You've no doubt heard about Amazon's Kindle by now. The ebook market has exploded ever since its inception and there isn't any signs of it slowing down. The Internet has changed the way we listen to music, watch videos, communicate, socialize and much more. There shouldn't be a reason why it can't change the way we read as well. Rather than purchasing physical copies of books, we can now buy them digitally and read them on devices such as the Kindle. Not everyone has the deep pockets as others to be able to plunk down $250 for a device just to read digital books. However, if you have an Apple iPhone/iPod Touch, there is still a glimmer of hope.
Before going over Stanza, let's take a moment to reflect why in the world we would want to start going the digital route when it comes to reading our books. In a traditional sense, when we have our sights on a juicy book we want to read, we usually do three things. We head to our local bookstore, purchase the book and then read it. Nothing fancy right? Well, with digital books, the process is very similar except that we don't get a physical copy of the book. This might be a little confusing at first for those who have never worked with ebooks before but it's really easy to understand. Basically, an ebook is just an electronic version of the physical book. Think of an ebook as a really long text file. If you started typing every word in the book into a word processor, you would have an ebook.
Let's go over some pro's and con's of going the ebook route.
Convenience. With a ebook reader like the Kindle or iPhone, you now have the ability to carry your entire library of books with you where you go. Because the books are all in digital format and stored in the device, the size of your library is only limited to the hard drive space of the device itself. Each ebook that your purchase is relatively small in size. Therefore, you are able to hold hundreds if not thousands of ebooks! Also, purchasing and downloading ebooks is fast and easy.
Price. While not necessary true for every book out there, buying digital versions of a book can be a little cheaper than buying the actual physical copy. In most cases, you might not save a huge amount but if you are a avid book reader, it can add up and help you down the road.
Environment. By preferring a digital copy to a physical copy, you get to save a tree in the process.
DRM (Digital Rights Management). By purchasing digital copies of the book, the seller will most likely employ some type of encryption to make sure that you can't share the book with anyone else or that you don't have access to the digital copy of the book other than on the device it was originally purchased on. The problem here is that for most people they believe that once they buy something, they should be allowed to do whatever they want with it as long as they don't break any laws. With DRM you are restricted in this sense.
Resell Value. With DRM in place, the ebook is basically tied down to you and to you only. In fact there is no resell value at all because you aren't even allowed to resell them in most cases! With a physical copy, once you are done with the book, you can resell it to recuperate some of the initial cost of the book. With digital copies, you also aren't allowed to share them with friends. With a physical copy, you can lend the book to a friend and have them return it when they are finished. With purchased ebooks, you are allowed to share it but that's only if you give them your entire ebook reader device! Issues like this is why a lot of people are holding back on going the digital route.
Comfort. You may or may not be this type of person but there are many book readers that feel uncomfortable reading anything (especially something as long as a novel) if they aren't holding a copy of it in their hands. Some people just don't feel right reading a book yet not be actually holding a copy of it and flipping through the pages. Many ebook readers on the market now have technology to make the text and the general look of the pages/background look more like real books. As with all things, it's just a matter of adjusting.
Inconvenience. With a electronic digital ebook reader, well, it uses electricity! Therefore some may see this as a inconvenience to have to charge yet another device. With the iPhone, reading in Stanza will obviously drain your phone's battery just like any other app. With a physical copy of the book, you never have to worry about this. Also, having your Kindle die down on you is not a really big deal compared to your iPhone as you'll then not be able to make phone calls!
Once you have considered all of this, even if you initially think ebooks aren't meant for you, I would recommend you still try it. You've got nothing to lose and besides, you could experiment the whole ebook experience without having to spend a single penny!
Although I have listed many con's, you should always be your own judge and see if they actually apply to you or not. In my example, I never share or resell books anyways so the whole DRM thing is really a non-issue for me. Some people like to make a big deal about DRM issues without first analyzing whether or not it applies to them. If it doesn't, than its not a con!
Stanza
If you already have an iPhone or iPod Touch device, you will want to try out the Stanza application before handing your money over for a Kindle. The good news is that Stanza is a free application and can be downloaded at the iPhone App Store. Obviously the screen on the iPhone is a lot smaller but honestly, it wasn't really that big of a deal for me.
