Member
Ebooks
I actually prefer an actual book to Ebooks, but keep hearing how expensive books are in NZ. So, I was wondering if there is an Ebook I could buy in the states that would work in NZ.
Does anyone have any idea? This, of course, would include downloading new books.
Senior Member
My wife uses Sony ebook; it will work anywhere as you must first download books to your computer, then transfer to the ebook. Our library in the US "loans" ebooks, so she's able to download them for free. (Pre 1923 books are also free.) Last year when she got it, Kindles would not work internationally, but it appears the current model will. http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireles.../dp/B0015TG12QOriginally Posted by magcats
Administrator
If you don't feel you have to OWN every book you read, it's worth bearing in mind that NZ has a very good free library system.
Senior Member
I would echo that about the excellent library service here in NZ, although you do have pay for certain things (in Wellington, at least). For example new bestseller books are 5 dollars for one week and there is also a charge to reserve books. Joining the library was about the first thing I did.
Senior Member
The library system here rocks (Lower Hutt, in our case). We're up to 900+ loans in 2.5 years, which we couldn't possibly have afforded to buy. What I can't borrow from the library, I borrow from other people. Same goes for CDs and DVDs. Once I'd figured out who in the office had similar tastes in music, a lot of disk swapping ensued!
Senior Member
It should be noted that Whitcoulls have recently released the first NZ ebook reader Kobo eReader.
Ian
Member
I played with one in a Whitcoulls shop the other day, and it was really disappointing. Even when set on the smallest text setting (which isn't that readable) there's not much on each page, so you're turning pages a lot. Unfortunately that involves a delay of about a second, during which the screen momentarily goes black. It was pretty horrible overall.
Senior Member
Most of the Sony ones will read all the popular formats so you can buy the ebooks from pretty much anywhere.
Kindle does not work properly here - there is no wi-fi updating etc. although Vodafone have apparently been in talks. There's always the iPad of course - still not officially available in NZ though and no real word as to whether 3G use of it will be remotely affordable give high mobile data prices here generally.
Member
I always buy books from www.bookdepository.co.uk. The have free worldwide delivery and my orders usually arrive here in less than 4 days... I have no idea how they manage to do that.
If you want an e-book you need to keep in mind that you will only have access to e-books that are available for your region. Most stores, kindle included, will check the billing information provided to validate which titles are available. And sometimes even the prices for the same title will be different.
Member
I really like my iPad which I got for my birthday. I haven't compared it to other readers so i can't say it is better but I like it a lot. For books, the iBooks store has very limited selection of books in Canada but you can put the kobo or kindle reader on the iPad and get any books offered in that format. My only iBooks book for now is Winnie the Poo which looks great. (Apple included it free for that reason).
Posting Permissions
