I've been meaning to follow up in this thread with some pics for comparison, but I've been lazy since I got back from my little jaunt out of town. If I can scare up the camera -- it's around here somewheres -- I'll put some up tomorrow, but since the thread is active, I'll post a few quick comments in the meantime.
I did pick up LotR. It's steep at $19 US, but on the other hand this edition seems much improved from the one referred to in some of the older customer reviews, like the one that davem linked. Regretfully I have spotted one typo, an iconic line too:
Quote:
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'I am Uglúk. command.' [sic]
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Overall, though, the e-version seems pretty faithful. I'm in III.4: "Treebeard", so I've been through Elvish passages, verse and song, the inscription on the Ring, the drawing of the West-gate of Moria. Flipping to the indices, everything seems in order. As LadyBrooke has mentioned, there is indeed a map, and even the genealogies are five-by-five, so long as you don't mind squinting a bit at the tiny font. I'll post a more complete evaluation when I've gone all the way through, but so far it seems pretty ship-shape.
I must admit, I'm enjoying this gadget even more than I thought I would. Remember when you got your first mp3 player and realized you could carry around an entire music collection in one little gadget? Like that. The e-ink display is not far off from reading a printed page -- much easier on the eyes and just more book-like than a backlit computer screen. As an inveterate browser, I am loving the ability to hear about an interesting book and then be leafing through the first chapter or two literally within seconds.
The privacy concerns that davem notes seem to be, unfortunately, just a fact of modern life. Cameras peep at us from every corner of our environment, and computers quietly catalog our habits and proclivities and distribute them to the appropriate (or inappropriate, as the case may be) advertising lists. Realistically it doesn't seem likely that Amazon is going to recall my LotR anytime soon. Also realistically, if you are the type of person who is really worried about Amazon having control over what you've bought from them, it's easy enough to figure out how to "jailbreak" your files and make copies. Ahem! -- or so I've heard.
Calibre is a great program for managing your e-library and converting formats around -- even if you don't have an e-reader. I will note, however, that conversions -- especially, in my short experience, from PDF to Kindle-friendly MOBI -- can be clunky.
After researching, I bit the bullet and went with the Amazon cover. Unfortunately the device is not truly mobile unless you have some sort of cover to protect the screen. For me, the Amazon cover is perfect -- clean, simple, light. It holds the Kindle securely, yet it's easy to pop the gadget in or out. I've been using mine daily since Christmas and haven't seen any sign of the problems some people mention about rebooting and whatnot. I didn't go with the one with the built-in light, though. It's just a cover.
On the negative side, there is a temptation towards reading ADD. With all these books at your fingertips, a guy like me can hardly resist taking a sip of Seneca, a little jolt of Shakespeare, etc. I feel a bit like a kid in a candy shop and it's hard to stay focused on one thing.
Also, here's a weird thing, it's kind of odd sometimes that you don't have a sense of how long a book is in this electronic format. Kindle deals in "locations", which could translate to different numbers of "pages" depending on how large or small you set the font. I guess I'll get more of a feel for this over time, but right now it's strange.
War and Peace feels much the same as
Call of the Wild -- you read 'em both one screen of text at a time. It's disorienting not having that heft as part of the sensory experience of reading.
Okay, so that post turned out longer than I thought it would. I'll try to post some pics tomorrow for your edification.