Thursday, December 02, 2010

Chess Books on Kindle

I am learning about the awesome resource of chess books on Kindle.

I think we all -- whether we like it or not -- have to accept the fact that paper books are quickly "going the way of the dodo." Amazon.com announced that for the first time in their history, electronic books have outsold hardback, paper versions.

It is a sign of the times. . . . and it only going to get worse (or better -- depending how much of a fan you are of e-books).

And who can you really blame in the ascension of e-books?

1) They are cheaper then their paper back cousins (often by a lot) as publishers do not need to spend any money (or any serious money anyways) in transportation/production costs.

2) A person can carry 10,000 books in a handheld Kindle reading device (How awesome would it be to be able to take -- quite literally -- all the books you own wherever you go.

3) You buy a book, and it arrives instantaneously. Mail orders and trips to the bookstore are all avoided.

Despite all the positives regarding e-books, the drawbacks are that there are real duds.

Go to Amazon.com and you will find many chess books where only the text -- and no digrams -- are transfered into e-format. Thus, you will buy a chess book without any chess diagrams!

Some, however, are very good -- with diagrams galore.

This is the one I am reading now: It is ve
ry good.


CLICK HERE FOR BOOK

Thus, be careful what you purchase -- there are some real winners and some real duds.

Luckily, Amazon.com allows the Kindle user to download a sample of each potential book he or she wants to buy. These samples (often 10% of the entire book) can provide valuable insight on the kind of book you are buying.