Rongo

I recently got a B&N Nook Color on 2-week trial evaluation, and I'm noticing that the page numbers on the e-books I've been downloading don't match the page numbers in the corresponding printed books. This could create a real problem doing historical research, if for example I want to look up something in an e-book that is referenced by page number in a printed book. Likewise, it could create a problem if I posted a quote from an e-book here and wanted to reference the page number.

I just did a little Internet research and it appears that this is an inherent problem with the EPUB format, and there's not likely to be any solution to it soon. From what I understand, the same inherent problem exists in the Kindle format, however Amazon has gone through the process of converting thousands of their books to overcome this problem, so that the page numbers of many Kindle books correspond with the page numbers of printed books.

Does anyone here know anything about this? Should I trade in my Nook for a Kindle?

Thanks for any insight you may be able to give.

Clemmie

No, I wouldn't trade it for a kindle. Many of the books I downloaded for my kindle have no page number. Instead, there is a sliding scale of the percentage of the book you have read. Not good for research either. I haven't downloaded anything for my ipad, so I don't know if its any better in this regard.

History Chick

That is true, but of course only if you have the corresponding printed edition. Amazon should list the ISBN for the edition the Kindle is using for page references. If you have a different printed edition, the Kindle page numbers still won't match.

I don't think it's so much that Amazon has converted all their books for this purpose. I remember when they introduced it, the books merely downloaded the page numbers, we did not have to re-download the book file so they couldn't have converted the book file.

And be aware that the Kindle edition merely cites the page numbers - it's not like one Kindle page equals one printed page. So a lot of times you may advance forward one Kindle "page" but the page number remains the same. If that makes sense.

In my experience, most traditionally published books have Kindle page numbers now.

Rongo

Thanks for the info, Clemmie and HC. I guess I'll stick with my Nook. This is a problem I never anticipated though.

History Chick

Well, I think you'd be better off with a Kindle. For example, you say you want to be able to post a quote here and cite a print edition page from the ebook - I just recently did that here (see here: http://www.historum.com/medieval-byz...ml#post1207444 ). Of course it only applies to that one printed edition (in this case ISBN 9780786440382) but that would be true if I was quoting straight from that printed edition instead of using the Kindle book.

As for going the other way and looking up references in the ebook from a citation of a printed edition, the only trouble would be if the Kindle book is using a different edition to what was referenced. But there again, you could also always run into trouble obtaining the correct printed edition that was cited (or say you've already bought the book - if it's the wrong edition, you're in the same position you would be with the Kindle).

So the Kindle will be able to do more of what you want than the Nook but not always - yet the same is kind of true for printed editions too.

But it's up to you.

Pedro

I have experienced the same annoyance with my Kindle Fire. [Which I greatly love!] I have found that using the search feature gets around 95 percent of that.

History Chick

For a quote, that works perfectly - but if the information cited is re-worded, it would be more difficult to look up. Even so, I do have success finding passages I do not recall the exact wording of by just searching for a key word. Several results come up but it's usually easy to spot the one I'm looking for. So that does still work in some cases.

Rongo

I wish now I had asked for a Kindle instead of a Nook in the first place. But this was a gift and returning it at this point would be awkward. Since the Kindle doesn't seem to be entirely free of this problem itself, it sounds like something I'll just have to learn to deal with. (Got plenty of that in my life. )

spellbanisher

To find page numbers corresponding to paper books, go to amazon.com and look up the book. Virtually any book you could find in ebook form will probably be searchable inside(but don't select the ebook version to search inside). It should be labeled "click to look inside"


When you click on the book you should be see something that says "search inside this book." Enter a short phrase from the passage you want to cite and it will show the pages that phrase shows up on. You can also do this with google books, but from my experience amazon.com works better. With google books, it will only give you the page number if it is on a previewable page, whereas amazon will give you the page number even if it won't allow you to see the actual page. On seldom occassions you might not get any results back for a phrase. The pages that are being searched are probably ocr'd, in which the ocr scan might have garbled some of the text. In those instances(which for me are rare) just type in another short phrase (or a name or place if it shows up in the passage).

This post was made with a kindle fire hd.

Rongo

Great advice. Thanks! I've been doing that with Google books, but never thought of doing it with amazon.com.