Can we talk about e-books?

[NaturalMamma]

Free e-books abound, but I always run into the same problem---the darn things are a couple of hundred pages long and it'll run my printer out of ink in no time. (Of course that makes them not free at all since ink cartridges are expensive.) Quite honestly, if they're more than 30 pgs or so, I pass them up--which is a shame b/c sometimes I like the material. I would rather pay a nominal fee than go through the trouble of printing 200 pgs and then have to replace my ink cartridge. I also don't like to "read" from a computer. DD and I like to have printed material so we can cuddle up on the sofa together with book in hand.

What do you do? Do you just "suck it up" and print all those pages? Or do you save the e-book on your 'puter and read alongside w/your DD? Or have you found an economical way to print these things (copy/printer svc?).

Please share.

[Geerbabe]

I don't know anyone that prints them off. I read them on my iPod touch or computer, but I know some people invest in a dedicated eBook reader like this one that provides better clarity, etc.

[*Jessica*]

I have a Sony Reader and love it. It wasn't cheap, but considering the amount of free books I have downloaded it was a great investment.

[sleepypeanutsmom]

I wonder if it would be less expensive to have them printed at Kinko's. If you go to kinkos.com you can upload documents and tell them how you want them printed. I've used this for other things and it is a fabulous service. Once you place your order online and pay for it they give you a call to just go over your order. Then they print it and give you a call when it is ready to be picked up. It is usually done in less than an hour from placing your order. You can choose the store that is closest to you and it is a quick run in to get it.

If you want to price it out you can just upload something and put in what type of paper you want, single or double sided. You don't have to complete the order to see how much it costs. If it is a book you will read over and over you may want to pay a little extra for the coil binding and heavier paper for the cover and back. Or you could just have the holes punched and store it in a 3-ring binder.

If you try this let us know if it works out well $ wise.

[GnomeyNewt]

Originally Posted by *Jessica*

I have a Sony Reader and love it. It wasn't cheap, but considering the amount of free books I have downloaded it was a great investment.

I have been looking into devices like this for awhile -- does it read normal txt or .html pages that were saved aswell? I know that the Amazon kindle is picky so I didn't want that, as I wanted to read all sorts of different document types. Any info would be helpful, and I can see this being a very good long term tool, especially for all the classics and old books available online for free these days.

[*Jessica*]

Originally Posted by GnomeyNewt

I have been looking into devices like this for awhile -- does it read normal txt or .html pages that were saved aswell? I know that the Amazon kindle is picky so I didn't want that, as I wanted to read all sorts of different document types. Any info would be helpful, and I can see this being a very good long term tool, especially for all the classics and old books available online for free these days.

These are the formats it supports:
DRM Text : ePub (Adobe DRM protected), PDF (Adobe DRM protected), BBeB Book (PRS DRM protected)

Image : JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP

Unsecured Audio : Unsecured Audio: MP3 (Non encrypted), AAC (Non encrypted)

Unsecured Text : ePub, BBeB Book, PDF, TXT, RTF, Micrsoft® Word, (Conversion to the Reader requires Word installed on your PC)

Oh, and Google has a thing with Sony, so there are over a million public domain books you can easily download right to the Reader.

[Brisen]

If you happen to have a nintendo DS, you can buy a DSTT card and download software to make it work like an ebook reader. I looked into this briefly when we bought a DS about a year ago; a little big of googling now isn't getting me very far, but in advertisements for DSTT cards, it mentions ebook reader capabilities.

The screen is small and bright enough that I don't know if I would want to read for a long time that way, but I haven't actually tried it myself.

ETA: DS Libris is the programme I was thinking of, it is open source software.

[CariOfOz]

I've dl'd a few ebooks, but so far it's only been things like History Odyssey and Mr. Q's science books etc so I haven't printed any of them out. With the science I print out the worksheets & 'lab' instructions but we read the text on screen. Sort of annoying, but after a few chapters of printing it.. I realized it was going to get VERY pricey!

[briansmama]

We got rid of the inkjet printer and bought a b/w laser printer. Office Depot has deals on them all the time and it was less than $100.

