Posted: 12/21/2012 8:26:16 AM EDT
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I have an e-reader I got for Christmas last year. I like it and it is convenient but it just died. There is noting user serviceable about it. The manufacturer has a reasonably priced service policy. I just have to mail it back to them and in 6-8 weeks they will mail it or a similar refurbished one back to me. Meanwhile I have ink on paper books that are 50 years old and are still usable.
I know which medium I will use for books that I might need post SHTF/TEOTWAWKI. |
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Sorry I should have said: it is a PANdigital 7" color e-reader. It is Android based and works with Barnes and Noble NOOK software.
I'm not complaining about the quality or service. Just that I'd hate to have to depend on it in a post SHTF era. I don't think Keven Costenr/USPS will be too dependable in that case. |
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While I like the paper option, I am also a huge believer in carrying what you may need and I can't carry a library of paper books BUT I can carry dozens and dozens of electronic books. I keep them on my iPhone! Because I use my iphone every day (hell I am posting this via my iPhone) I have learned I can trust it too and if it does die I get a replacement.
Paper is best if you can get to it but SHTF when you sometimes are not ready for it. By keeping my manuals on my phone I know I will have them when I need them. I find my smart phone to be more and more of an essential piece of survival gear. |
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For this entire post just keep in mind I am doing things legally and am not trying to hint at ways to go around copyright laws or whatever else comes into your mind that would be illegal to do. I have had the kindle program on my laptop for a couple years. I recently bought a kindle as well, the basic 69 dollar version. When dealing with kindle specific books they live in a cloud at amazon. I can put it on the kindle or on the laptop but it won't be read on both at the same time. You can manage your stuff in various ways and I am still learning about it. I find lots of books on amazon are often offered for free. You still click to buy it and what not but if it is being sold for nothing you pay nothing. I rarely actually buy a book anymore, I have a stack of free books at my house to start reading and maybe 100 plus kindle books to start reading. I am not reading current books for free of course, people pay money for those. Anyway, it sounds to me like the original poster may have lost his books. With kindle you have a backup that works in today's world. I am not going to discuss past amazon games like deleting books or whatever. In today's world I have actual backup of books so I do not lose access to them if my kindle breaks. Either you can deal with having a backup with a soso company or your can't deal with it. I hate to dig up info on a company because in today's world it seems like you can always dig something up. Now the kindle can also handle pdf documents. Old kindles needed you to put stuff into a txt document and I don't know if my new one will need that or if it will be an updated version that will handle pdf automatically. Either way I don't care, I have a lot of pdf stuff and being able to have it actually backed up in my library makes me a lot happier than the amazon kindle specific backup concept. Obviously my laptop handles these pdf documents as well so backup is nice and access is available on both items at any time. Now some stuff can't just be copied here and there but it gets into the space issue brought up with actual paper print vs. electronic stuff. I paid 40 bucks for about 40 years worth of mother earth news magazines stuffed onto one dvd. I have stored magazines in the past and even in temp and humidity controlled storage they aged poorly. I hated watching magazine paper change color and degrade as the years passed. Let alone all the space those magazines took up. And I hated it when I remembered some article I wanted to find but I could not remember the magazine it was in. I admit glossy paper aged better than cheaper paper, so don't tell me your magazines are storing fine. Backwoods home magazine uses a cheap paper that does not store well. American survival guide had a glossy paper that stored well. The dvd is somewhat searchable, sucks but better than nothing. It is very portable. Due to copyright law I figure I would have to buy another one if I want to back it up off site. I would rather have the dvd in hand than the amazon cloud format for the kindle books though. I can run the dvd in whatever item I want to run it in and enjoy it. Does not matter if amazon is having technical issues or not. Or if the web is down due to major power outage in my area or something. I am not going to say that books don't last for a decent amount of time if taken care of. But for space and weight and backup purposes I like electronic formats. I am currently working on having info in easy to access and easily backed up format. I want to keep a copy off site. As far as keeping electronics working in bad times, we have threads on that or you can play on google and find people who like toughbooks and others who take a netbook with a solid state drive and mount it into a pelican case. With some folks modifying desktops or netbooks or laptops to work in their vehicle, computers are all over the place. Smartphones were also mentioned. Depending on what you have you may or may not be able to access your info. A folding solar panel and a battery for it to charge will keep a lot of devices working for a long time. I expect a paper book to last longer but I expect a slab of rock and a chisel and hammer could make something that will last for a while as well. |
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Quoted:
Read them, and remember them. Your mind is your best tool While I understand what you are saying, I don't agree. Sometimes knowing what document to go to, to find an answer is better than screwing it up trying to do it from memory. Ereaders can be a powerful tool. The amount of information you can carry in such a small package is amazing. They also have some very real drawbacks. |
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Both Nook and Kindle allow you to create one account and store books in any number of different places. I have a Kindle Fire, Kindle software on two PCs and the Kindle software on my phone. All the books are mirrored, if one device fails the books are far from lost. I even have Nook software on my Kindle Fire.  For books you will read once or twice this is the way to go. In case of SHTF, raid the local library.  |
| I have several Army FM (Field Manuals) on my kindle just waiting to be popped open at the right time. So long as there is an outlet or even basic/occasional power available, a kindle with a protective case can hold its own fairly well. I have the paperscreen version, as opposed to the computer version. Basically, the screen on the cheaper end Kindles can hold itself on a single page for weeks on end and barely drain the battery, it only costs a minute fraction of energy to change the page. I know where my library of survivalism will be when SHTF. |