Book stores

[VetLegion]

I spend a lot of time commuting, about 1h 30min each day, sometimes more. It would be practical to have something to read.

[Pekka]

How about a book?

[VetLegion]

good idea. But if I had some cool gizmo maybe it would also have WiFi and I could catch unprotected networks from the tram and post on Apolyton during my commute

[Pekka]

True. Why not get some other mobile device to do that though? Depends, I don't know what kind of gizmo the sony thingie is. I mean think about it, if you're reading an e-book and the battery dies, how much does that suck? I mean it's like a book that refuses to be open.

[VetLegion]

Has WiFi, at $700 it is a bit pricey though.

[VetLegion]

Originally posted by Pekka
True. Why not get some other mobile device to do that though? Depends, I don't know what kind of gizmo the sony thingie is. I mean think about it, if you're reading an e-book and the battery dies, how much does that suck? I mean it's like a book that refuses to be open.

This is a relatively new technology called eInk. Basically, the screen is stable even without electricity, you only need power to change the image (flip through pages). It's supposed to be very good, readable in daylight unlike most LCD screens mobile devices use.

[Pekka]

Hmhhh... well, I guess it's just not for me. I like my books. But oh well. But it is kind of pricey like you say. I'm sure the price for those will be quite nice if they ever become popular enough. $700? Doesn't justify web browsing.... you could almost get a nice laptop for that.

I might consider if it was under $200. For now? Too expensive for me.

[Mercator]

At the current dollar rates you might actually be cheaper off buying at amazon.com rather than amazon.co.uk.

And if you're after saving money, you might want to have a look at these:

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/

http://www.alibris.com/

[VetLegion]

Any decent scrollshops in Mongolia?

[snoopy369]

The Sony Reader is not $700 unless you live in some country with low dollar rates. Even compared to USD. It's $300 or so right now.

It's okay, it doesn't zoom in PDFs so you either need them in RTF format or in sony's format. It does play MP3s (but not many on the battery).

[Adrian Hon]

I've got a Sony Reader - picked it up for $100. Reviewed it here: http://mssv.net/2007/08/29/the-sony-...trated-primer/

Obviously the new one is better - mostly it's just a better display

[Mercator]

Originally posted by VetLegion
Any decent scrollshops in Mongolia?

When are you going?

I've only been in bookshops in UB. I can't remember any really exciting ones. There are a few small English-language bookshops across town. Your first stop should probably be the state department store; both the top floor (tourist shop), and, um, one of the other floors, which has a small but decent book section on one side.


Oh, and the central library is fun too. I actually have a member card there. There's practically no-one speaking English, though, so I only barely managed to get around there, partly thanks to a New Zealander I met. You can't just look through the bookshelves. You have to look through the cards, and then fill in some form to actually get the book. They have a reasonable amount of foreign-language books. I saw all sorts of exotic languages, so they might have Croatian books too. Not sure if they have anything you'd actually find interesting, though. I went there to read some books on Chingis Khan.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by VetLegion
I spend a lot of time commuting, about 1h 30min each day, sometimes more. It would be practical to have something to read.

If you're the one driving, you might want to consider keeping your eyes on the road.
Try an audio book instead.

[VetLegion]

They still don't let me drive the tram

Adrian Hon, thanks for the great review!