[ale] eBook readers for PDF reference material

[Michael B. Trausch]

On Fri, 2010-08-20 at 15:00 -0400, James Sumners wrote:
> (That was meant to be funny.)

Ahh, k.

> As I mentioned in the other thread, my only experience with the
> traditional eBook readers are the Sony ones on display at Best Buy. I
> found the page turning to be way too slow for regular reading. When
> I'm reading a book, I want to turn the page quickly enough that my
> reading is not interrupted. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad on a reference
> manual, but I doubt it.

The thing that I imagine to be the most used feature for me would be
jumping to exact pages.  I don't know, though; I tend to seek a lot
though, in reference material.  I have three books currently on my desk:
the PostgreSQL SQL Reference, the GNU GRUB manual, and a JavaScript cook
book.  And I'd love for them to be off my desk.  :-)

> So my recommendation is really the same as in that other thread:
> actually try out the device yourself before buying it. I believe Best
> Buy now has Kindles on display, too. And I bet Barnes & Noble has
> their Nook device on display in their stores.

Ah, I did not know that there were Kindles up for display anywhere.
I'll have to look into it.  I hate to make my first purchase of a new
type of thing without getting my hands on it.  I couldn't do that with
my phone (HTC Dream), either; I had to borrow one from someone for a few
weeks to truly decide if I wanted to spend that much money on one.
(Turns out, I really did want to spend that much money on it, and it's
still useful today, if a bit resource limited for current Android
releases...)  I don't think I know anyone that would let me borrow their
eBook reader for a few weeks, though, to try out.

> Finally, it sounds like Google might be launching a tablet in a couple
> months[1]. 

Nifty.  I can see buying a tablet in the far-distant future.  I don't
know that I would want/need a tablet for anything at this point, though.
I am trying to find ways to get _away_ from a full software environment,
away from my computer, whatever.

	--- Mike