Author Topic: e-readers (Read 2942 times)

insidebaseball · « **on:** December 01, 2012, 01:20:25 PM »

If I purchase an ereader like a kindle, are there alot of good catholic books available for download? Do you think this is a good gift idea for a teenager?

PerEvangelicaDicta · « **Reply #1 on:** December 01, 2012, 01:33:56 PM »

Quote from: insidebaseball

If I purchase an ereader like a kindle, are there alot of good catholic books available for download?

Apparently so, my friend, although I do not own one.
One of our parish <SSPX> priests, who is dispatched to various missions in S. America, owns a base version of the kindle-style e-reader available in Canada (I forget the name). He is very pleased that it is a good source for Catholic material, as well as the Office, etc. He says it has assisted him greatly.
I think if you go to the website of the particular e-reader you are interested in, you are able to explore what materials are available?

Of course, the danger for your child is that he will also be able to access the very un-Catholic.

Elizabeth · « **Reply #2 on:** December 01, 2012, 03:20:40 PM »

Hey I was wondering the same thing!

I am assuming we can have a techie at the store make it safe?
:geezer: These new fangled gadgets.

ServusSpiritusSancti · « **Reply #3 on:** December 01, 2012, 04:01:54 PM »

Yes, there are numerous Catholic books available for download. The only real risk is, as PerEvangelicaDicta said, your child will have access to un-Catholic books as well.

Marlelar · « **Reply #4 on:** December 01, 2012, 10:10:55 PM »

Quote from: Elizabeth

Hey I was wondering the same thing!

I am assuming we can have a techie at the store make it safe?
:geezer: These new fangled gadgets.

What do you mean "make it safe"?

One thing to find out is if, when you download PDFs from free sites like the Internet Archive, your ereader will allow you to bookmark where you left off in a book. I bought a Kobo a few years ago intending to use it to store a "library" of Catholic reference books (like the Summa) in PDF format only to find out that it would not let me bookmark my PDFs.

Needless to say I gave up on that plan as scrolling up to page 724...725... 1,327,456 every time I wanted to read was not something I had the patience to do :faint:

Marsha

Elizabeth · « **Reply #5 on:** December 01, 2012, 10:57:43 PM »

Quote from: Marlelar

Quote from: Elizabeth
Hey I was wondering the same thing!

I am assuming we can have a techie at the store make it safe?
:geezer: These new fangled gadgets.

What do you mean "make it safe"?

Marsha

Hi Marsha,

The grandparents are getting the kids Kindles for Christmas, and I don't know what they are or if they come ready-made with bad material, or if they need something like SafeEyes installed. I'll google it :idea:

I know about the free sites and tediously scrolling on and on. I plowed through Anna-Maria Taigi and a couple of others --it was a labor of love!

Tiffany · « **Reply #6 on:** December 02, 2012, 03:13:57 AM »

The wifi can be turned on and off but I've never used one and don't know if it can be pw protected.

Marlelar · « **Reply #7 on:** December 02, 2012, 09:07:46 AM »

Quote

Hi Marsha,

The grandparents are getting the kids Kindles for Christmas, and I don't know what they are or if they come ready-made with bad material, or if they need something like SafeEyes installed

Got me there, I don't know if they can have "programs" installed on them. My Kobo had free classic books pre-installed but I don't think the Kindle does.

I'll bet there is a yahoo group for Kindle though, you could ask there.

Marsha

Alex117 · « **Reply #8 on:** December 02, 2012, 02:30:12 PM »

I have a Kindle Fire, and I think it's wonderful. All books written before the 1920s are free, so my Kindle is loaded with Catholic books, like The Introduction to the Devout Life, The Imitation of Christ, and even the entire Douay-Rheims Bible. In fact, I'm currently writing this post from my Kindle right now, and I was just reading The Holy Rule of St. Benedict.

The Kindle also has a bunch of nifty features, like being able to highlight passages for future study, placing bookmarks, and pressing on a word to see its dictionary definition. Before I got my Kindle, I used to be one of those "E-readers are dumb, I like holding paper books in my hands" kind of person, but now I much prefer E-readers and I don't buy paper books any more, unless I really like the book or if its unavailable otherwise.

If you're getting your children Kindles, I do have to mention that the Kindle Fire has easy access to both games and the Internet. I have to fight off the temptation to download and play me some Angry Birds daily. I would recommend getting them a Kindle with no connection to the Internet and have it be simply a book reader. That way, you wouldn't have to worry about them reading any books that you don't give them, or be worried about what they might be seeing on the Internet.

Tiffany · « **Reply #9 on:** December 02, 2012, 02:42:53 PM »

Alex when you have time can you let us know which one has no internet connection? Thank you for your insight! We appreciate it!

Alex117 · « **Reply #10 on:** December 02, 2012, 04:06:20 PM »

It appears I was mistaken - Amazon doesn't currently sell a Kindle with no wifi capabilities. However, after some quick research, I found out that my Kindle (and the ones currently being sold) have built-in parental controls. You can disable the Internet completely from there. I'm thinking about making a really long password and disabling it for myself!

The cheapest Kindle that Amazon sells costs $69, and it comes with all of the features that I described in my last post. However, it also comes with "special offers", meaning that the children would first have to see an advertisement before being able to start the Kindle proper. This wouldn't be such a bad thing for an adult with fortitude, but those advertisements could be of anything (like Lady Gaga or Katy Perry), and would be pretty bad for children. The second cheapest Kindle (without "special offers") retails at $89.

