Hypothetical fantasy - Persephone Ebook editions

One of the few things that has stopped me from buying a Kindle, besides the expense, is that my two favorite publishers, Persephone and New York Review of Books, don't offer digital versions of their titles.

If, say Persephone offered digital versions of all their titles for 7-8 pounds sterling per download on Amazon.com and/or Amazon.co.uk, would you be interested?

Personally? No. I'm partial to physical books, and I'm not interested in ebooks - at least until something is done about the DRM / sharing ability / second-hand book hunting. (Yes, I understand they want to prevent duplication, but one thing I really like about books is the ability to pass them on, i.e., have them completely leave my possession and transfer to another person).

No Kindle or ebooks for me, be they Persephone or anything else.

No - I love the books - I hate the idea of ebooks full stop.

I bought an ereader last month. It is fantastic for DRM-free/Project Gutenburg material and has saved me adding to my Penguin/Oxford World Classics collections. I can also get free sample books downloaded to my device which (in the case of Penguin Classics) includes all the notes and introductions. I think I'd still prefer to buy Persephones as printed books, though. They are beautiful!

Add me to the anti-ebook camp. Especially when it comes to Persephone books which are known for the care that's taken with their appearance. They're little treasures.

Absolutely not! The Persephone books are so beautiful with their endpapers and matching bookmarks!

No, I wouldn't be interested at the moment, but who can say what the future brings? I've resisted the Kindle and Nook and every other gadget thus far, because I really like physical books, though I can't say that I'd never consider getting one. They do look convenient, esp. for travel.

Part of the allure of Persephone Books is their neat grey covers with beautiful endpapers, and the desire to collect them all and display them together. I like to look at my books, and turn pages, and arrange them...a lot of people are not as nostalgic about books, though, so I can understand the appeal of ebooks.

One of the things I love about travel, particularly train travel, is looking at the covers of books my fellow passengers are reading. You can imagine a lot about a person just from seeing what they read! (Or perhaps it's just me?) Anyway, I'd hate to see a train coach full of people all staring at identical mechanical devices.

Persephone offer two of their titles as audiobooks so maybe they will consider ebooks at some stage in the future.

I periodically wander over here to see what's going on in Persephone Bookland. I am a Kindle owner. Kindle is loosening up a little on its share capacity. Many of the books can be registered to five Kindles provided they belong at the same address. My guess is that at some point in the future, they will let people share with at least one other person for a limited period of time. I suspect there may be a few ways to circumvent the share problem, but I haven't tried them yet. Books can be downloaded to one's own computer and transferred via computer to one's Kindle. Now I have theory that if one transferred the downloaded book to someone else's kindle and that person did not turn on her/his the wireless portion of the Kindle until after the book was finished and deleted from the documents file in the Kindle that it might work. But I am not sure.

I agree, Persephone Books are two lovely to pass up in material form. I feel less so about NYRB books, many of are now being offered on Kindle. Just go to Amazon Kindle and type in NYRB to see the titles offered. I have recently downloaded three books from NYRB and have pre-ordered three others.

My policy - if I really like a book I read on Kindle and if the hard copy is beautiful, then I order the hard copy.

Virago Press now offers a number of e-books available for those living in the UK. You can't purchase them unless you have a UK credit card address. Since the new Viragos are not particularly pretty as were the old Viragos, I would have no qualms about buying those if I lived in the UK.

I love my new Kindle 3 but am still slightly perturbed by the fact that if I buy an Amazon ebook I will only ever be able to read it on a Kindle. If I ever want to change to a Sony ereader for example, I won't be able to read Kindle books even though I've paid for them. Its like buying a music CD and being told you can only play it on a Philips CD player. Ultimately Amazon will bow to pressure and relax their DRM rules.

>12 digifish_books:,

You can read Kindle on your computer with the Kindle app (free). Should you ever choose to buy an iPad, you can read it there as well. My guess is that increasingly one will see Amazon books available for a variety of devices. For example, using a special conversion app, you can listen music purchased and downloaded from Amazon on your iPod as well as other devices. And the sharing rules for that are quite generous. I wouldn't worry on being stuck with a Kindle-only format. Someone is going to develop an app that will break the code.

Well, Persephone are certainly considering launching ebooks now. It will be great to have the choice of ebook or hard copy as well as some of their stuff on audiobook.

Happy to report that it is no longer a 'hypothetical fantasy'. Persephone Books have commenced publishing ebooks via their own site (epub format I believe) and via Amazon (Kindle format).

Yay!!

I have actally done a complete u turn on e books since my above message. I have a kindle, and have enjoyed reading on it - mostly when away. But I read real books mostly and always will, a kindle is a useful tool - nothing more - and is especially good for downloading obscure and out of copyright literature to. Persephone books on kindle - never - although I know it is now happening. I will continue to read Persephone in soft dove grey covers.