kdavid Posted January 21, 2010 at 01:11 PM Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 at 01:11 PM I'm in the market for an e-reader. Taobao seems to have two options, the Sony and Amazon products, which seem reasonably priced. I need an e-reader that can support Chinese text, which the Kindle seems to be able to do, or so the photos on the page allude to, and that can support a variety of formats. I'm drawn more to the Kindle as they have tons of classics on sale for .99 cents. Any experience with e-readers and purchasing them in China? Any experience using them with a variety of formats, including PDF? Any experience with a Chinese language e-book store that sells downloadable Chinese language texts/novels as Amazon would? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrix Posted January 21, 2010 at 01:23 PM Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 at 01:23 PM I got my Kindle last year, and it couldn't do any non-Latin script at all. But recently they've had a software upgrade (and they've had some other newer models coming out), maybe it works now? Has someone here gotten their Kindle to display Chinese/Japanese script? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdavid Posted January 21, 2010 at 01:29 PM Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 at 01:29 PM Has someone here gotten their Kindle to display Chinese/Japanese script? The link provided above is for the Kindle 2, which it says also supports PDF, UTF-8, etc. It also supports Chinese characters, which you can see from the photos toward the bottom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted January 21, 2010 at 01:31 PM Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 at 01:31 PM Forgive my ignorance. But why do we need an e-reader? Why don't people read ebooks on their handsets? I read my ebooks (word / pdf ) on my handset (or my PDA before I lost it). On trains I see people read using their iPhones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrix Posted January 21, 2010 at 01:36 PM Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 at 01:36 PM Next time you see someone with a Kindle ask them if you could try it out. That's how I came around. It's really different on the eyes... and also the battery lasts for weeks, which was important for me since I'm often at places with no stable electricity.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdavid Posted January 21, 2010 at 02:09 PM Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 at 02:09 PM After a bit more digging I've found the Chinese equivalent of the Kindle. It's made by 汉王. Here is their taobao store. The Chinese for E-Reader, by the way, is 电子书阅读器. The next question: where to download books? I'm sure it's on the website somewhere and I've just overlooked it.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrix Posted January 21, 2010 at 02:12 PM Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 at 02:12 PM If you find out where to download Chinese ebooks, let me know. I've been looking for websites to no avail (especially interested in Taiwanese books). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdavid Posted January 21, 2010 at 02:20 PM Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 at 02:20 PM If you find out where to download Chinese ebooks, let me know. A standard Baidu search yielded these results. I don't have an E-Reader, nor a lot of faith that some of these websites will download the book and not a virus. However, someone who could run a test run and report back to us on some good sites I'm sure would earn a round of applause. I'm also interested to hear about anyone who has managed to convert Kindle books (.azw) files to other formats viewable by other non-Kindle E-Readers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrix Posted January 21, 2010 at 02:23 PM Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 at 02:23 PM yeah sorry, I should have expressed myself more clearly: I was looking for a website that can be trusted, has a comprehensive range of books and is either free of charge or allows payment from abroad (which then would mean that it REALLY needs to be trustworthy). A tall order, it seems Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted January 21, 2010 at 02:48 PM Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 at 02:48 PM What format? For ePub format books, I posted some links in an earlier thread started natra on eReaders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrix Posted January 21, 2010 at 03:02 PM Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 at 03:02 PM Ideally in TXT or PDF, but I trust I can find some software to display ePub too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerri Posted January 21, 2010 at 03:27 PM Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 at 03:27 PM Same as music, many e-books can be found online... as torrents or otherwise shared. Won't go into detail on that, though. Project Gutenberg has some (~400) Chinese books, partially ("experimentally") in ePub format. I can recommend trying out Calibre for ebook-management and conversion between different formats... I finally found the way to get .lit, .pdf, and others to ePub format, onto an iPod touch (via iPhone Explorer - uses USB), and into Stanza (ebook reader app)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrix Posted January 21, 2010 at 03:30 PM Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 at 03:30 PM yes, I'm aware of that. What I'm looking for is a nice site that has them all in one place, maybe with tags and categories etc, not a bunch of torrents. For Western books, there's a couple of websites, and I haven't found anything equivalent for Chinese and/or Japanese yet... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted January 21, 2010 at 03:43 PM Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 at 03:43 PM Earlier thread I referred to above. http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/23617-getting-an-ereader Getting an eReader Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrix Posted January 21, 2010 at 03:44 PM Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 at 03:44 PM Thanks, I'll try that and if I have any trouble, report back here or on that thread... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prodigal Son Posted January 21, 2010 at 05:23 PM Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 at 05:23 PM Those 汉王 ebook readers seem pretty expensive. I'd be a lot more comfortable with a Kindle that reads PDF's and UTF-8. I think like a lot of people I'm waiting until they drop closer to the $100 range. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outofin Posted January 22, 2010 at 02:06 AM Report Share Posted January 22, 2010 at 02:06 AM I just got my Kindle today. First impression is really good. Reading on it feels very nice. But the screen is a bit small. (There's a larger model available though.) And can't zoom PDF. I don't know why. Zooming is a built-in feature of Adobe Reader. Did Amazon develope their own PDF reader or intentionally turn this feature off? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandeX Posted January 22, 2010 at 09:51 AM Report Share Posted January 22, 2010 at 09:51 AM Presumably, Adobe's pdf software isn't open source. I remember a similar issue wen d/l some pdf reader on my Palm, you had to choose if you were in or out of the US, with the outside-US download link containing the (US copywrighted) superior/quicker pdf decoder code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pancake Posted January 22, 2010 at 04:14 PM Report Share Posted January 22, 2010 at 04:14 PM I would suggest you hold out on your purchase until you see what Apple has in the works. They are unveiling (what is rumoured to be) a tablet-type device on the 27th. Forgive my ignorance. But why do we need an e-reader? Why don't people read ebooks on their handsets? Because the screen is too small? I have an iPhone, and doing any amount of serious reading on it is a PITA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdavid Posted January 23, 2010 at 11:04 AM Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2010 at 11:04 AM A question for those who have a Kindle: When you purchase the kindle books (.azw files), what keeps you from uploading those files online and sharing them? Is there anything that keeps one from creating a huge torrent of Kindle files and sharing them with others? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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