E-BOOKS ARE COMING

I have time to read; no students are waiting or lectures have to be prepared. After watching on TV a documentary about Evgeny Morozov's book Net Delusion, I wanted to buy the book. Checking the Selexyz bookshops online, showed that the book was available in Utrecht and Amsterdam, but not in my hometown, Arnhem. I wanted the book immediately, and phoned the local Selexyz bookshop asking whether they could ask for sending a copy to Arnhem. A disaster: they could not find the book in their own database. They would phone me back. After an hour the message was 'I can ordered it for you and you will have it next week'.

Well, I can do that myself and better. Amazon's website informed me that the book could be sent in about a week. Though there was also an e-book version available. Never tried that, but being a customer I had already bought a copy before I knew I did....that is the one-click order system.

Kindle Fire

Reading an e-book is easy with Amazon's Kindle. Right on time because Amazon presented it's new tablet: the Kindle Fire. A serious competitor to the Ipad for half the price. Amazon ignates the tablet market . However not for sale in Europe yet and in the US, of course, after Thanksgiving.

Reading an e-book on a PC is a no-brainer. Just download and install the Kindle app for PC from Amazon. On windows it works out of the box, but I am running Ubuntu 11.04. Running windows software under Linux is possible with Wine. Installing Wine from a terminal:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa && sudo apt-get 

update && sudo apt-get install wine1.3

Double clicked on the Kindle installer. Ah *#@! Wine crashed. Not working. Linux has always a solution. Go the the website of Wine and browse the apps for the Kindle. And yes, there is workaround for the msvcp90 bug. Delete or rename the following file:

~/.wine/drive_c/windows/winsxs/manifests/x86_microsoft.vc90.

crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_9.0.30729.4148_none_deadbeef.manifest

Restarting Kindle through Wine: done. Login to Amazon and your e-book is ready for download. I can start reading. I am convinced now. I am going to sell my library! Too dusty; Too much space and not very handy. An dthe ebooks: cheap and easy. Waiting for the Kindle Fire? I have to, but for moment I am doing fine with the tablet HP TC 1100.