Agreed, but the award prize winners are often worth checking out reviews for, so there's that :)

As for reviews you should check goodreads as well, the reviews there are frequently more critical, especially to lack of proofreading/editing/copyediting. I often see books being praised to the sky on amazon.com, only to read several reviews on goodreads pointing out things like missing words or sentences that doesn't make sence in every other paragraph. There are enough books to read, I won't deal with non-proofread books.

Sure, people can easily cross-post their reviews to both amazon and goodreads, but I find the goodreads ones more useful.

That was definitively an issue in Norway. When sales of incandescents where prohibited, LED bulbs were still extremely expensive (meaning that the lowest cost was about 15x that of a cheap incandescent bulb), and their lifespan was very much NOT the (usually) promised 15k+ hours. In our "rich" country, many low-income households chose to not replace broken lightbulbs in rooms that saw less usage.

In a few years prices went down and quality went up, and now we can buy LED bulbs in bulk at roughly the same prices as before. I'm quite sure that if incandescents had been reintroduced today at similar pricing no-one would buy them, as LED bulbs can be had with a lot of temperature tones and use a fraction of the energy.

Oh, and another question: is it possible to sideload books by a common mechanism such as usb storage connection? It would suck to be dependent on some app being updated years into the future. Loading books through a spesific app only would actually be a showstopper for me.

Here are some stats from my library of epubs. Most are novels, some are short stories.

1292 epubs, all with at least a cover image.
average word count pr. book is 109 000.
Average file size 719 kb.
My very largest book is 22MB (Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson), that one has quite a few illustrations
only 10 books out of all 1292 are larger than 10MB.

As for your file sizes, I suspect that the newer Kindle formats are quite inefficient, converted to epub (which is basically zipped html+css) they should be much smaller.

So it wouldn't be a problem for me, but I wouldn't expect most readers to be willing to expend the effort of installing calibre and converting their books.

I have no idea why they don't have more storage, but 64MB should be enough even for a looooong vacation. I suspect that you can easily switch books with their app, in which case the storage would only be a showstopper if you had books larger than 64mb.

I am happy with my Kobo and don't really have a use case (that I know) for this device, but I am happy that people are innovating.

A couple of questions:

Are these sturdy enought to be expected to survive if you fall asleep with them still on? That would definitely be a use case for me :)

What are the choices of fonts, line heights, margins and other layout parameters? It seems that you must be using a font suited for 8 pixels or less, and those really affect the readability.

As far as I know there's absolutely nothing quite like this for reading as of now. I read a lot and although I'm not rich, I frankly don't care about the price of a device (within limits) if it'll enhance my reading experience. I probably won't be a customer without being able to see and try them in person, but if that should happen I'll be open-minded :)

Pixel density, comfort, reading ergonomics (lights, optics,left/right alignment) and sturdiness are the things I am a little bit skeptical of and would be looking for.

... In your opinion.

I practically grew up in a library full of paper books (my mother was a librarian), and I still read a lot. Here are my my preferences: for novels and other lightly formatted works I use e-ink only. For books where you have to go back and forth, visit footnotes (following a link is WAY better than hunting them down in paper books), look at very detailed illustrations and so on, a computer or a tablet is better suited.

Studying is about the only use case I personally can think of for paper books, but even there I never relied on marking up books, I took separate notes instead. A librarian's son doesn't draw in books :)
Nowadays I still do that when I need to read up on something, only I read digital learning material instead.

Everyones use case is different, though, for some people audio books enables them to enjoy a story that would have been difficult for them to read, for instance. Others just like paper books. Who am I to poop on their enjoyment? Go for it.

For my own part I never even consider paper books under _any_ circumstance, now that I think about it. I used to drag 10 paper books along going on a week-long vacation, and having worked with typesetting books for 14 years I usually don't like their choices of font, font size, line height and whatnot. Very good ergonomic lighting comes with the device. E-readers just work better in every respect for me. YMMV.

Hell, I don't even like the smell of paper books, so there goes the most common argument I get from people who are dead set on convincing me that my preferences are stupid, plain wrong and a menace to society :)

Thanks for your insight, I wonder why I didn't think about those! And here I've been pushing my e-reader around with my nose all this time.

I read in bed with the Kobo propped up against the wall, it helps me fall asleep. Would have been nice to have a remote for page forward in order to not have to move my whole arm every 30 seconds or so.

Others have suspended their readers above them, enabling them to read lying on their back, then it'd be even more useful.

Of course it did, there's were "they" put their alien-attracting beacon in order to have the alien vessels conveniently delivered to their labs, and also to keep others from getting at the technological goodies.

It's the only explanation that makes no sense.

Sort of. I have read posts from people claiming that the aliens have equipment to detect any observation methods with permanent storage, and only allow themselves to be seen when no such devices are in range. Obviously it's not infallible, so you'll get the occasional radar blip and grainy video that might as well have depicted Venus.

Generally people go to ridiculous lengths to deceive themselves, also when it comes to UAP observations.

As many point out the Kindle has quite a few flaws, and advertising is just one of them. For me the showstopper issue is that the Kindle simply can't give me the margins and line height that I prefer. I read a lot, and price is not a consideration at all when I choose an e-reader. Still I'm the owner of two relatively inexpensive Kobo Clara HDs.

