Amazon Kindle
Hey there guys! Firstly, I'm aware that there are already Kindle-related threads on the forum, but I'd like to get the opinion of some English students if at all possible!
So, if you're a second year English Lit. student like me, you'll know how much you've had to spend on books - Norton/Blackwell Anthologies, the classics etc! So my question to you guys is this: Would it be worth investing in an Amazon Kindle? £100 seems like a bargain price considering the majority of books required on my course are pre-1900s and are vastly free throughout the Kindle marketplace. Thoughts?
Cheers,
Eddy
So, if you're a second year English Lit. student like me, you'll know how much you've had to spend on books - Norton/Blackwell Anthologies, the classics etc! So my question to you guys is this: Would it be worth investing in an Amazon Kindle? £100 seems like a bargain price considering the majority of books required on my course are pre-1900s and are vastly free throughout the Kindle marketplace. Thoughts?
Cheers,
Eddy
Scroll to see replies
Electronic books make me sad. 
Hrm, bet you can download most books for free (illegally).
Original post by eddiemate
Hey there guys! Firstly, I'm aware that there are already Kindle-related threads on the forum, but I'd like to get the opinion of some English students if at all possible!
So, if you're a second year English Lit. student like me, you'll know how much you've had to spend on books - Norton/Blackwell Anthologies, the classics etc! So my question to you guys is this: Would it be worth investing in an Amazon Kindle? £100 seems like a bargain price considering the majority of books required on my course are pre-1900s and are vastly free throughout the Kindle marketplace. Thoughts?
Cheers,
Eddy
So, if you're a second year English Lit. student like me, you'll know how much you've had to spend on books - Norton/Blackwell Anthologies, the classics etc! So my question to you guys is this: Would it be worth investing in an Amazon Kindle? £100 seems like a bargain price considering the majority of books required on my course are pre-1900s and are vastly free throughout the Kindle marketplace. Thoughts?
Cheers,
Eddy
But surely the obvious flaw in that logic would be that you'd be able to get most of those pre-1900s texts either as free e-texts (via LION, EEBO or ECCO if your university has subscriptions, or Project Gutenberg if it hasn't) or as cheap paper copies anyway? So why buy an expensive e-book reader if your objective is to save money?
(edited 13 years ago)
Original post by eddiemate
Hey there guys! Firstly, I'm aware that there are already Kindle-related threads on the forum, but I'd like to get the opinion of some English students if at all possible!
So, if you're a second year English Lit. student like me, you'll know how much you've had to spend on books - Norton/Blackwell Anthologies, the classics etc! So my question to you guys is this: Would it be worth investing in an Amazon Kindle? £100 seems like a bargain price considering the majority of books required on my course are pre-1900s and are vastly free throughout the Kindle marketplace. Thoughts?
Cheers,
Eddy
So, if you're a second year English Lit. student like me, you'll know how much you've had to spend on books - Norton/Blackwell Anthologies, the classics etc! So my question to you guys is this: Would it be worth investing in an Amazon Kindle? £100 seems like a bargain price considering the majority of books required on my course are pre-1900s and are vastly free throughout the Kindle marketplace. Thoughts?
Cheers,
Eddy
I've gotten away with spending about £8 on books this term. Just borrow everyhting from the library! Last year I made the big mistake of spending hundreds of pounds on books so am being a lot more proactive Library-wise.
Original post by awe
Christmas is coming. Ask for one from the family? ^^
That's the idea! Mum has asked me if I'd like one for Christmas
Original post by hobnob
But surely the obvious flaw in that logic would be that you'd be able to get most of those pre-1900s texts either as free e-texts (via LION, EEBO or ECCO if your university has subscriptions, or Project Gutenberg if it hasn't) or as cheap paper copies anyway? So why buy an expensive e-book reader if your objective is to save money?
