E-book readers and research

[hip2btriangle]

Hey all! I had kind of an odd question I've been thinking about for a while and haven't made much progress with it, so I thought I'd ask here:

As a gift to myself for getting into a PhD program with a great funding package, I want to buy an e-book reader (Kindle, Nook, Tablet, whatever) to help with research. Mostly this will be for reading PDFs and on occasion some books.

The reason I want an e-book reader is because when I start grad school I also want to start keeping a digital record of things I have read and also the notes that I take while reading. For example, how cool would it be to read a PDF or book on an e-reader and tag sections of the articles with a couple words so that in a couple years when I start writing a dissertation I can search by multiple tags to generate a reading list. Does this make sense? I've somehow convinced myself that this would be a wicked asset for a grad student and that the technology exists to do so.

Does anyone know if any of the e-book readers on the market can do this? And if so, which would be the best? I admit I'm partial to the idea of the tablet because I'm an Applemonger, but I really just want whatever would be best to read books and PDFs (PDFs are very important) and tag while reading for later research.

Edited March 8, 2010 by hip2btriangle

[Sarah S.]

If you go for the Kindle, go for the DX. That sounds best suited to your needs. I'm partial to the kindle personally but E-book readers do have their benefits!

My biggest problem is that you can't look at two books you have on there simultaneously, which is something I do with my actual books pretty often.

[Postbib Yeshuist]

Kindle seems to have the largest offering of "academic" books (at least in religion), so that's something to think about. The fact that they have software readers for most platforms is an added bonus.

On a practical note, I would strongly advise waiting to purchase until the iPad has been out for a few weeks/months. There have been numerous articles about the pressure the iPad will place on dedicated ebook readers, especially the Kindle. Personally, I am waiting on a $150 Kindle 2 refurb and am betting the retail for a new one will be $199 by May.

Edited March 9, 2010 by Postbib Yeshuist

[bluellie]

Due to how it handles PDFs and other documents, I've been eying this one: http://www.que.com/ It seems like you can annotate virtually anything.

The price--at $600+--makes it a bit prohibitive, and Amazon's current selection of e-books trumps Barnes & Noble's. Perhaps with time, though, both of these will change.

I've been unsatisfied with how other e-book readers (Kindle, Sony, etc.) seem to handle PDFs and the Que seems to be the only one that deals with them in a satisfactory manner. As a caveat, though, I have not been able to play with any e-reader myself.

Congratulations on your funding. Let us know what you decide on and how it works out.

Edited March 9, 2010 by bluellie

[Genomic Repairman]

Why buy that thing when you can just use Endnote to keep a digital copy of papers, your synpopsis, and EndNote is vital to maintain sanity and citations when writing. Or if you don't want to spend that much, check out Papers if you are a Mac user. I use both applications because I can pull up a paper quickly on my iTouch when I'm not near my laptop. Endnote is definitely the way to go and you should get a student discount on it from the grad school.

[hip2btriangle]

Why buy that thing when you can just use Endnote to keep a digital copy of papers, your synpopsis, and EndNote is vital to maintain sanity and citations when writing. Or if you don't want to spend that much, check out Papers if you are a Mac user. I use both applications because I can pull up a paper quickly on my iTouch when I'm not near my laptop. Endnote is definitely the way to go and you should get a student discount on it from the grad school.

Ooh, my school offers a download of it for free! Thanks. Does this allow me to read PDFs and take notes while I'm reading out there in the world, though? I guess I'd still have to take notes and on paper and transfer them when I get home.

[Genomic Repairman]

Both allow you to take notes. I mainly use papers for notes and just endnote for citations but you can do it all in endnote.

[mudlark]

I came *this close* to buying an ebook reader this winter, and decided to wait for the next generation of technology instead. I think in the next few years, price will go down and usability will go up.

However, when I was thinking about getting one, I decided on the Sony reader for a few reasons. Kindle is brand new to Canada, and has all sorts of bullshit extra download charges and unavailable features up here so far. In addition, Kindle books HAVE NO PAGE NUMBERS. Not so bad for reading for fun, but a nightmare for citations. There's probably a way to cite it as an electronic resource, but I feel like that would look unprofessional somehow, KWIM? And I'd feel bad about sending someone to a passage in Bleak House or some other monster novel without a page number from an easily available edition. Sony has page numbers, and built-in PDF support, which you only get with the more expensive version of Kindle. No wireless downloading on the Sony, but that's not a priority for me. The Sony store seemed to have the books I want, and the Sony reader doesn't restrict you to a proprietary form like Kindle does. You can get ebooks in PDF or EPub formats on it.

Just my two cents.

[fluttering]

Kindle is fantastic for reading e-books but less so for PDFs, because you can't zoom or annotate. I have a 6" Kindle and if you view a PDF in portrait orientation the font size is typically too small to read. Rotating to landscape helps a bit but is still small on the 6" (would probably be okay on the larger Kindle).

If you want to keep digital notes, you are better off using a laptop and using EndNote, Zotero, etc to keep an organized bibliography with notes and using a PDF reader to annotate.

[NeuroNerd86]

http://www.entourageedge.com/ - did you check out this guy? It seems like it has a lot of potential, although the common opinion is that the next version will probably be more refined. I have the same wish as the OP, I really want to get myself an e-book reader because I'm sick of dog-eared paper printouts and I can't read a computer text for too long, my eyes start to hurt. The Que was on my wish list for months...until they announced the price. 600+$ for JUST a book reader? Please.