The eBookwise will work with a Mac. I have one and it works well. The big difference is with a Mac you must use the web based content converter/uploader to convert and upload your free ebooks.

p-Book storage is the biggest reason I started reading ebooks years ago. I much prefer to have my fiction books in ebook format that take up no space.

Into the WABAC Machine, Sherman, where we see Mr & Mrs Carnegie debating the finer points of getting one of those strange gramophones:

He: But look at the cost, dear! Why, that’s the price of ten concerts a year! And we don’t attend ten concerts a year.

She: Think of the convenience. We can have music any time!

He: Then we will have to buy those disks for it too. Think of that expense too. Why, at some point I can forsee the expense being so much that we could have just hired a band! And since we live in several homes during the year, we’ll either have to carry all of that or — buy duplicates!

And so it goes…

People arrive at e-books for their own reasons (originally my reasons were portability and ability to read in the dark), and when they do, they will get the device best fit for their needs irrespective of any arguments like the one above.

Hmmm… can the e-reader you’re considering handle the MobiPocket or Adobe epub/PDF DRMed Overdrive formats from public libraries? (First, does your local library even offer that? Mine does.)

It’s interesting that you bring up the iPod. I’ve never seen, in all my years reading online about MP3 players, anyone go through the cost-justification routine that people seem to do with e-readers. I’ve never seen anyone, for instance, say, “Well, I’ve already paid X for all this music I have on CD. Now what’s the *true* cost of that for the time it will take me to rip it (properly) to MP3 and then add to that the cost of the iPod…?” People just tend to *buy* the things, economics be damned. No one sits down and granularly prices their music cost (which, with music, they could additionally factor in the X of repeated listens to really drive down the price!).

As for the cost of ebooks, I would never get one that is in the $20 range. That type of book, if it’s one I would buy, is probably a cookbook or fitness book and in that case, I would want the p-version. I do not buy fiction or non-fiction at that price, I get it from the library. Fictionwise does have some current paperback bestsellers that have rebates on them wen you buy. If you already have their member discount, and buy when the rebate is fresh, you can get them for about $5 a book. In spite of my anti-DRM inclinations, that is still a decent price when you consider than in e-form, I would keep it and in p-form, I would but for $10 and sell for $4, leaving $6 I spent just for the privilege of reading. I guess that if ereader ever goes the way of the dodo and all these theoretical purchases of mine become unreadable, I would have to chalk it up to ‘rental fees’ or something. I would still rather just rent the book in the first place, either via a well-designed public library interface, or some sort of Netflix for ebooks type of arrangement where you pay, say, $2 a book for any best-seller you want, and it expires after 30 days. As I had said in previous posts, I am fine with DRM-as-rental-model scenarios. I just don’t want DRM on something I pay to ‘own.’

I have sent ebookwise a few questions about working with a Mac. I am waiting for the replies and then I will make a decision about purchasing. I look forward to reading any more comments on this. I am really interested in all the issues this blog covers!

For hardcovers the online print price is again close to the e-book price (17$ against 15$) unless you have the Kindle where the price drops to 10$. But if you read a lot and do not rush to buy something immediate after publication, it’s easy to get hc books at far lower prices including shipping as “used” (though most are new or almost new) not much later, usually before the mmpb release.

The monetary savings are not there the way presented above. Of course if you go to non-commercial books than it’s a different story.

As mentioned in another post, there are many reasons to buy a device to read e-books on (space, convenience, monetary savings if you go the non-commercial route), monetary savings buying commercial e-books is just not there

The same way with an iPod, you do not buy it to save money on music bought at iTunes vs a music store; you buy it for many other reasons first.

Ebk1150 is a nice device, fast, best ergonomics out there, and I’ve enjoyed it the year or so I’ve used it before my 770, but the screen is out-dated, once you see a modern device (lcd like Nokia 700-800, iTouch, UMPC, or eink like Sony, Kindle), you will realize you want something else.

You’ll have to send us the address of the used bookstore where you can get $3-4 for a used paperback. My local used bookstore pays more like 3-4 cents.

I hope, once you buy the eBookWise, you’ll look beyond free and into the low cost books available from Fictionwise/eBookWise.

Good luck.

Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com