With Stanza, you are allowed to purchase ebooks as well as download many freely available ebooks from various websites.
Once you have downloaded or purchased some ebooks, you can then view them in cover-flow view (turn your iPhone to landscape mode) or in regular view.
Once you picked out a ebook to read, simply select it by tapping it. Navigating through your ebook is really easy. To turn to the next page, simply swipe your finger across the screen from right to left. To return to the previous page, reverse the direction of the swipe and go from left to right. Or, you could simply just tap the right and left edges of the screen for the same effect. To return to your library or configure Stanza settings while in reading mode, simply tap the middle of the screen.
Once you start reading, there are a host of Stanza options for you to configure. You'll definitely want to check out the settings because it has a big impact on your reading experience. For example, you can turn on the Night Theme which will place a dark black background over the white text. This makes it easier to read when you are in a dark area and best of all, turning on the Night Theme will help you conserve the energy of your phone. Among other things, you can switch fonts, font sizes, themes, line and paragraph spacing, disable/enable book rotation and sleep mode just to name a few. Definitely play around a bit to see what setting suits you best.
Stanza Desktop
To get even more out of Stanza, you'll want to look at the Stanza Desktop application. With this application, you can actually convert a file on your computer into an ebook format which can then be downloaded to your iPhone Stanza app! This is a feature that I have fallen in love with. Many times, I have to read long text documents and crunching up for hours staring at the computer screen makes me uncomfortable. With Stanza Desktop, I can easily convert that document into an ebook and download it to my iPhone. I will then be able to read it whenever and wherever I wish to. Trust me, it's very handy.
You can download Stanza Desktop from here.
Using Stanza Desktop is really simple. The only requirement is that you must install Apple's Bonjour service. I really don't like this requirement but I really like Stanza so I'll let it slide. If you already have iTunes installed, you most likely already have this service installed and running. If you really don't want the Bonjour service running, then I would suggest you use other methods to get ebooks from your computer to your Stanza app. I've posted the Stanza FAQ website a bit further down on how this can be accomplished.
Once you have Stanza Desktop loaded, simply select File -> Open File. Select the file you wish to convert. Stanza Desktop supports a huge range of files formats that can be converted into an ebook. Once you have selected the file, Stanza Desktop will immediately go to work and convert the file for you. I want to point out here that converting your file in Stanza Desktop is a hit or miss. Basically, if your file has pictures, those will be stripped away. Only text is converted. Also, chapters and text format might also be deleted leaving you with just a big blob of text. There really isn't anything you can do about this other than to pray that it doesn't happen to you! As a rule of thumb, the less complicated your file is, the better.
Once the conversion has completed (shouldn't take more than a few seconds), than you're left with a preview of the file:
Now we will want to download the file to our iPhone. Under the Tools menu, make sure that the Enable Sharing option is turned on. Next, make sure that your iPhone is connected to your wireless network. Open up Stanza on your iPhone and in the main Library section, select the Shared Books option. If everything worked, you should now see a message on your computer saying that your iPhone wants to connect. If you don't, simply rerun the Stanza iPhone app or restart the Stanza Desktop program. You'll want to obviously grant the permission. In the iPhone app, you should now see your computer name. You can now simply download the book you have just converted in Stanza Desktop over to Stanza on your iPhone. Once done so, the book will now be in your Library.
There are actually many more ways in which you can get books into your iPhone Stanza app, all of which are listed here in their FAQ webpage.
In the End...
Reading is good for the brain. There should be no doubt to that. Video games have dominated the entertainment front for years and is showing no signs of slowing down. Video games are fun but there's just something that reading a good book can never be replaced by playing any video game. I know because I love to do both. Recently I have been reading the entire Mitch Rapp series of books by Vince Flynn on Stanza and let me tell you, I'm an addicted. Seriously, I am addicted. I finished six books in about a month. Let me tell you, reading can also give you an adrenaline rush.
The iPhone craze continues to build momentum and with it, you have yourself a handy ebook reader that you can take anywhere with you. I'm such a geek that I'll probably log more time reading on the phone through Stanza that actual talk time!
