30% off new releases from Harlequin at Kobo!

From now until June 15th, you can get 30% off new Harlequin releases at Kobo.  Why not stock up on some e-books for your summer reading?

30% Off Harlequin Titles with "koboharlequin30"

Click the link to see the books. Then, when you're ready to check out, enter the code koboharlequin30 into the coupon code box to apply your discount!

Deals at Kobo!

This weekend, you can get 30% off titles from Algonquin.  Plus, US customers can also get 30% off Water for Elephants and A Reliable Wife.  Pretty nice deals, eh?  Head on over to Kobo to check out the deals.

30% Off Kobo eBooks with code "Algonquin30"

30% Off Water for Elephants eBooks with code "Algonquin30" (US Only)

30% Off A Reliable Wife eBooks with code "Algonquin30" (US Only)

Kobo "Winter Escape" Contest

For the next few weeks, Kobo is holding a "Winter Escape" contest.  All you have to do is buy an e-book from Kobo between January 23rd and February 19th and you'll be entered to win a trip for two to a sunny vacation destination!  Sounds pretty good, right?  Even better, the contest is open to readers in the US, Canada (excluding Quebec), and the UK.

Any books bought from Kobo count (even the inexpensive ones), so head on over there and see what they have to offer!  Try these links to get started:

Kobo Books

eBooks from Indie Authors all under $1!

Kobo Cheap Reads

Kobo contest, Cyber Monday discounts, and more!

Kobo is running a contest and it's easy to enter; all you have to do is buy a book!

Any customer who purchases an eBook from Kobo between Nov 18th and Nov 30th is entered to win a trip for two to one of five extraordinary locations: Paris, London, Italy, California or the Galapagos Islands.

Plus, there are going to be some big Cyber Monday discounts on November 28th.  So be sure to check the Kobo store on Monday!

If you don't have a Kobo eReader, here's a coupon for $20 off the Kobo Touch:

Kobo Coupons!

Here are a couple of Kobo coupons.  The 20%-off coupon should be valid through the end of December, and the $1-off coupon is good until the end of January.

20% Off Kobo eBooks with code "June20off"

Get $1 Off select Kobo eBooks - Kobodollaroff

To use the coupons, you need to enter the appropriate code during the checkout process where it says: "Have a gift card or promo code? Use it here."  (If you've already used these coupons, they probably won't work again.  But for those who haven't tried them yet, it's a pretty good deal!)

Kobo Coupons!

I can see by my Blogger Stats that the Kobo Coupons posts are still pretty popular.  The only problem is, they're old and expired!  Here are some new ones for you:

Get $1 Off select Kobo eBooks - Kobodollaroff Valid until August 31, 2011

20% Off Kobo eBooks with code "June20off" Valid until December 31, 2011

To use the coupons, just click on the link. That will take you to the Kobo site where you can choose a book. When it's time to purchase your book, enter the code (either Kobodollaroff or June20off) in the promo code box and apply it to your order before you finalize your purchase.

Kobo Coupons!

I know I haven't posted a lot lately.  I haven't read much lately, either, thanks to some illness that's kept me (mostly) bed-bound and brain-fogged for a month now.  I will hopefully have a new review up in the next day or so.

In the meantime, here are a couple of cool coupons for Kobo users!

20% Off Kobo eBooks with code "June20off"
Get $1 Off select Kobo eBooks - Kobodollaroff

And don't forget to check out the new Kobo eReader Touch!  I'd love one of these, but I can't really justify buying a new e-reader at the moment.  Still... a touch screen!  So cool.

Kobo Coupons!

I've got some coupons for those of you who use Kobobooks.com!  Maybe you want to fill up your TBR pile.  Maybe you need some more books for the E-Book Reading Challenge.  Here are a couple of deals you can take advantage of.

The first is for $1 off a Kobo e-book.  It's good until April 30, and you can use it as many times as you'd like.  Considering that there a lot of really inexpensive books on the site (including many classics), you can easily fill up your library without breaking the bank:

Get $1 Off select Kobo eBooks - KoboSpring1

The second is for 30% off a Kobo e-book.  It's only good until April 4th, but it can also be used as many times as you'd like up until then:

30% off select eBooks - MarchKobo30

Enjoy these deals while they last!

