LibraryThing is a social catalog for your book library. It is more oriented towards paper books and I wish it had more ebook specific support and it would be great if it would search Fictionwise. However, you can manually add books and tag them (like Delicious) as "ebooks" so it will work. Let's face it in books sharing the title is more important than the format. Still adding Fictionwise support would help add all those multi-format ebooks by smaller publishers.

I was all set to buy in November...

When it was first talked about pre-release the Nokia 770 sounded like the perfect ebook reader for me: something that would let me connect to the internet and check news and email, on wi-fi when I took quick breaks while reading.

But after the Nokia 770 got released it got some mixed reviews: some people loved it and others found it had bugs, trouble connecting to the wireless internet access point, not enough memory and some other annoyances. Furthermore, at that time the one ebook reader software for that platform was not yet released. And some say you need sharp eyesight to read with it and, alas, my eyes are not as sharp as they once were.

For me, at the price of the 770, I want it to just work. No excuses. I have already been down the sorta-works-but-its-buggy with my Palm T5 and I'm not going there again for that kind of price.

I might consider it once they work the bugs out, and a OS upgrade is due out in 2006, but for now I think I will wait and see what the new eInk devices that are in the development pipeline, by other companies, look like and also see what eBookwise/Fictionwise comes up with for an improved reader.

Thanks to Teleread for the reminder.

Have questions about ebook reading devices? Ask them here.

I noticed Fictionwise is now selling comics ebooks. Here is an example The Second Eye by Piero Tonin. Given the small screen of most PDA's I would think a single panel comic would lend itself the best. Anyway that is a good idea, I could see myself buying comics in ebook form and even reading them on a PDA.

I notice that they are only available in secure Mobipocket format. Hopefully Mobipocket will add a reader for Mac, because their reader and my Palm PDA are not cooperating for some reason.


Have a question about ebook formats post it to the Q&A board.

I am closing down ePublishing Blog and moving all ebook and digital related posting here. This will be sort of a catch-all place for my thoughts about ebook devices and software. I'm going to worry less about the DIY e-publishing angle and write more about devices and ebooks from a readers perspective, although I probably won't stay limited to that because my mind wanders. Heh, heh.

The big thing is that there is so much more here:

1. A book Directory, where people can find self-published ebooks and POD books. (And where authors can list them.)
2. A Blog with subject categories
3. Room to expand and add features, such as guides and articles, as needed.

What, No Comments?

I have not activated comments on this blog. I may activate them in the future if it seems like there is demand. Comments can be hard to administer and keep track of new posts so I thought I would consolidate them into one Q & A Board and play it by ear. Feel free to leave comments there.

Update:

Comments Activated. I take back what I said above. I forgot that it is the conversation that matters and it is what a community is all about - so I activated them for comments specific to a post. I'd still prefer the Q&A board for general questions.

You can see some of the results of my rebuilding the site. Mostly it is going to be about the same features: a directory for authors to list their ebooks and POD books in and a blog for discussing ebooks and digital publishing.

Questions or Comments? Post here.