Tolkien on the Kindle

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Mister Underhill

Battery-wise, I've been fooling with this thing since Christmas morning, including lots of wi-fi, which I think is where you can really burn up the batteries, and I'm still at over 50%. Supposedly you can get 10 or 15 days moderate use out of this thing before having to recharge, so it's not too bad.

How can they do that on an e-reader (which means hours of use and a big lighted screen) but not on a ten (or five, anyway) times smaller 3G-phone?

I smell a conspiracy-theory here...

[Mister Underhill]

Actually the e-ink display is not like the screen on a regular smart-phone or an iPad or what have you. In fact you need to have some light on the screen to read it, just like a paper page. Just from a pure gadget perspective it's a fascinating device. However it works, it obviously uses less battery power.

Galadriel55, I prefer a physical book too, especially when it comes to Tolkien. But I have to say this thing is making me a believer. It's a great mobile alternative to lugging heavy books around when you're out of the house.

[Bêthberry]

Esty and I were discussing the pros and cons of kindles last fall. We wondered how large the screen is--it would seem to involve a fair bit of constant scrolling for those who read a page quickly. Does it?

[Mister Underhill]

Well there's two different versions. I got the smaller one, with a 6" diagonal screen. They also have a 9.7" screen, though of course it costs more and you start to lose some of the convenience of small size. Just holding it side-by-side with a typical paperback, I'd guess the 6" screen is roughly three-quarters the length of the paperback and about the same width.

For reading books, the screen size isn't a big issue, actually, since you don't scroll -- you press a button to "turn the page". There's a font button you can press to adjust the size that you're comfortable with reading, and then the text just reflows to fill the screen, so you can strike a balance between readability and however many times per minute you're flipping the page. I imagine this thing would be a big plus for those with fading eyesight who could use a larger font. The font size I find most comfortable has, I would guess, around 120 words on a page. Turning the page is very natural, just a button-click with your thumb, and doesn't feel like scrolling at all.

You can also read PDFs, but it's not quite as friendly. I have some screenplays on PDF, for instance, and the bigger screen would be nice. I either have to deal with a font-size that's maybe a step or two smaller than would really be preferable, or turn the display to landscape for a comfortable font size, in which case there is some scrolling involved.

You can do other stuff like blog reading and very basic web-browsing, but really it's a dedicated reading device and should be thought of as such.

Here are a few of the pluses so far:

• Library in your Kindle. There's sooo much public domain stuff around that you could read for years and never spend a dime. Twain, Shakespeare, Kipling, Dickens, Austen, Sherlock Holmes, etc have already found their way into my device.
• Searchable text!
• Instantly sample prospective reads. This is especially good this time of year when everyone's putting out their top-ten lists.
• On board dictionary. Put the cursor on a word and get a definition.

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

I use an iPad rather than a Kindle, but I have all four available Tolkien books on it. At home, I will certainly sit down with the physical books, but when we were in Florida for most of October, I was glad I could have all the books with me, and more, without needing to haul them in my luggage. The iPad will draw more power than devices like the Kindle because of the different display type (which can be read in the dark), but unless I have the contrast cranked up to the brightest it gets (which isn't necessary), I can go a solid ten hours or more of constant use before I need to recharge. It would go longer if I turned off a number of wifi features. Not as good as the e-paper low power draw, but not bad for something that can do nigh onto everything my laptop does.

I think that while I still enjoy the tactile experience of a physical book, I also enjoy some of the conveniences of an ebook. The ability to adjust the font size and contrast is a big benefit to someone as nearsighted as I am. And not needing a reading lamp is a plus for me. But everyone will gravitate to what they enjoy most, of course.

[Inziladun]

You can always look to me for Luddite tendencies, but I don't think I'll be getting an Kindle, or any sort of e-reader.
For one thing, I don't travel much, and when I do, it's only for a few days at most. It isn't difficult to stick my "destructible" Tolkien paperbacks in my luggage, and they don't take up much room. The expensive hardbacks stay on the bookshelf nearly all the time.
It looks to me as if the e-reader thing is the wave of the future, however. I've successfully resisted Facebook, Twitter, ipads, and smartphones, though, so I'm confident I'll withstand this also.

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

Kindles, as a whole seem to be wondrous devices, and I think that I would take great use out of one. Personally, I do love my books. And if a few trees die for my reading pleasure, too bad, they will plant more. Don't take me wrong, I love trees, but books are an important cornerstone to society. Physical books require trees to die. . . . Anyway, back to my point, I think that a Kindle would be very handy for travel. I can take as many as ten books on a trip. In fact, when Lauri and I went to Britain this spring I packed probably seven books (and lugged them on and off trains and walked through cities with them). Though this may have built my arm strength, I hardly think it was good for my back. If I had a Kindle I would have a lot less luggage when I travel and I would be able to take so many more books with me. When I was travelling in October the man sitting next to me on one of my flights showed me his Kindle and he had so many books on it. It was fascinating.

I think that Kindles and other e-books are a great idea, and though I do not believe that physical books should be replaced by digital copies, I do think that digital libraries are both practical and useful for frequent travellers.

[Mister Underhill]

Ah, Ibrin, now we're getting somewhere! How about the actual quality of the e-editions? I've seen some pretty sloppy conversions of just regular books, like someone ran it through an automated program and human eyes never bothered to take a look at what was spat out.

My concern is that Tolkien, with all the diacriticals, maps, runes, drawings, and unusual formatting for poetry, tales of years, genealogies, and so forth could be a big fat mess unless HarperCollins put some effort into the conversion.

Inzila, I don't consider myself a Luddite, though I'm definitely a technological late-adopter and even then I will only get a gadget if I think I really need it. I can't justify a smart-phone, for instance, even though I want one. I probably wouldn't have even splurged on a Kindle myself, but I'll take one as a gift.

TGEW, I'm like you -- I seem to always pack a small library for trips. This will be a very cool alternative to that. Plus I'm the type who can find a few minutes to spend reading just about anywhere -- reception areas, check-out lines, whatever.

I agree about physical books. A Kindle can't really furnish a room, and it will be a sad day if, as some predict, brick-and-mortar bookstores go the way of, well, music stores.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

I don't (yet) have an electronic reading device, but I think the aspect that would most appeal to me for research would be the possibility of searching for specific words. That would have made my work on the Middle-earth music book much easier!