More Kindle stuff; you can skip it if you want

[catsittingstill]

I've been reading a manuscript on my Kindle, checking for internal inconsistencies, and inconsistencies with previous books.  There are some aspects of the Kindle that make it very convenient for this.

The manuscript started as a .rtf file, which the Kindle can't read natiively :-(.  However the free e-mail conversion worked fine and didn't take long.  :-)

I started with a readthrough, then started verifying different parts of the manuscript against each other.

For example, the search capability means that if Jane tells Mary that William killed Jennifer, I can do a search on Jane and check all the conversations she's had on stage, and learn that she told Alice that William had nothing to do with it.  I can also search on William, and on Jennifer, and see if anything happened onstage that lends credence to one side or the other of the two contentions.  This usually starts when I read something and think "but that isn't right," but can't remember why I think so.  It's fine for characters to lie to each other (as long as that makes sense given their personality and their relationship) but the author, and the reader checking for inconsistencies, has to keep an eye on who knows what.

Whenever I found an inconsistency I used the annotation function to mark it.

When I was done, I had all the marks in a separate "My Marks and Clippings" file for the manuscript.  When I realized I was going to have to break it down chapter by chapter in order to send it to the author, I went back into the manuscript, searched on "Chapter" and highlighted all the chapter headings.  They then showed up in "My Marks and Clippings" interleaved with the marks so everything appeared in the order it appeared in the manuscript.

I ended up typing all this into the computer by hand, but looking back on it, I think even that wasn't necessary; if I'd highlighted the lines around each mark ( to provide snippets of the manuscript text so the author could use the search function on zir copy of the manuscript to find the place I was talking about), they would have ended up in "My Marks and Clippings" too, and I think I could then have imported the whole thing into my computer as a .txt file.  But I'm not entirely sure about that.

Verifying the manuscript against the paper copies of the previous books was a much bigger pain in the butt because there was no search function, just me flipping through the pages looking for scenes with particular people in them.  I did the best I could, but I'm pretty sure I did a better job on the electronic books.

I think the Kindle could be very helpful for textual research.

Comments

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Sounds like it. I've got a Sony PRS-505, but it's got no real input mechanism -- it's a paperback replacement, not an annotation tool. (I considered upgrading to an Irex Iliad, but they're expensive and have a number of flaws; and the Kindle isn't available in the UK and it's EV-DO networking isn't available over here anyway. Hmm ...)

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

For generally reading fiction, the Sony would be okay; I don't usually want to markup fiction. And you still have all the "books that weigh nothing and take no space" advantages. But without a text input method there's no way to search, either, and search is rapidly becoming important to me when I'm reading nonfiction. Plus the Sony store only works if you have a PC and I have a Mac, and an attitude that says "you will not treat me like a second-class citizen for having a Mac or you will not get my business." :-)

I looked longingly at the iLiad (PDF compatibilty and a touch sensitive screen that lets you write and draw on documents) but it costs twice as much as the Kindle and there isn't much in the way of books available for it. Plus I don't think it can search (though I could be wrong; perhaps it has handwriting recognition or a touch sensitive keyboard display or something) I would love to have something like the iLiad for reading scientific papers, but search capabilities would be very important, and some easy way to connect to the internet. Maybe someday.

On the other hand, the Kindle might yet grow a bigger screen and add native PDF capability, and that would be fine too. Or the folks at Sony might wake up, smell the coffee and make something with a bigger screen and text input options. :-)

[hms42]

Thanks for the ongoing review of the Kindle. I am waiting for apple to put out a tablet and then I make that jump. (Hopefully they will do so.)

Harold S.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I hope so too. :-) I wouldn't mind having a tablet computer myself.