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Ayn Rand on Kindle!

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RationalBiker

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I'm ecstatic to report that it appears most (if not all) of Rand's non-fiction work has been legitimately released for the Kindle!

Amazon's going to love me tonight.

Still can't wait to see AS and other fiction works though.

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I'm ecstatic to report that it appears most (if not all) of Rand's non-fiction work has been legitimately released for the Kindle!

Amazon's going to love me tonight.

Still can't wait to see AS and other fiction works though.

Thanks for letting me know! I don't have a Kindle -- speaking as a computer science student, dedicated eReaders are probably just a passing tech fad -- but I do have an iPhone with a Kindle app. Its small, bright screen is not very good for sustained reading, but perhaps I'll purchase some of her non-fiction for quick referencing.

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As near as I can tell the main attractions to the kindle are its thinness, relatively uncomplicated interface and the display, readable in bright sunlight and not consuming any power unless it changes. The first two could be incorporated into a large touchpad (like the tablet PC was meant to be)... the other will take some time to make it onto a "mainstream" laptop or tablet computer because it's slow to update. Once it does, Kindles will be superfluous, at least in their present form. But this will be years away.

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As near as I can tell the main attractions to the kindle are its thinness, relatively uncomplicated interface and the display, readable in bright sunlight and not consuming any power unless it changes. The first two could be incorporated into a large touchpad (like the tablet PC was meant to be)... the other will take some time to make it onto a "mainstream" laptop or tablet computer because it's slow to update. Once it does, Kindles will be superfluous, at least in their present form. But this will be years away.

The fact that it is light weight means you can read it like a book. The other thing that is attractive about it is that you can carry around a massive library of books in device that weights about as much as a paper back. My tech books are stacked on rows of books shelves, this is a very attractive alternative. I don't think Kindle has a color interface yet, but if it ever gets one, that will make it all the better for colored illustrations.

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Once it does, Kindles will be superfluous, at least in their present form.

I think one of the features you may not be considering is the e-paper display. The Kindle display (although requiring an external light source like a paper book) is very easy on the eyes when reading a long time. I'm not sure we will see a tablet with e-paper. Admittedly, if the functionality of a tablet were combined with all of the other portability advantages of a Kindle, folks may overlook the loss of e-paper.

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Um.... I *was* considering the e-paper display. (And saying that once such displays show up on regular computers, there is no advantage to having a kindle any more.) The e-paper is the one positive advantage the kindle has over a tablet today.

You're right, my apologies.

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I'm ecstatic to report that it appears most (if not all) of Rand's non-fiction work has been legitimately released for the Kindle!

Amazon's going to love me tonight.

They're going to love me too, when I buy The Early Ayn Rand for my K2! I've read it before i think twice, but I never owned a copy, but I will soon! It's going to have to wait in line though I have all of Ted Hughes poetry to read, two biographies on Virginia Woolf, and one on Anne Sextan, and the short fiction of Sylvia Plath's to go through first! Also The Objective Standard is available at the Kindle Store, you probably already know, but just putting it out there to others. I love my K2 still! Not everything I want is on it, but it was absolutely worth every cent I spent on this one, and the one I sat on :). I wonder if they have a place to repair them yet? I know they didn't before but that was many months ago... Anyways, thanks for posting this, RB!

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Sorry if this should be a new thread, I wasn't sure..

but can someone explain to me the facsination with kindle?

Maybe I'm an old relic, but I really, really like books.

Not to mention I found that case of Amazon hacking into people's computers and removing materials pretty creepy.

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Sorry if this should be a new thread, I wasn't sure..

but can someone explain to me the facsination with kindle? Maybe I'm an old relic, but I really, really like books.

This has been the case even in the Kindle forum on Amazon's site. Some people prefer holding paper in their hands. People who like the Kindle understand that not everyone likes or finds the Kindle useful. It's not for everyone.

Other people prefer holding their entire library in their hands and being able to take it wherever they go. They like being able to add to their library if they're on the bus on the way to work. They like not having to move boxes and boxes of heavy books when they move. To many of them, the medium of information is not as important as the convenient access to that information.

What distinguished the Kindle initially from other e-books was e-book store access pretty much anywhere. That and the fact that Amazon's selection of e-books was much larger (and continues to be so far). Amazon as a brand name did not hurt the product either.

Not to mention I found that case of Amazon hacking into people's computers and removing materials pretty creepy.

Amazon did not "hack" into their Kindles. Amazon removed access to books that violated copyright from their servers and when people turned on their Kindles and synced with those servers, their access to the book was removed. Those customers were then refunded the full price they paid for the book they should not have been able to purchase.

Amazon's ability and claim of right to do this was stated (at least indirectly) in their User Agreement for the device, UA's being something that people seem to regularly ignore.

There was a lot of discussion and outcry about this, Amazon changed it's policy and the affected users were also given an addtional $30 worth of store credit, a free legal copy of the book they "lost", and restored clipnotes and highlights they had made about the material.

The two main books that had been illegally self-published on Amazon's site were 1984 by George Orwell and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I think Amazon is looking at their digital publishing platform to try to address the self-publishing of copyrighted works.

Edited by RationalBiker
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So... what happens if, as electronics tend to do, the handheld breaks?

Do you back it up on CD or what?

I'm feeling very unsavvy here, sorry.

You can download any of your book purchases to your computer. Also, Amazon keeps all of your purchases in a "digital locker" so that you can retrieve them again and again. The books are licensed for up to 5 simultaneous devices in the event you, a wife and other family members all had Kindles on the same account. In my case, I can keep a copy on my Kindle and on my iPhone.

Edited by RationalBiker
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