57 replies to this topic

[Orik]

Too big to fail.

[Lippy]

You really don't need to worry about that.

I don't really.  See Orik's comment, above.

[splinky]

Too big to fail.

whenever i see that phrase, i laugh hysterically, then i cry

[cstuart]

I really have to stop responding to what is actually written.

[Wilfrid]

 

I understand that if all Kindle users behaved like me, Amazon would probably have to quadruple the price of the devices.

 

Only if their business plan involved making money. We're not there yet.

 

 

True, that.

[Wilfrid]

I pay for very few books that I load onto my Kindle, because I worry that Amazon will one day go belly up and take my books along with it.

 

There is some unresolved anxiety here relating to cloud platforms in general, and I don't just mean for books.  You buy the book from Amazon, and Amazon keeps it in the Amazon cloud (not iTunes) for you.

 

People do wonder what happens to cloud-stored content if a big cloud vendor goes out of business in a disorganized way (as opposed to just being bought by someone).  We haven't yet found out, and perhaps we never will.

[Wilfrid]

Of course, you might take the view that you're more likely to lose your physical library through fire, flooding, theft, or a plague of locusts, than lose your cloud library through Amazon going out of business.  I don't know how to weigh those risks.

[Sneakeater]

I'm insured against fire, theft, and locusts.

[Wilfrid]

Yeah, right.  When I collect insurance on my destroyed library I can simply go out and buy it again.

[Orik]

I wonder what percentage of nyc real estate is taken up by books, probably even more than CRT TV sets used to sit on. 

[Wilfrid]

I did have a measure in feet of the shelf space needed for my books before ordering the bookcases a few years ago. That could have provided a useful datum if I still had it.

[splinky]

 

But even with page numbers on an e-reader, you still have to go out of your way to look to see how many pages there are. With a paper book, you can't help but know where you are.

 

The progress bar works pretty well for me.

 

 

The e-books I buy directly from Amazon now have actual page numbers*.  If I press the menu button it gives me an actual count instead instead of a % - "Page 372 of 525."  (I've got no idea what "locations" are.)

 

* I suspect this might not have always been the case.  Amazon goes out of it's way on it's newer releases to tout them as "having real page numbers" as if this is a newish thing.

 

today i noticed that the kindle app tells you how many hours and minutes you have left to read. 

[Peter Creasey]

All reports, including mine after some usage, are most favorable for...

 

Kobo Aura One