Inkjet printers come so cheap, sometimes even free w/laptops, etc, but they really get you with the cost of ink. You often only get 200 pages from a new ink cartridge, while you can get 2,000-5,000 pgs off a toner cartridge for a laser printer. We've found it a useful investment in our homeschool.

Hope that helps!

[CariOfOz]

Originally Posted by briansmama

We got rid of the inkjet printer and bought a b/w laser printer. Office Depot has deals on them all the time and it was less than $100.

Can't believe I didn't think to suggest that It's SO true... we had an inkject and it literally cost more to replace both cartridges in it than it did to buy a NEW inkject! Crazy making

We bought a colour lazer printer for about 179ish (australian) and that was in Feb.. we still have over 1/3 of the black toner to go, and well over half of the colour. With the old inkjet I'd have replaced at least a couple of ink cartridges in that time What can I say, we like to print! lol

[Mama~Love]

Originally Posted by briansmama

We got rid of the inkjet printer and bought a b/w laser printer. Office Depot has deals on them all the time and it was less than $100.

Inkjet printers come so cheap, sometimes even free w/laptops, etc, but they really get you with the cost of ink. You often only get 200 pages from a new ink cartridge, while you can get 2,000-5,000 pgs off a toner cartridge for a laser printer. We've found it a useful investment in our homeschool.

Hope that helps!

Originally Posted by CariOfOz

Can't believe I didn't think to suggest that It's SO true... we had an inkject and it literally cost more to replace both cartridges in it than it did to buy a NEW inkject! Crazy making

We bought a colour lazer printer for about 179ish (australian) and that was in Feb.. we still have over 1/3 of the black toner to go, and well over half of the colour. With the old inkjet I'd have replaced at least a couple of ink cartridges in that time What can I say, we like to print! lol

Wow, I had no idea that laser printers were so affordable. I might look into one, as we love to print here too.

[Brisen]

I was starting to wonder if I were making a mistake, printing up so much stuff, instead of just buying it... lol. We have a laser printer too, and I often print up free public domain books that I find online (things like books recommended at amblesideonline.org) or books for a reading group I belong to. I know we've gone through more than a few reams of paper since we last changed the cartridge, about two years ago. It needs to be changed now. I know the toner cartridges are still pricey for the laser printers, but they also last a long time.

ETA: Oops, my google fu is weak, I was googling the wrong thing. But it looks like 6 000 page toner cartridges for my printer run in the $30 - $50 range at cheap places.

[CariOfOz]

Originally Posted by Mama~Love

Wow, I had no idea that laser printers were so affordable. I might look into one, as we love to print here too.

Yeah they hid quietly in the background and the price dropped nicely

Originally Posted by Brisen

ETA: Oops, my google fu is weak, I was googling the wrong thing. But it looks like 6 000 page toner cartridges for my printer run in the $30 - $50 range at cheap places.

Jealous.. I think the black toner is 79bucks for mine *sigh* but still, it'll last me a year and we print copiously hehehe

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by sleepypeanutsmom

I wonder if it would be less expensive to have them printed at Kinko's. If you go to kinkos.com you can upload documents and tell them how you want them printed. I've used this for other things and it is a fabulous service. Once you place your order online and pay for it they give you a call to just go over your order. Then they print it and give you a call when it is ready to be picked up. It is usually done in less than an hour from placing your order. You can choose the store that is closest to you and it is a quick run in to get it.

If you want to price it out you can just upload something and put in what type of paper you want, single or double sided. You don't have to complete the order to see how much it costs. If it is a book you will read over and over you may want to pay a little extra for the coil binding and heavier paper for the cover and back. Or you could just have the holes punched and store it in a 3-ring binder.

If you try this let us know if it works out well $ wise.

if anyone does this plase post.

I like real paper pages --

keeping in mind a lazer printer next time too

[ocelotmom]

Originally Posted by NaturalMamma

What do you do? Do you just "suck it up" and print all those pages? Or do you save the e-book on your 'puter and read alongside w/your DD? Or have you found an economical way to print these things (copy/printer svc?).

