6 yrs experience, with a newer Kindle and an older Paperwhite at home, used by me and my daughter. 

panchabhut wrote:

The main advantage of a kindle is space. You can have 100s of books in kindle format. Storing them physically in your home is difficult, particularly if you are staying in a city with 2/3BHK flats. You can purchase directly from Kindle store or opt for Kindle unlimited and “borrow” books like in a library. Then there is also the option to sideload books. There are many books available in epub format that you can convert and sideload.
Unless you are thinking of reading comics or graphics based ebooks, the normal Kindle with backlight is good enough. Paperwhite would be overkill. 

PS -Based on last 6 yrs experience, with a newer Kindle and an older Paperwhite at home, used by me and my daughter. 

Even the newer Paperwhite is too small and still too slow despite the CPU upgrade to comfortably handle fixed-layout docs like PDFs, comics etc. The very limited software doesn’t help. Still better than Kobo which doesn’t mean much. The entry-level iPad is by far the best in this regard as the larger Android based e-readers are pretty expensive nevermind the potential issues with claiming warranty if required etc. 

LIMBO wrote:

Even the newer Paperwhite is too small and still too slow despite the CPU upgrade to comfortably handle fixed-layout docs like PDFs, comics etc. The very limited software doesn’t help. Still better than Kobo which doesn’t mean much. The entry-level iPad is by far the best in this regard as the larger Android based e-readers are pretty expensive nevermind the potential issues with claiming warranty if required etc. 

The main advantage of e-reader is the comfort level to the eyes and the light weight one handed handling. iPad and Android tablets fail in both.
Kindle is not suited for PDF/Graphical rendering type as the font size and layout of those are not flexible.