Why? The user interface is not too much in the way, it has great support in calibre, the lighting is pleasant and the size fits my pockets. Actually, as I only buy clothes that can fit my e-reader in a pocket, it's easier to find clothes than it would be with a larger reader :)

I can recommend it to anyone who wishes to jump ship from the Kindle. Kobo also has waterproof models if you need that feature. Use calibre to convert e-books from most vendors including Amazon (you can find plugins to remove DRM automatically), it also interfaces very well with the reader.

Happy reading!

I know we are agreeing in general, but I'd say that even the tool prices are reasonable :)

Where I live the tool kits are only pricey if you compare them to no-brands, and the difference isn't all that much. For that slight (30-50%?) premium you get a very well-planned selection of tools for most kit sizes in a pouch/case which is obviously (co-)designed by someone who uses such tools extensively.

The quality is high for both the tools and the cases with magnetic fasteners and whatnot, and precision tools like tweezers are rock solid and don't break easily. You can also (unsurprisingly) get a replacement for any part of your kit should you lose it, at a reasonable price.

I'd say they walk the walk when it comes to their own products. They work well, and you can easily replace any part that doesn't work anymore.

He's saying nothing of the sort, in fact he doesn't mention it at all, and of course we have. We also have high-security prisons. I appreciate your true statement about reform ("The Incarcerated States of America" makes me chuckle), but I'll mention a couple of examples:

For instance we have one of the worst mass murderers in history, Anders Behring Breivik, effectively in isolation (mostly for his own safety from other inmates). He's sentenced to something which translates to something like "Containment". In his case it's a high-security prison sentence initially for 21 years, but it can be extended indefinitely based on evaluation of his danger to society. As he's reportedly still showing no remorse or will to change his extremist views he may very well be imprisoned for the rest of his natural life, in fact it's what I and most people I have discussed it with believe will happen. This type of sentence will invariably be used when the courts deems the perpetrator to be a substantial danger to society.

In a gruesome year 2000 rape and murder of two young girls (The "Baneheia murders") one of the sentenced perpetrators was released on parole in 2016, and has been living with a secret identity under close scrutiny until fully released in 2019. He's served his sentence and has been evaluated by experts who deemed him no longer dangerous. Doing anything other than releasing him would not be justice. In prison he received training as a baker, and presumably he's being a more or less productive member of society, although the public knows nothing about his whereabouts or details of his life. He certainly wouldn't be welcomed by a lot of people if they knew of his crimes (I myself would intuitively trust him a lot less with my kids than I would most others), but he's served his sentence and has a right to carry on with his life.

So our penal system can handle the hard cases, while being very successful with reinstating people convicted for less serious crimes into society. Such success is also quite common for the more serious cases, as we also have a support system for people recently released from prison. Unless, of course, you define "successful" punishment by how close it is to "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth", but in that case you're talking about a religious revenge concept belonging in the dark ages.

I think the US could do a lot worse than looking to Scandinavian penal systems for inspiration. As far as I know it's by no means certain that harsher punishments, even the death penalty, has a higher deterring effect *at all* for some serious types of crime. This goes for less serious crimes as well, although too lenient punishments will fail to deter would-be criminals.

Word!

In Norway everyone and their dog (literally) go on cross-country skiing vacations during winter and Easter vacations. Most of us are actually reasonably well versed in safety rules, map-and-compass use, and what equipment you should bring while hoping you don't need it. We literally learn it in school as well as from our parents. Technology can boost your safety significantly if used properly in addition to, and not instead of, other safety measures.

Most of us know the theory and the basics. In spite of this, when cell phones (no GPS) became common, rescue services gradually became swamped with operations that originated with someone believing their cell phone replaced all of that outdoors wisdom and extra equipment. After all, they could just call for help. "Where are you?" "I don't know, I see some mountains."

Even when cell-phones started coming with GPS as standard it didn't help much. People became overconfident, and planned idiotic trips (or changed their sound plans for idiotic ones on a whim), leading to more (and more difficult) rescues, not less. They get themselves into all sorts of dangerous situations because they trust devices as their (only) safety net.

Even a quality emergency beacon or rugged communication equipment doesn't help if you're caught by a sudden snowstorm in the middle of nowhere, twenty kilometers from the nearest road. It doesn't matter that the rescuers know where you are if they have no way to get to you in time. Thirty years ago most Norwegians would have brought those warm clothes, fuel, shovel and food that would have kept them alive for a day or three in wait of rescue or better weather. Now, not so much.

Disclaimer: I like meat and eat it regularly.
The idea of fake meat? I understand the tofu angle, but there are lots of umami-rich meat replacements that don't really try to pass off as meat. There's were many of them go wrong. "This pea shit over there is in uncanny vally when compared to meat (and it smells of elderberry), but this whole mushroom hat over there pretty much make a decent patty to grill and put between some buns. Don't call it a burger though ".

Here's an extremely simple experiment to try at home: fry some (or a a lot, they shrink like crazy) sliced champignons with oil and some ground pepper until they're golden turning to brown (about 8-10 minutes at high temp) . Add some cummin if you like it, chop it up a little more, and use it in place of minced meat on a pizza for instance. It doesn't even pretend to be meat, but it fills a similar role in the meal and the taste is really good.

Also: I dare you to go to a high-end vegetarian (or even vegan) restaurant and not have a fantastic meal. I simply won't believe you if you don't enjoy it, those cooks are amazing. Or look to the tradidional Italian kitchen, where they hardly use meat because in the olden days the couldn't afford it. They make som really damn good food. Not to mention the Indians :)

Meat is good. Food without meat is good. Food with fake meat usually looses to both, although fake meat has become pretty good lately.