If there's anything else I can help you with, let me know!

Marlelar · « **Reply #11 on:** December 06, 2012, 08:03:54 PM »

Quote from: Alex117

I have a Kindle Fire, and I think it's wonderful. All books written before the 1920s are free, so my Kindle is loaded with Catholic books, like The Introduction to the Devout Life, The Imitation of Christ, and even the entire Douay-Rheims Bible. In fact, I'm currently writing this post from my Kindle right now, and I was just reading The Holy Rule of St. Benedict.

The Kindle also has a bunch of nifty features, like being able to highlight passages for future study, placing bookmarks, and pressing on a word to see its dictionary definition. Before I got my Kindle, I used to be one of those "E-readers are dumb, I like holding paper books in my hands" kind of person, but now I much prefer E-readers and I don't buy paper books any more, unless I really like the book or if its unavailable otherwise.

If you're getting your children Kindles, I do have to mention that the Kindle Fire has easy access to both games and the Internet. I have to fight off the temptation to download and play me some Angry Birds daily. I would recommend getting them a Kindle with no connection to the Internet and have it be simply a book reader. That way, you wouldn't have to worry about them reading any books that you don't give them, or be worried about what they might be seeing on the Internet.

Are your Catholic books downloaded from the freebies that Amazon offers or are they pdfs? If pdfs can you still use the bookmarking and highlighting functions?

Marsha

MiserereMeiDeus · « **Reply #12 on:** December 07, 2012, 04:36:44 PM »

I've been thinking about getting an e-reader for myself, and have been doing some research.

I've learned that there are two major formats, Kindle and epub. Kindle format is proprietary and belongs to Amazon.com. You can only read Kindle format on a Kindle reader. epub is a general domain-type format that anyone can use, or publish in, and there appear to be more free classics and old books, including Catholic ones, available in epub than in Kindle, although there are a good number available in Kindle format. Nook is a popular ePub reader, but there are various others. Kindle readers can't read ePub books, and vice-versa. epub readers seem to cost slightly less than Kindles, but it depends on where you find them and if they're on sale, etc. The price difference usually isn't very significant, from what I've seen.

The more expensive e-readers such as the Kindle Fire are more like tablets, and let you download and watch movies in addition to books. They also usually have a simple browser. A lot of them have 4G now, which means you can access the internet pretty much anywhere, and not just in a Wi-Fi hot spot. Also, the color ones are harder on the eyes than the black and white ones, which use "e-ink" and replicate the experience of reading on paper more closely than the color e-readers do. Nook offers a black and white epub e-reader with a backlit screen you can turn on for reading in bed in the dark without waking up your spouse. It's about $100, and is the one I'm thinking of getting. It doesn't make you watch ads, and won't let you watch movies or browse the internet.

Matthew · « **Reply #13 on:** December 07, 2012, 04:58:32 PM »

Quote from: Alex117

It appears I was mistaken - Amazon doesn't currently sell a Kindle with no wifi capabilities. However, after some quick research, I found out that my Kindle (and the ones currently being sold) have built-in parental controls. You can disable the Internet completely from there. I'm thinking about making a really long password and disabling it for myself!

The cheapest Kindle that Amazon sells costs $69, and it comes with all of the features that I described in my last post. However, it also comes with "special offers", meaning that the children would first have to see an advertisement before being able to start the Kindle proper. This wouldn't be such a bad thing for an adult with fortitude, but those advertisements could be of anything (like Lady Gaga or Katy Perry), and would be pretty bad for children. The second cheapest Kindle (without "special offers") retails at $89.

If there's anything else I can help you with, let me know!

You don't need to get a Kindle without Wifi -- just don't have Wifi on at your house! Or if you MUST have Wifi in your house, have it require a password, and don't enter in the password on your Kindles. Easy!

Alex117 · « **Reply #14 on:** December 07, 2012, 05:50:59 PM »

Quote from: Marlelar

Are your Catholic books downloaded from the freebies that Amazon offers or are they pdfs? If pdfs can you still use the bookmarking and highlighting functions?

Marsha

Some of my books are PDFs, while others are in EPub format, I think. I haven't downloaded any books from Amazon yet - I've only downloaded books from other sources, like Project Gutenberg.

You can still highlight passages and search up words with PDF files, but PDF files have a hard time formatting themselves to e-readers and might look a little wonky. The files are still readable, but they aren't as organized as what you'd see on a computer screen. Here's a picture I took with my phone as an example of what I'm talking about:

As you can see, things are a little messed up. After each chapter, it says: "Rule of Saint Benedict, Saint Benedict, Abbot of Monte Cassino". I don't know what that 10 is doing there. Additionally, some passages (usually Bible citations, but sometimes random sentences) are highlighted in blue, and whenever I click on them, it leads to a Calvinist website with Bible passages and commentary. I don't understand why the Kindle does any of these things to the book file. For comparison's sake, here is what the page looks like on my computer:

See the difference?

I've read that this isn't a problem with the Kindle alone. PDF files were just not made for e-readers. While they're still readable, it certainly isn't as good looking as it is on a computer. However, the question is: would you rather sit at your computer and read a book with superior formatting, or would you rather lie in your bed, sit on your favorite chair, or go outside, to read a book with strange formatting? I would go with the latter, personally.