I think it depends on what texts you need. I can see how this might be cheaper if you're going to read a lot of poetry for your course because 9 out of 10 cases you need to take the text with you to lectures/tutorials you can't just read it at home on your computer so you'll have to print out things a lot and that has the potential of being quite expensive. At the same time, especially with poetry the cheapest option is to buy the anthology because buying (and carrying around) 10 different volumes is not feasible.
Original post by andyyy
I think it depends on what texts you need. I can see how this might be cheaper if you're going to read a lot of poetry for your course because 9 out of 10 cases you need to take the text with you to lectures/tutorials you can't just read it at home on your computer so you'll have to print out things a lot and that has the potential of being quite expensive. At the same time, especially with poetry the cheapest option is to buy the anthology because buying (and carrying around) 10 different volumes is not feasible.
Huh? In 9 out of 10 cases taking texts along to tutorials, let alone lectures, is completely pointless because they remain in your bag / in a pile on your desk and you never open them, because there's no need to.
And even if that's what the OP wanted to do, surely there's nothing stopping him from just getting the texts from the library for a day? That would certainly be a better option than lugging an expensive e-book reader everywhere and risking that it gets damaged or stolen...Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against e-book readers in general, and if the OP really wants one, then he should go for it; I'm just not convinced that he'll really be saving money that way.
Have you ever used a Kindle hobnob, they're hardly difficult to lug around. They are awesome little machines, and fantastic for using the internet too (make sure you get the 3G model).
Carrying a Kindle around is going to be far easier than trying to carry any texts. They weight barely anything at all.
Carrying a Kindle around is going to be far easier than trying to carry any texts. They weight barely anything at all.
(edited 13 years ago)
Original post by Ewan
Have you ever used a Kindle hobnob, they're hardly difficult to lug around. They are awesome little machines, and fantastic for using the internet too (make sure you get the 3G model).
Carrying a Kindle around is going to be far easier than trying to carry any texts. They weight barely anything at all.
Carrying a Kindle around is going to be far easier than trying to carry any texts. They weight barely anything at all.
Sorry, maybe 'lug' was the wrong choice of word there. I didn't really mean to imply that it would be heavy to carry around, but again, if you have to carry it around with you everywhere, there's a very real risk of it getting damaged or stolen. If a book gets accidentally knocked off a desk, the worst that can happen is a few mangled pages and a broken spine, whereas if the same happens to your expensive e-book reader, the worst that can happen is that you'll need to get a new one afterwards. And theft isn't really an issue with a text of which nearly everyone will have his own copy anyway, but I'd imagine it is with an expensive portable gadget like that.
Second year English student here.
I don't think a Kindle is a worthwhile investment, not until e-books drastically reduce in price. Whilst there are some e-books for free, it doesn't sufficiently cover the price of books over all. In contrast however, I would recommend just becoming incredibly library-intensive. As iterated above, last year I too made the mistake of simply thinking I ought to buy my way through the reading list. Now, I've only bought three books for the year and am taking the rest out of the library. Granted it's a bit of effort and the library will not always have the book you want available (or at all), it is still better than paying for it, whether it be in electronic form or otherwise.
A kindle is good for heavy readers who travel a lot and have a necessity to read on the go from an extensive archive of different books. Otherwise, as a student, it's good to invest your time in the library.
I don't think a Kindle is a worthwhile investment, not until e-books drastically reduce in price. Whilst there are some e-books for free, it doesn't sufficiently cover the price of books over all. In contrast however, I would recommend just becoming incredibly library-intensive. As iterated above, last year I too made the mistake of simply thinking I ought to buy my way through the reading list. Now, I've only bought three books for the year and am taking the rest out of the library. Granted it's a bit of effort and the library will not always have the book you want available (or at all), it is still better than paying for it, whether it be in electronic form or otherwise.
A kindle is good for heavy readers who travel a lot and have a necessity to read on the go from an extensive archive of different books. Otherwise, as a student, it's good to invest your time in the library.
Library wins, very little cost and less eye strain from a screen.
