E-Book Readers

Has anybody bought a decent e-book reader that will display *ahem* not entirely legal e-books?

I'm not sure about getting a Kindle as I heard you absolutely have to buy everything for it. And the price is high too.

I was looking at this one on TaoBao: http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=10223245219&prt=1330002313031&prc=1

Any opinions from anyone who knows what they are talking about on this subject? (I sure as hell don't) 

I have a Kindle and I love it.

I get all of my ebooks for it from a Taobao seller that does them for 8RMB apiece. Haven't had ANY trouble with it yet. I choose the books, they do the dirty work. There's a thread about this in the library I believe.

I avoided the kindle for the reasons you mentioned in the OP, because I was not sure of the answers then. I picked up an aluratek one when I was back in Canada last summer and think it was one of the best things I did. I just downloaded through torrents about 80,000 books. I think i will be reading for a long time. While some of the downloaded books do not display as well as a purchased one the majority do and they read many different formats. I really enjoy it - especially when travelling.

I too have a kindle bought on taobao and it can with some dvds with thousands of books. I also dl some via bit-torrent and have not bought a book at all. No problems with it at all but I have not activated via Amazon website which I guess may be the cause of some problems.
BTW the kindle seems very sensitive to cold. I am in Harbin and when it exposed to the cold it does need to be reset.

I have activated mine with Amazon and no problems either.

I have several...err...less than legal books on my kindle and they read just as well as the legal ones.

I have several...err...less than legal books on my kindle and they read just as well as the legal ones.

Interesting. I had the impression that they come locked or something like that, so you can't put your own files on them.

How do you actually put the files on? Some kind of data cable?

Which model do you have?

I have the normal one, the one that came before the new, smaller one. It is easy to get books on it. You can download huge compilations of Kindle books on most torrent sites, you can download books in non-MOBI format and format them using a program called Calibre and you can, without breaking any laws, download books from Project Gutenberg and loads of free books from Amazon.

Generally the same cable to charge the unit is used to transfer data from your computer to The e-reader. Every tablet I've seen does this. Kindle and iPad included.

I have a kindle- just drag and drop pretty much anything with the right format, including less-legal ones..

Yeah, I have a kindle with thousands of "totally legit books" on it. Not a single problem getting them on or off.

If u use Calibre, which is a Free e-library type program, then any format works no problem. (It auto converts it when you add it to the kindle.)

I don't have an E-Book Reader of any sort, but I thought I'd mention that calibre works well on regular computers, too. I have it on my Macbook and iMac. As a reader for a computer, it's OK. Larger script and various tools for annotating, printing, etc. Also, the converter ability goes without saying, it's calibre's prime feature. Too, interestingly enough, books from Apple's iTunes Bookstore can be downloaded to my Mac, but can only be read on an iPad, iPhone or iPod. They cannot be read on a Mac or Macbook. (I guess Apple wants you to get an iPad/iPhone/iPod. But with calibre, I can read them on my 2 'puters.

Since y'all were talking about calibre I just thought I'd mention it for the benefit of non-E-Reader readers like me.

P.S. It's available in Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux formats here:

http://calibre-ebook.com/download

A while back people here were all talking up e-books and I was curious to see what it was all about but couldn't see myself buying a reader. Then one day it occurred to me I could try it out on my phone (smartphone, runs Android, has 3.7" screen, 480 x 800 pixels). Originally I just wanted to see if it would work, and wasn't expecting much because of the not-book-sized screen. But it turned out really well and I read with it every day now. No issues with eye strain or page size. (Moon+ Reader Pro, 18pt serif font, 5-8 words a line, 17 lines a "page", a yellowish wallpaper that looks like a paperback page... the books themselves are mobi-to-epub conversions produced by Calibre, the original mobis coming from torrent libraries.)

Using the phone is a tad awkward sometimes if I can't rest it on my knee, but otherwise I have no problems (except when people call...).

I take it Kindles are more like paperback size and reproduce the appearance of a "book" page more?

I take it Kindles are more like paperback size and reproduce the appearance of a "book" page more?

Yeah, but the biggest benefit is the "e-ink." It isn't backlit like a computer or phone so there is no eye strain no matter how long you read it (I do tend to get eye strain on a computer after awhile. I have a crap phone so I have never tried that.)

What Borkya said...I find reading on a Kindle is the same as reading a normal book...I tried reading on an iPad once and found it made my eyes hurt after a while, which never happens with a Kindle. I have tried reading on several back-lit e-readers and must admit that they all fall short of being as nice to read on as the Kindle.