Can someone in words of one syllable explain Ebooks to me?

**Man of Tanith** · 11-05-2012, 14:05

Am i right in thinking i download them then view them in a pdf style way?
i keep seeing loads of free ones and think oooh that looks good but don't really understand the whole concept
thanks in advance

**swright81076** · 11-05-2012, 14:08

Electronic books. Either PDF or other text format to read on computers, tablets or phones.
I have a kindle, very good if you like to read.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

**sandbender** · 11-05-2012, 14:14

.pdf ebooks are perhaps not the best option as the shape of the page and the layout of the text is fixed. there are other options .epub probably being the most popular. Additionally some ebooks are 'protected' and can only be read on certain devices, or the device they were bought to be read on.

If I'm reading a manual or a book with plenty of imagery I usually save them as .pdf's and sit my laptop on its side, flip the image ninety degrees and flick though the pages with the arrow keys.

If I'm reading something that is mostly text I usually download it in or convert it to .html (a web page) and read it in that format.

If you look here, you will find the 'Project Gutenberg' page for 'Woodcraft and Camping by George Washington Sears', there are several possible download formats, click 'HTML' to read the book in your browser or download the file of your choice.

**ged** · 11-05-2012, 16:29

Computers store information as strings of numbers. Sometimes very, very long strings of numbers.

If you want to store something like a book, you have to decide how to turn the book into a string of numbers. Then you have to write some computer code to do that.

Obviously then you have a string of numbers. If you give that to somebody on its own, just like that, it isn't much use to them. It's just a string of numbers.

So in addition to giving them the string of numbers, you have to tell them how the book was turned into numbers. Agriculturally speaking, I'll call that the 'format'. It also helps a lot if you write some computer code to actually turn the numbers back into the book and display it on a screen so people can see it. Then you can give them the code as well as the numbers. Adobe did something like that, for example, years ago, and the rest is history.

Lots of people have had a go at this, resulting in lots of different ways of turning the book (or whatever) into strings of numbers. Different strings of numbers for the same book. The different systems obviously have different capabilities, advantages and disadvantages etc. That's been mentioned in relation to the .pdf format for example.

So there are lots of different formats, and the code that works with one format generally won't work with a different format. You can get a bit clever with the computer code to try to prevent people making copies of it. They call it 'Digital Rights Management' or DRM. They do the same sort of thing on DVDs. Generally any DRM will eventually be defeated by hackers, and there's been a tendency for sellers to move away from that kind of thing lately.

With all the different companies in the business it's a bit of a nightmare at the moment.

My wife has a Kindle. She loves it, and has, er, literally thousands of free books for it. I can't abide the things, give me a paper copy any day.

**mace242** · 11-05-2012, 16:54

As simple as possible.... Get a Kindle. The price is good. The Kindle store is easy with loads of books both free and otherwise. My better halves elderly mother can use one so anybody can.

**swright81076** · 11-05-2012, 17:00

Other good thing about kindle. You can download books in any format from anywhere, then email it to your kindle email address. It gets converted to epub or whatever kindle uses for free :thumbup:

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**Hammock Hamster** · 11-05-2012, 18:24

Another thumbs up for the kindle. Both myself and swmbo have one and they are pretty easy to use with plenty online step by step guides.

Essentially you can download books from amazons website which you pay for or you can get them from various places for free.
Kindle use a format called mobi and does not support the popular ePub however there is a very useful program that can be downloaded for free called calibre which will convert almost any text files, including PDF, into any other text file.
This may be useful for anyone else here who uses an ereader as I have converted loads of different formats to mobi with it that I couldnt find in mobi or on amazon.

Hamster

**Andy BB** · 11-05-2012, 19:15

I've used my old Palm T3 and later TX models for years to store books on to read when I'm travelling - works brilliantly. If all I was going to do was to use it to read books, I wouldn't have bothered to upgrade, as the Palm works just fine for reading, and slips into a pocket easily when not. And with currently some 140 books on it, I've always got something to read, or re-read. And its a lot lighter - and more permanent - than hard-copy books. Not only do 6 or 7 weigh a ton, but I normally end up leaving most in my hotel room as my suitcase is too full of other junk I've bought!

However, tablets offer so much more. Internet browsing, word processing, videos and games - the list is endless. I looked at Kindle and the Nook, but for multi-use - particularly videos - they are poor. Went instead for a Galaxy tab (refurb and bought in the US off ebay- cost about 120 quid all-in.) If you don't already have an ereader, and don't want some of the other options, then both the Nook and Kindle are well worth a look. I'd recommend getting one with some sort of back-lighting though - not all of them have it.

nb - if you buy books - as I tend to do in eformat - bear in mind that there is a court case pending/going on re price-fixing of retail e-books, and the outcome is probably that the prices - which pretty much equate to a hard-copy version at the moment - will be falling shortly. Lots of free ones that have fallen out of copyright of course, but if you're following a series, you don't want to wait for 25 years!

**Eric_Methven** · 11-05-2012, 22:51

Originally Posted by swright81076

Other good thing about kindle. You can download books in any format from anywhere, then email it to your kindle email address. It gets converted to epub or whatever kindle uses for free :thumbup:

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

You can also download a free Kindle app from Amazon.co.uk, then download loads of free books and read them on your laptop. And when your eyes are drooping, and you switch it off, it goes back to where you left it next time you switch it back on.