50% off at Kobobooks.com!

Today only, in celebration of its first birthday, Kobobooks.com is offering a one-time use coupon good for 50% off an e-book!  This is a great deal for Kobo users, as well as those who have the Kobo app for other devices.  (The books are in EPUB format, so they may work on the NOOK, too.)

Important Information for Kobo Users!

This has been bothering me for a couple of weeks now, and I only just sorted out the problem today.  I thought I should mention it, in case others are having the same issue.

My Kobo had not been displaying the proper format in my EPUB books.  There were no paragraph indents, no bold text, no italics, etc.  The paragraphs had blank lines between them, which just looked weird.  I had no idea what the problem was, and my first e-mail to tech support went unanswered.  When I called the store (Indigo), I was told that there is no provision for italics or formatting.

As I found out this afternoon, that is, quite simply, wrong.

My second e-mail to tech support was answered today, and the problem has been resolved.

For whatever reason, you can't download your Kobo books from the Kobo store onto your Kobo eReader using the Kobo software.  You have to use Adobe Digital Editions to download the books onto your Kobo eReader, or you'll lose all the formatting and other goodies that come with the EPUB format.  I just tried this with my current read, The Magic Thief.  Before, the book had no paragraph indents, no italics, and no pictures (the map at the beginning was just a blank page that said "MAP"... how helpful).  Now, after downloading the book with ADE, I've got all of those goodies, along with illustrations interspersed throughout the text.  I'm almost giddy.  I thought that PDFs (which don't fit that well on the screen) were the only way to have pictures on the Kobo.  It turns out that the EPUB format supports pictures, too.

So the problem is fixed.  But I am somewhat confused.  Why make people download your software if it's only going to mess up the formatting of the books that you are selling?  Why not tell people how to get the optimal experience out of their e-reader?  This seems like a fairly big oversight on the part of the company, and a bad marketing boo-boo.  I was actually considering trying to get myself a Nook because I was annoyed by this formatting issue.  Luckily, I won't have to.

Kobo folks: Either fix the problem with your software or print this important piece of information in the QuickStart Guide.  And educate the people who are selling the product in their stores (because they obviously don't know about this issue)!  The information may be buried somewhere in the instruction manual on the e-book itself... but since there's no search function on this e-reader, it's not realistic to expect people to read the whole thing to solve one small problem!

Review - Kobo eReader

I've been looking at e-readers for about a year.  In the beginning, the price was prohibitive.  But now many of them are hovering at around $150, which makes e-book reading a lot more accessible than it used to be.  After a lot of hemming and hawing, I decided to take the plunge.  Kobo has just announced a new wireless version of their eReader, so the original USB-connected version was on sale.  (I prefer to have the non-wireless version.  It helps reign in my purchasing of books.  I'm afraid that if I could wirelessly download books at the touch of a button, I'd bankrupt myself!)

Here's what made me decide to get a Kobo instead of another type of e-reader:

• support for multiple formats, including EPUB -- Unlike the Kindle, the Kobo can read the popular EPUB format (as well as PDFs), which means that you can buy books from places other than the Kobo store (the first e-book I ever bought was actually a PDF that I bought from Dymocks in Australia... and it works fine on my Kobo).
• expandable memory -- The Kobo has a slot for an SD memory card, which means that you can carry lots more books on your reader.
• weight -- This is actually one of the lightest readers on the market right now.  The only other e-reader I've held in my hands is the Sony Pocket Edition... and that felt heavy in comparison.
• simple, intuitive interface -- There's really no instruction manual to speak of with the Kobo, but you don't need one.  There are only 6 buttons on the whole thing, and their function is very straightforward.  Turning pages is done with the big blue button on the front (which is actually a 5-direction keypad).
• easy on the eyes, easy on the hands -- There is little glare on the screen, and the E Ink is nice and clear.  You can also change the size of the text.  The front is uncluttered with buttons, so you don't hit anything by accident.  It also has a nice "quilted" back, which makes the reader easy to hold without slipping.
• great selection of books -- I've actually found books for my Kobo that aren't even available for the Kindle (such as Catching Fire and Mockingjay).
• books are available to those outside the U.S.A. -- Ultimately, this was what swayed me away from the Kindle and toward the Kobo.  There are some instances where, for whatever reason, Amazon will not sell a Kindle book to a non-American... even though they have no problem selling the paper copy outside their borders.

