For the geeks out there … I was playing around on Google and found both a Kindle and Adobe ebook option of the required text for an upcoming class. I don’t have a Kindle, so I downloaded the Adobe edition of the book. No warranties from me on this as it is my first time experimenting with this e-book format, but here is a play by play of my initial experience.
ebook at – http://www.ebooks.com/ebooks/book_display.asp?IID=217436
I paid for the ebook using my credit card, clicked on the provided link to downloaded the proprietary Adobe book reader (NOT the same thing as Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader)to my PC (Macs are supported, too), clicked on a link to downloaded the book, and started to read it on my PC … all in about 3 minutes. I see there is not a standard “highlighter”, but rather a bookmark feature which creates a highlight on the page that allows you to also type comments. A bit more cumbersome as the comment box pops up every time you highlight text, but maybe I will find a workaround. You also have the option to download the ebook to a supported ebook (hand held) reader. If you own a Kindle, my guess is you have to go through Amazon and buy their proprietary format, but I didn’t look into whether the format I bought could be converted to a Kindle viewable format. ebooks.com also has a proprietary online viewer which will allow me to read the ebook when I am hooked into the Internet. It looks kind of slick and includes a standard highlighter which I tried on a few passages.
Overall, a neat experiment, but it is a fairly locked down proprietary experience. Also, they still need to make the user experience better in terms of being able to quickly highlight and mark up the page. It is not like taking a PDF and moving it from computer to computer and mocking it up with Adobe Acrobat with highlights and annotations. However, as a first adventure, so far so good … and it was a bit cheaper than buying a new book with shipping … but still not cheaper than buying a used hard copy book).
(Update: Comic sent to me by my advisor … hee … hee)
