I want one of these
Kindle, or another brand, it probably doesn't matter as long as downloading and reading is easy.
Last week, I almost bought a Kindle.
I was standing in line at the store, with the kindle in my hand, but there was only one salesman behind the counter. His customer kept asking more and more questions, time was passing, I had to put the kindle back on the shelf and run to catch my bus if I wanted to get home before dark.
Since then, I've been reconsidering my options.
Kindle?
Sony e-reader?
some other brand?
what would be the difference?
Am I restricted to which sites I'd buy e-books from?
Will books from any site download onto any reader?
Does the reader come preloaded with free sample books?
I've had a look at a few sites that sell e-books and of all of them, so far, I've only seen one book by an author I already know and like.
This could be a problem.......what if I can't find books by my favourite authors?
The reason I want one?
I love to read. On the bus to work, on the bus home from work, at the lunch table while waiting for my shift to start, at home while eating dinner, reading in bed at 3am when I can't sleep.....you get the picture.
I love books. I love to look at my bookshelf, crammed full of novels.
The feel, the smell, turning the pages........but books can get heavy, and if I'm almost finished a story, I'll want another one handy to keep me going.
This sometimes means carrying two books, whcih is even heavier.
(Carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis in the neck and thumbs...)
Some of my novels have 600-800 pages!
Not too many of them, but still......
So while I'd love to keep reading real books, an e-reader for travelling seems like a great idea.
Here's where I ask for help.
Do you have an e-reader?
What brand is it?
Is it easy to use?
Can you buy books from multiple sites and are they compatible with all types of readers?
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I don't know but it will be interesting to see what people say. You can't wrong by buying the most popular I suppose. There was no doubt that the Betamax video recorder was superior to VHS yet the VHS killed the Betamax leaving Betamax owners with very few movie titles to hire.
ReplyDeleteAs you know I have the basic Kindle..super easy to use..super light weight and from what I've seen it is the one that can access most of the e book stores. You might also check with your library to see if they loan books on Kindle.
ReplyDeleteHi River,
ReplyDeleteA Kindle is on my hit list. I have two paperbacks to read and then off I go to Amazon to get one.
:0)
Cheers
PM
My sister has a kindle and let me read a book when I was in the hospital for a week. Hers is the stripped down model, I think she paid less then a hundred dollars for it. I found it easy to use and she's never without it. She mostly gets free books, and has about a zillion of them stored out in cyberspace. If I read books more than I listen to them, I'd have one, too.
ReplyDeleteI have a Kindle, and I have found that the file type that you can use is probably a little limiting compared to some others, but I still find plenty (of free, haven't paid for a book yet!) books to download. Also, love my cover as it has a built in booklight, really awesome :)
ReplyDeleteI have a basic kindle and love t to bits. I mainly get free books from amazon.
ReplyDeleteI'm keen to see the answers, too, for the same reason - love reading but small print, juggling magnifying glasses and trying to enjoy the story is near impossible.
ReplyDeleteKindle seems to be the popular one, will depend on what the majority of freebie book d/l's are configured for, I suppose.
I dont have one and would have to Google to find out what a 'BOOK' is...but I've heard others saying it was hard to find popular books already set up for these readers.
ReplyDeleteI feel a bit like a dinosaur. I can understand the urge to get an e-reader, but I love my books. And have a huge pile of unread books. Please keep us in the loop.
ReplyDeleteAndrew; we bought our first VCR in 1985 and from the beginning we were encouraged to go for VHS as Beta was "not so good" (their words, not mine). Why was the Betamax superior?
ReplyDeleteDelores: libraries? There's an option I hadn't thought about. How would borrowing and e-book work though?
Plasman; I've had one on my "to buy" list for almost a year now.
Joanne; how nice of your sister to lend you hers. I've had a look at a lot of the free books and there's not much there that I'd want to read.
permanently amanda; file types? I'll have to look into that too then. I know there are millions of free books available, but if they're the sort of thing I wouldn't normally read, (mushy romances) that's not much good to me.
peskypixies; what type of stories do you like to read? I have a bunch of favourite authors and like to read crime stories, murder mysteries, but I don't like Agatha Christie.
Jayne; the font size on the e-readers can be adjusted to suit your eyes, that's one thing in their favour.
Tempo; a "book" is the same as any other book, but in downloadable format, similar to an email I suppose. Buy the e-book, it's sent to your computer and from there you download it to your e-reader, just like downloading songs from i-tunes to your i-pod.
EC; I love my books too and will still buy them, but for travelling purposes, it would be so much easier to have several books available on one small machine.
Maybe if you're really good (and you've made up your mind which one you want by May), you'll get one for Mother's Day.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a stand-alone e-reader, but I do have the kindle application on my phone, and I've been happy with it.
My Kindle arrived on Tuesday :) I got a refurbished (aka good as new) keyboard one from Dick Smith online that cost $99 instead of $219 for the same model - only difference is mine doesn't have 3G. I didn't think I'd need it.
ReplyDeleteI've been prowling the free books on Amazon too, lots of classics I've never read, which is pretty good. There is a guy with a blog who posts links to free books regularly - I can't remember if it's freebookguy or freekindleguy or something like that but might be worth checking out.
Have a browse of the Amazon store & see what's available. Lots of books are free or very cheap :)
no-one; oooh! Mother's Day! I forgot that was coming up. I'll try and make up my mind. Now, what do you mean by being "really good"?
ReplyDeletesleepydwarf; I'm not sure why I'd need 3G either, so I'd settle for one without it. I've had a quick look at the Amazon site, I'll have to go back for a longer look when I ahve more spare time.
LC went to Washington last week for work, and at a friend's request, brought back a Kindle fire.
ReplyDeleteIn LC's words (as an iPad) lover, he's very, very impressed with what they can do. I don't have a kindle or an iPad and keep buying second-hand 'real' books, so I'm no help to you at all.... :P
I like to read all kinds but my faves are mysteries,crime,sci fi and drama
ReplyDeleteYou download the books straight to your kindle not via your computer.
Kath; a Kindle Fire? I'll have a look at one and see if I like it.
ReplyDeletePeskypixies; download straight to the Kindle? I thought they'd work like i-pods, via the computer. I was wrong....
Betamax was just technically superior and I seem to recall they cost more.
ReplyDelete