I read them on my cell phone.

If cost is an issue, even the oldest Palm Pilots that turn up on freecycle or really cheap on craigslist or at garage sales can serve as ebook readers. A somewhat newer one (a few years old) is likely to have better readability, battery life, storage space, and so on. This is probably what we'll do for DS when he's reading well enough for project gutenberg - something new enough to be useable, but old enough that loss or breakage won't be the end of the world. (Actually, I believe we have at least one old one sitting around in a drawer that would be usable)

We use Progressive Phonics, and just print those books, regardless of cost, because in that case it's worth it to us. I would like a more economical printer, though!

[tankgirl73]

HEADSLAP!

I never thought of using an old Palm Pilot... of course!

I had an old portable PC thing, I forget why I stopped using it, I think it was malfunctioning... I wasn't too attached to it because it was a free gift (not in the sense of 'here's something special I got for you' but in the sense of 'hey, I was given this at a seminar or something, I don't need it, you want it?') but I did like it and used it a lot.

That would be a great alternative to a kindle or other e-reader. Depending on exactly what you're using it for, of course, but for just basic portability, great idea.

[skueppers]

Originally Posted by tankgirl73

I never thought of using an old Palm Pilot... of course!

I read eBooks on Palm devices for years, and now use an iPod Touch.

I'd probably use the iPod Touch for the kids too, since they're already used to using it for other stuff. But since they're not old enough to be reading much, it's not something we've tried.

[elizawill]

we have a laser printer, but the ink replacement is insane in cost. for those of you with laser printers, what is the cost of ink for you? i have a dell 3010cn and the ink is very high in price. i'd love to compare what others spend.

[tankgirl73]

Yay! I'm so thankful for this thread!

I got thinking last night about PDA's and e-readers as an option instead of printing stuff out. I use a LOT of e-books for curriculum and generally only print out what I need. It can be a bit annoying when I'm up with DS in his room, and we realize we need an instruction page for the lapbook or I need the next page of his spelling book, and I have to run downstairs to the PC, open the file, print out that one page, back upstairs, by which point he's distracted himself with something else.

These aren't pages where we need to cut or write or draw, I just need to look at it for reference. If I had it in some kind of portable PDA, then I could carry the file around without needing to print it out.

Then I got thinking about DS's Intellego unit study, which has clickable links to videos and websites where most of the 'lesson' actually is. So it would also be great to have a PDA -- rather than just a basic e-reader -- with an internet browser and WiFi. We do have WiFi in our house now (we set it up for the Wii), so that's an option. Then he could even do his Intellego work upstairs in his room, or in the kitchen, or whatever, and the PC would be available for other people.

And then, hey, a portable PC or PDA with WiFi could also be used to check e-mail. And browse forums. Which is at least half of my computer usage. That would mean I could still browse and surf when someone else is using my PC for games, or for watching TV (we don't have cable, just watch online programs).

I talked about all this with DH last night. And we're not really overflowing with spare cash right now, but we often upgrade our PC with the Christmas sales and pass the old parts down the line (he's a techie geek and a tinkerer, so he's got himself a frankenputer linux box). He liked all the ideas, so we're thinking of looking at small laptop this year... it doesn't have to be fancy, or fast, we don't need it for games or graphics. Just pdf files, email, and basic browsing. We're also watching kijiji for used ones.

So for me this turned into much more than just being about printing e-books, but this could be SO much easier for much of my organization and scheduling (oh hey, I could check things off at homeschoolschedtrack as we do them, rather than waiting until the end of the day at my PC!) -- and it call comes from the initial thinking about e-books! :yay:

[Brisen]

We replaced our laser printer recently, and it reminded me of this thread. For any Canadians looking for a laser printer, we bought ours at the government surplus website -- https://www.gcsurplus.ca//mn-eng.cfm?snc=hm#topOfCADC They have a lot of neat stuff there, actually. We have also purchased a desk and some bookcases.

Just make sure you check the location on any items -- it is pick-up only and they have several different locations. The items are auctioned.