Win, win.
Win, win.
Original post by I<3LAMP
Library wins, very little cost and less eye strain from a screen.
Win, win.
Win, win.
I<3LAMP too! Let's have sex
Original post by hobnob
Huh? In 9 out of 10 cases taking texts along to tutorials, let alone lectures, is completely pointless because they remain in your bag / in a pile on your desk and you never open them, because there's no need to.
How do you discuss poetry without making references to the text?
And even if that's what the OP wanted to do, surely there's nothing stopping him from just getting the texts from the library for a day? That would certainly be a better option than lugging an expensive e-book reader everywhere and risking that it gets damaged or stolen...
Original post by andyyy
How do you discuss poetry without making references to the text?
By looking up the references beforehand, when you plan your essay. That's how tutorials work, no?
Books that are used as primary texts in courses tend to be in high demand so you might not always be able to get hold of one in the library.
Well, that's why you need to be quick about it. But anyone can manage to get at least some of the primary texts from the university library. Even if you genuinely can't get hold of any of them, it's still possible to get cheap second-hand copies of most primary texts if you're not overly fussy about the state they're in.
I'm sorry, but I simply can't believe that a £100 e-book reader works out cheaper than getting paper copies either through the library or second-hand. Nobody in their right mind spends that much on primary texts.
Plus if a library book gets damaged or stolen there's a good chance you're going to have to pay for it too.
Obviously, but that's hardly the issue here.
Replacing a damaged or stolen Penguin classic will cost you a fiver at most.Again, I can understand why some people like the idea of e-book readers and would like to have one - and evidently that's the OP's real reason for wanting a Kindle, regardless of what he initially said. All I'm saying is that getting one because you think it's going to save you money on primary texts which are no longer copyrighted is a silly idea, because it won't.
If you plan ahead you can save a lot of money by using the university library and, if you are a postgraduate student (for future reference), you can borrow from other universities too. I always tend to use public libraries too. For example, the Bristol city library is fairly good, but there is an entire network of libraries in the south west that I can borrow from as well; if I order online then I get charged 50p to reserve the book, but that is far cheaper than actually buying the book, or using the inter-library loan service at most universities (and much quicker too). This book might come from a huge distance so 50p is nothing really.
Public libraries often have "books they should not have"; you will be surprised just how many academic texts there are in a library's reserve stock etc.. For example, I am borrowing an expensive book on Dostoevsky from a library in Somerset, again, for only 50p. And because it is a public book, and obviously one that someone is unlikely to want, I can renew it continuously until I find time to actually read it. In a lot of universities you cannot do this as you have limited borrowing rights, and your loan length is often cut short by other users wanting to read the same text.
Another issue no one has mentioned is note-taking. If you buy a text then you can make notes in the text. If you borrow a text from a library you can make notes in the text and write them down separately; for instance, you can highlight relevant paragraphs in pencil and have page numbers so if you do decide to write on a particular text you have already done half the work.
The Kindle would be nice for a casual reader but superfluous in most cases for a literature student in my opinion.
Public libraries often have "books they should not have"; you will be surprised just how many academic texts there are in a library's reserve stock etc.. For example, I am borrowing an expensive book on Dostoevsky from a library in Somerset, again, for only 50p. And because it is a public book, and obviously one that someone is unlikely to want, I can renew it continuously until I find time to actually read it. In a lot of universities you cannot do this as you have limited borrowing rights, and your loan length is often cut short by other users wanting to read the same text.
Another issue no one has mentioned is note-taking. If you buy a text then you can make notes in the text. If you borrow a text from a library you can make notes in the text and write them down separately; for instance, you can highlight relevant paragraphs in pencil and have page numbers so if you do decide to write on a particular text you have already done half the work.
The Kindle would be nice for a casual reader but superfluous in most cases for a literature student in my opinion.
