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"Amazon’s ebooks can only be read on Kindle devices, lent only once, and only for 14 days (and then only by someone in the Amazon Prime program, which of course

"Amazon’s ebooks can only be read on Kindle devices, lent only once, and only for 14 days (and then only by someone in the Amazon Prime program, which of course costs extra)." That's totally wrong. I'm not a Prime member, and I've lent a book. I also read Kindle books on my iPad using my Kindle app, and you could just as well use the Kindle app on any other Android/iOS/Windows 8 or RT device.

untog 13y ago
I also read Kindle books on my iPad using my Kindle app, and you could just as well use the Kindle app on any other Android/iOS/Windows 8 or RT device True, but that doesn't tackle the issue of price entirely. If we lived in an e-book only world you would have to spend nearly a hundred dollars before you could read a single book. That's not great. If the books were considerably cheaper it might be justifiable, but they aren't.
- aaronem 13y ago
  You can read ebooks on even a quite low-end smartphone; all you really need is a display large enough to present readable text. There are lots of cheap Android phones out there; you can get them subsidized on a cell contract and not pay anything out of pocket, or go prepaid instead and spend around $50 for a device capable of running Kindle for Android. Sure, there's a small initial barrier to entry, in the sense that you have to have some device, where a paperback novel has no such constraint. On the other hand, how many paperbacks does $50 get you these days?
  - untog 13y ago
    how many paperbacks does $50 get you these days? In a used bookshop? At least fifty.
  - aaronem 13y ago
    Excuse my imprecision; I should've said "how many new mass-market paperbacks does $50 get you these days?" Most of what you find in a used book store isn't available in ebook format at any price, at least in my experience of used book stores.
    - untog 13y ago
      Most of what you find in a used book store isn't available in ebook format at any price Which is precisely the problem. eBooks destroy the very valuable (particularly in a societal sense) used books market.
  - minikites 13y ago
    I went to an annual end-of-year book sale where paperbacks are 10 cents, so $50 would get you 500 books. The inability to re-sell ebooks destroys this secondary market.
  - gdilla 13y ago
    You can also read ebooks in a browser, so if you already have a computer, no new hardware.

untog 13y ago

I also read Kindle books on my iPad using my Kindle app, and you could just as well use the Kindle app on any other Android/iOS/Windows 8 or RT device True, but that doesn't tackle the issue of price entirely. If we lived in an e-book only world you would have to spend nearly a hundred dollars before you could read a single book. That's not great. If the books were considerably cheaper it might be justifiable, but they aren't.

aaronem 13y ago
You can read ebooks on even a quite low-end smartphone; all you really need is a display large enough to present readable text. There are lots of cheap Android phones out there; you can get them subsidized on a cell contract and not pay anything out of pocket, or go prepaid instead and spend around $50 for a device capable of running Kindle for Android. Sure, there's a small initial barrier to entry, in the sense that you have to have some device, where a paperback novel has no such constraint. On the other hand, how many paperbacks does $50 get you these days?
- untog 13y ago
  how many paperbacks does $50 get you these days? In a used bookshop? At least fifty.
- aaronem 13y ago
  Excuse my imprecision; I should've said "how many new mass-market paperbacks does $50 get you these days?" Most of what you find in a used book store isn't available in ebook format at any price, at least in my experience of used book stores.
  - untog 13y ago
    Most of what you find in a used book store isn't available in ebook format at any price Which is precisely the problem. eBooks destroy the very valuable (particularly in a societal sense) used books market.
- minikites 13y ago
  I went to an annual end-of-year book sale where paperbacks are 10 cents, so $50 would get you 500 books. The inability to re-sell ebooks destroys this secondary market.
- gdilla 13y ago
  You can also read ebooks in a browser, so if you already have a computer, no new hardware.