Comments on: E Ink market drying up forever? Hardly, but PVI revenue dropped 30.7 percent in May. Kindle eBay bargains ahead?

By: Bob Gillham

Bob Gillham — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 04:22:45 +0000

Get a Cheap Laptop.With Even Windows 95. Project Gutenberg & Baen & Christian Classics Ethereal Library = enough to read Forever, FREE. Add in a slightly later Windows that’ll suppurt Adobe Acrobat & you’ve enough to read Forever twice over, FREE.

By: Chris Hutcherson

Chris Hutcherson — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:57:57 +0000

households now owe 100% GDP – as much as the entire US economy can produce in a year

By: gnawingonfoot

gnawingonfoot — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:00:56 +0000

A z22! Yay! I read on one of those cheap, tiny little things. The screen could be bigger, and a better battery life wouldn’t hurt, but overally I’m pretty happy with Mobipocket and eReader on there. I have yet to get Plucker working in a satisfactory way.

By: Mike Cane

Mike Cane — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:58:15 +0000

>>>Yes, just as use of public libraries goes up in a recession

– and their budgets also get cut! Bloomberg wants to kill six-day service.

By: Rob Preece

Rob Preece — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:17:23 +0000

I agree it’s worth keeping in mind that PDAs still make pretty good readers. I’ve read a number of novels on my Palm III xi–which is a 1990s technology (gray scale, optional back-lighting, 8 MB of memory). The screen is significantly larger than an ordinary cellphone, making it work for reading. I prefer the even larger screen of the eBookWise (or Kindle or Sony) but even though I read more on my eBookWise since I got it, I still read on the Palm because it’s easy to throw in a pocket and have with me.

I’ll bet that if people are patient, they can get a decent used PDA for significantly less than $75 (or a larger-screen PDA like the NEC Mobilepro for about $75). The NEC, by the way, makes a really excellent reading device.

I agree that the current economic mess is a mixed bag for small publishing and for books in general. With more people being laid off and not having the money to drive around, they’ll have more time to read (and reading remains a very low-cost entertainment). And paper books will continue to rise in price (as will the cost of delivering books or the cost of driving to the bookstore to buy a book). I don’t see the net as being positive for reading overall. Reading is not, in economic terms, an ‘inferior good.’

Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForaBuck.com