Reviving this thread once more because I started looking into getting a Kindle Oasis. Found out that they currently do not have the models available that I would want. Got out my little Paperwhite (it is recent enough to have a USB-C connector). Compared with using the Kindle app on the iPad, the Kindle Paperwhite is slow and cumbersome. The reviews of the Oasis say it’s much faster, which would be a big plus.

In the meantime, I spent today on the Amazon website, putting my ca. 1000 books into collections so I could find books of common interest together, e.g. Culture war and neo-Marxism is one collection.

Using collections makes it vastly easier to download books and keep track of what books are on the Kindle or app. The books take up very little storage space, compared with, say, audiobooks; so they download very quickly.

Why this sudden interest in Kindle ebooks? Because we’ve found that our collection of old books makes the house smell when it’s been closed up. We took the older books out of the house. I have bought Kindle books to replace some of the old paper books. In cases where a Kindle or other ebook was not available, I am scanning the books into pdf format.

This requires cutting the spines off books for scanning. Although I have a “guillotine” paper cutter from Amazon, it quickly appeared that doing, say, 50 books was going to be a lot of work. So I found a graphics shop that will do the cutting for me for $1.50 a book. Worth it for me.

My ScanSnap i1600 scanner will duplex scan a 250 page book in about 4 minutes. I can run Acrobat simultaneously and it will do OCR for a book that size in about the same time. Amazingly fast, and accurate.

For a book lover, discovering that all your cherished old books stink up your house is a bummer.

The other advantages of having books in electronic form, of course, is portability. A little Kindle can hold several thousand books.

For books that I don’t want Amazon ever to withdraw from their service, I scan them myself into pdf form.

quote:

Originally posted by Bassamatic:

Good thread. I just looked at the Kindle Paperwhite with no ads for $109.

The no-ads version costs a bit more, and in my opinion it's not worth paying it. The ads are not at all obtrusive. They do NOT pop up and interfere with your reading. The only time that you see an ad, is a one-time screen splash each time that you turn the Kindle on. At that point, you have a choice: you can tap, to look at the ad, or you can swipe, whereupon the ad disappears and you're into whatever you're reading. No more ads for the remainder of the current reading session.

The ads are not random crap trying to sell you stuff, almost all of them are ads for books that you can download. If you're subscribing to Kindle Unlimited (which I really do not recommend*), many of the ads are for books that are included with Unlimited, and will not cost you anything additional to download.

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* I used to subscribe to Kindle Unlimited for $9.99 / month, then I discovered that the local County Library has a much better selection of books, and the library is free.

Regarding Kindle Unlimited: you are borrowing the books, not buying them. When you cancel your Kindle Unlimited subscription, you can no longer read the KU books.
Looking through choices now, for example: no Thomas Sowell books are on KU.
I'll do the trial, but doubt will continue.

Thanks for the tip about the county library. Will check that out. Also thanks, V-Tail, for the tip about the ads.

Oh, I checked Amazon again today: the Kindle Oasis 8 GB is available but not the 32 GB. I think I'm going to wait.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:

Looking through choices now, for example: no Thomas Sowell books are on KU.

No Sowell books for Kindle at Seminole County (Florida) Library, either. I wanted to read one of his books, the local branch did not have it in hard copy, but was able to order a transfer from a different branch.

My bitch about this: I have NEVER seen a book with such tiny type. Must be about two or three point type. I gave up.

Agreed with V-Tail, the no ad version isn't worth it. The ads are not intrusive at all.

The best thing I like about the Paper White is how convenient it is. I can store hundreds of books on it. I sure as hell don't want to store and move hundreds of books around. However, I do have certain books I keep due to wanting to look at the pictures (guitar books, certain biographies).