Just to add my two pennies worth :I saved up and bought myself a Kindle 2 back when it was still white, and I have to say, I love it. On average, I read about two to six books a week, so in comparison to lugging books from the library or spending all my money at bookstores, it's just so much more convenient. I'm one of those people who loves books, the smell and the solid feel of them in your hands, so I get the whole anti-ebook thing.
The thing is though, somehow, once you've got your protective cover on and you've adjusted your font size and yada yada, it gets to feel like a book really soon. The reading experience is lovely because of the magnetic ink, and I like that I can be reading a 700 page tome without the weight of it making my hands ache after a few hours. Also, you can both highlight and make notes on the text, as well as bookmark pages or search each book for a relevant phrase or quote. It's all very clean and simple.
I got it right before the summer holidays and I needed to get a lot of reading done whilst abroad, so the whole whispernet wireless around the world thing really came in handy. The knowledge that I could have almost any book (it's still growing, there are some terrible omissions) just the whole book on demand thing was brilliant. And internet access (no flash, black and white, basically text-based sites like facebook, hotmail, tsr) anytime anywhere is definitely a win.
That has its cons, obviously, I burnt through most of my money pretty quickly, despite classics being (for the most part) free but well, if I don't get blocked for condoning illegal activity, there are some really great torrents for English Literature students e.g. Collegiate Bookshelf Edition or 1000 books you must read before you die (or something silly to that effect). Even if they're pdf files, it's really easy to convert them to mobi and then transfer by the USB cable to your Kindle. It just means that wherever I am, whatever I need to read, it's on one light, portable device that (the 6" one) isn't ultra flashy either.
Sorry for this very long rhetoric
To put it succinctly, the only thing missing is the smell of new/old book. The way technology's going, I'm sure that's something they'll fix up in a jiffy. The Kindle isn't perfect, but it's rather awesome all the same.
The thing is though, somehow, once you've got your protective cover on and you've adjusted your font size and yada yada, it gets to feel like a book really soon. The reading experience is lovely because of the magnetic ink, and I like that I can be reading a 700 page tome without the weight of it making my hands ache after a few hours. Also, you can both highlight and make notes on the text, as well as bookmark pages or search each book for a relevant phrase or quote. It's all very clean and simple.
I got it right before the summer holidays and I needed to get a lot of reading done whilst abroad, so the whole whispernet wireless around the world thing really came in handy. The knowledge that I could have almost any book (it's still growing, there are some terrible omissions) just the whole book on demand thing was brilliant. And internet access (no flash, black and white, basically text-based sites like facebook, hotmail, tsr) anytime anywhere is definitely a win.
That has its cons, obviously, I burnt through most of my money pretty quickly, despite classics being (for the most part) free but well, if I don't get blocked for condoning illegal activity, there are some really great torrents for English Literature students e.g. Collegiate Bookshelf Edition or 1000 books you must read before you die (or something silly to that effect). Even if they're pdf files, it's really easy to convert them to mobi and then transfer by the USB cable to your Kindle. It just means that wherever I am, whatever I need to read, it's on one light, portable device that (the 6" one) isn't ultra flashy either.
Sorry for this very long rhetoric
To put it succinctly, the only thing missing is the smell of new/old book. The way technology's going, I'm sure that's something they'll fix up in a jiffy. The Kindle isn't perfect, but it's rather awesome all the same. (edited 13 years ago)
Original post by allyelfin
To put it succinctly, the only thing missing is the smell of new/old book.
Well, that and the actual book... I mean, it isn't just the smell, is it?
The fact that books have a particular weight, a particular format and a particular kind of binding is part of what defines them as books, and there's just no way an e-book reader will be able to emulate that for all books. I'll take your word for it that once you've got used to it, it feels like a book, but I can't really see how it could go any further than that in simulating the physical aspect of reading. I mean, an e-book reader can't feel like a B-format paperback with very crisp pages one minute and a battered little leatherbound octavo with pages that feel quite brittle the next. So you do lose something, no?Quick Reply
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