Chitika

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

iBooks

Hello again. After a day of hard core snow shoveling (I really should have posted earlier, but I didn't, so deal with it) I deliver to you a sort of app review. iBooks is relatively old news, but only recently did I realize how cool it really is. After more than two years of reading nothing more than I had to for school, I decided to start pursuing some quality literature of my own choice, so I downloaded a library of almost 1000 books. Since they were in hte .mobi format, which iBooks dislikes, I used Calibre, an eBook management and conversion program, to transmute them into .ePub. Then it's as simple as draging the ePub files into iTunes. Now, as many people as there are who despise iTunes, I really have no problem; since you already have your music, videos, and soul syncing through iTunes, might as well micromanage the books. Reading is pretty nice: you have 2 different font sizes, landscape/portrait reading (of which I prefer the former), black on white/black on sepia (sadly no white on black for night reading),a robust chapter and bookmark navigation system, and extremely realistic page turning effects. My favorite feature, though, is the built in dictionary. If you come across a word you don't know, simply highlight it and click dictionary in the menu. Much better than actually getting up and walking 5 steps to get a physical one. My only gripes are the lack of automatic arrangement of your "Bookshelf" and the fact that it only accepts ePub. Other than that, I much prefer it over the Kindle app, Stanza, or anything else I've used. So start reading and lets make Europe think we not really that dumb!

17 comments:

  1. Nobody in Europe thinks that you're dumb. there's dumb everywhere. I'm a big ebooks reader myself. nothing will replace the real book, but ebooks are still awesome.

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  2. sounds like a cool app

    your friend,
    ectomorphmuscle.blogspot.com

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  3. this whole ebook thing is so unactractive to me.
    I cant undestand the hype tbh

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  4. Oh trust me, I'm not trying to follow any sort of hype. The thing is, the libraries around me are all poorly stocked, making it hard to find what you want, even if its the second or third book in one series. Plus, it's hard to carry around a large book when I can just throw one onto the mp3 player I already carry around. And about the Europe thing, I was just poking fun at how the rest of the world must see us, being the fattest nation in the world while spending trillions on a war on the other side of the world. Thanks for the feedback!

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  5. I prefer irl books.
    But no, nobody thinks you're dumb. :)

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  6. /followed and supported.

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  7. Interesting!

    followed

    blundersfrom6foot2.blogspot.com

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  8. i prefer irl books too, i find it hard to read on lcd monitors, maybe this opinion will change, i don't know

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  9. I dont like ebooks and ibooks to be honest. Im getting tired after some pages. But its amazing if you can carry some knowledge with you ;)

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  10. I don't read many books so this really isn't relevant to my interests BUT supporting :)

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  11. I can never seem to concentrate on eBooks, whenever I'm ready a proper book I've got no problem.

    I just don't know what it is? o_O

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  12. Good write-up, I didn't know about this app.

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  13. I think i would really like I books if i read more...

    following and supporting
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    http://ducks2nucks.blogspot.com/
    http://evanztories.blogspot.com/

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  14. never gonna be an apple fan but I do own an iphone, so thanks for your previous blog

    following

    http://toksplay.blogspot.com

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Chitika