I'd buy any of the e-readers the minute they offered a free (or very, very cheap) version of every physical book that I am buying (or have bought recently). For instance, I'd buy a Kindle if I could get to read the 100 or so books I've bought off of Amazon in the last couple of years. It would be AWESOME to be able to read my physical book up to page whatever, but switch to an e-reader for a trip. Or I'd buy the Barnes and Noble e-reader if they gave me credit for the B&N purchases I've made (of physical books).

When buying my Kindle, I underestimated my reluctance to pay $10 for a book that I could buy for much less in softcover and be totally happy with. There is rarely a book that I just can't wait for the softcover.

I still want to see how the DRM settles out.

Zenkitty, have you compared Kindle prices to actual softcover prices at the same time? Generally, when the paperback comes out, the Kindle price drops to a price point lower than the paperback.

I buy very few books at the $9.99 price point. Mostly books that I'm pretty sure will ALWAYS be hard to find cheaper than that (the kind of literary fiction / chick lit that doesn't come out in anything but trade paperback).

javachick, I'm afraid what you want is never going to happen. Amazon/B&N doesn't own the copyright to those books, remember, they just pass licenses along to you. Publishers are not likely to give you an option like that when they might potentially convince you to buy your favorite books a second time (like when I bought Cryptonomicon for the Kindle because I wanted to re-read but couldn't handle the idea of carrying the 8-pound hardcover around for the weeks it would have required. And at the time, it cost me less than $10.)

That said, I've ahemmed a couple of books that I already own (e.g. Harry Potter, when I wanted to re-read the entire series on vacation and didn't have a separate suitcase to pack them in) and converted them for my Kindle with absolutely no guilt and, arguably, no legal culpability. Not necessarily a recommended path, but a possible one.

Huh. I just checked, and I actually discovered that the Kindle edition of Cryptonomicon is now $2 more expensive than the paperback version. Price "set by the publisher". That really pisses me off. Are they TRYING to kill this industry?

Comcast is coming out today to put the Cable Card in my new Tivo Premium. Is there anything specific I should be asking about or making sure gets taken care of? I haven't even taken the new machine out of the box as yet.

You should hook everything up and run Guided Setup on the Tivo before they get there - it will save you at least an hour.

Are they TRYING to kill this industry?

From what I've read? Kinda, yeah.

Gris,

Huh. I just checked, and I actually discovered that the Kindle edition of Cryptonomicon is now $2 more expensive than the paperback version. Price "set by the publisher". That really pisses me off. Are they TRYING to kill this industry?

So, I got a kindle for Christmas and what I typically buy for the kindle are books that are "throwaway" books - books I would buy in an airport bookstore to read and then likely not read again. I'm a voracious pop fiction reader, so the kindle is perfect for me in this respect.

I also agree with you with respect to downloading books I have physically copies of already (I do that). I also bought some barnes & noble ebooks and I found means on the interwebs to remove the DRM and convert them to kindle/stanza format.

You might want to check around Amazon for more of these "publisher set the price" books. The amazon reviews are really throttling the books that the publishers hike the price for. I first noticed it when reading the reviews of Scott Turow's latest book. I was wondering why they came in at 1 star, then I started reading the reviews.

Thanks Jessica - I'm running through all that stuff now and I have over 90 minutes before my appointment window starts. I tried to move the old Tivo to the other room but I can't get it to play nice with the digital converter. Hopefully I can get the guy to fix that too.

I still want to see how the DRM settles out.

Right now I think there are four major DRM schemes.

Amazon's Kindle which works with the Kindle and iPad/Pod/Phone via App, OSX, and Windows.

Apple's iBooks which is ePub with Fairplay(?) DRM which works only with Apple devices.

Barnes and Noble's eBooks which are ePub with some oddball DRM that works only with the Nook (I believe). Supposedly they are working toward changing over to being compatible with Adobe's Digital Editions.

Adobe Digital Editions which is Borders, Kobo, a few other retailers, and I think one of the more common DRMs for libraries. Barnes and Noble and Sony's on-line stores may be moving that direction as well. It'll work on the Kobo Reader, the Nook, Sony Readers, a few lesser know eReaders, iPad/Pod/Phone, OSX, Windows, and some Palm and Blackberry.

There is also Mobi DRM, but I think that's sort of losing momentum. It's another format that shows up in libraries though.

Right now I think Adobe Digital Editions has the edge in openness or at least as much openness as there can be with DRM.

The iPad is probably the safest bet for a reader, there's bound to be an App for whichever format you use. OTOH, dedicated E-readers have certain advantages in weight, battery life, use in full sunlight, and eyestrain for some. It's hard for me to think of a perfect device out there right now.

Any Mobi file can be read on a Kindle with a little bit of work, without even removing the DRM. The fact that Amazon doesn't make that more obvious (especially the library compatibility) is one of my biggest annoyances with their handling of the eBook market.

In completely other news, I just pulled out my old white MacBook, which completely stopped working (after making a bad, scary smoky smell during a Diet Dr. Pepper encounter) about 2 months ago. I tried it several times back then, after leaving plenty of drying-out time, but didn't have much hope.

I pulled it out of its hiding place today to consider sending it along to somebody who likes to play with broken Macbooks (like DCJ, say), but on a whim plugged it in and pushed the power button.

I'm posting from it now. Which is kismet, as my fiancee's computer broke about 3 weeks ago and we haven't replaced it yet. So now we don't have to!

ETA: I just noticed that it's giving me an "X" in the battery window. So I may have a dead battery. Still way better than a completely dead computer.