I've been reading a few books on my Kobo, and I like what I see.  The EPUB format, in particular, is great.  You basically page through the e-book as you would a normal book, and even changing the size of your text doesn't screw up the page layout.  PDFs are a little trickier, since the text size and page layouts are set.  To read a PDF comfortably, I had to change the orientation from portrait to landscape (which, luckily, you can do) and use the directional buttons to "scroll" down the page as I read.

I have no idea if I'm going to get near the 8,000 page turns per battery charge that the Kobo claims.  I did my best to wear out the battery when I was reading Catching Fire, flipping back and forth a few times on many of the pages (apparently, the battery only drains when you're doing things like loading books and turning pages).  Even after all that, the battery icon was still at about half when I plugged the device back into my computer to download some more books.  (When you connect the USB cable, the Kobo automatically starts recharging itself, so it's now fully charged again.  I've got enough books on there now that I'm going to let it fully run down next time and see how long it takes... but I think it's going to take a while.)

Another nice feature is that the Kobo puts itself to sleep if it's idle for long enough.  I'm not sure how long this takes (I've never sat there and watched it), but I can put it down, still turned on, when I go to bed, and when I wake up, the Kobo will be asleep.

I've yet to read any of the 100 free e-books that came with the reader, but I think that's a bonus, too.  All of Jane Austen's books are on there, as well as other classics such as Dracula, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Picture of Dorian Gray (which I'd like to read sometime).  You could potentially keep yourself busy with those free classics for months without ever having to buy a new book from the Kobo store.

The only thing that bothers me is the limited features of the Kobo.  You can't use multiple bookmarks, for instance (although the device will remember where you are in each particular book).  There's also no dictionary or word look-up feature, which would have been nice.  But, really, what the Kobo does offer far outweighs what it doesn't.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the Kobo eReader so far.  I haven't had any problems with the unit freezing or not displaying books properly.  There's a good selection of books out there that are compatible with the technology.  And the price really couldn't be beat.  Plus, it's a great option for international customers who might not have access to all the Kindle books.  So I'm going to give the Kobo .

Kobo!

Here's my new toy!  For a week or so, I've been struggling to read a 400-page e-book on my computer screen -- not an easy task, let me tell you... even with an LCD monitor as opposed to a CRT one, it's still hard on the eyes.  The Kobo eReader is about to come out with the second-generation model, which means that the current model was discounted.  Since the main difference is that the new model has WiFi connectivity -- and I'm not about to go traipsing around the neighbourhood to find a hotspot every time I want a book -- I thought I'd take the plunge and get myself one of the "old" models.

After I read a book or two on this device, I think I'm going to give it a proper review.  I'm curious to see how I like reading e-books (as opposed to paper books).  I did try the Kobo in the store a little bit, but I haven't gotten to look at all the bells and whistles yet.

Another new eReader...

Today, when I went to the Chapters website to order a couple of books, I noticed an advertisement for the new Kobo eReader, which will be coming in May. Now, I still haven't gotten around to buying an e-book reader of any sort. I've been musing over the Kindle and the Sony, but I wasn't really that enthused about either of them. Part of the reason was the price. But the Kobo is only going to be $149 Canadian! The comparison chart is pretty impressive, too. For a lot less money, the Kobo has many of the features of the Kindle or the Sony (although it doesn't look like it has a word look-up feature... darn!). It's also the thinnest and the lightest reader. It holds a few fewer books than the Kindle... but it has memory expansion (which the Kindle doesn't), so you can actually cram up to 4000 books on there with a memory card. I wonder how long it would take to actually read 4000 books...At the moment, there aren't a heck of a lot of e-books available in the YA category. It will be interesting to see if that resolves itself once the Kobo is actually released. I mean, they do have books such as Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush, Hush and Kelley Armstrong's The Darkest Powers series. I don't see many really recent releases, though.

It's something to watch, anyway. This looks like it could give us Canadians a more reasonably priced option for e-book readers.