e-readers

[schmenke]

Does anybody use them?

I was tempted to get one for the missus as a Christmas pressie as she reads a lot.
I don’t know much about them and was hoping that someone here might share their experience with them.

Doing a little bit of research I found that the price of the e-books is no cheaper than purchasing a real book :mark: .

Can a book be downloaded directly to the reader (via wi-fi) or does it have to be downloaded first to a computer, then transferred via a cable?

[555-04Q2]

Just like Bill gates, I prefer to read a piece of paper rather than a screen.

[Sonic]

Well this better half has a kindle and it is her 'favourite gadget'.

I can only speak to that device having had no experience with others on the market, but yes, the book downloads direct without the need for rummaging around for the correct cable to plug it into the PC.

[Gregor-y]

I've had a Kindle for a year and like it although there are also some irritations.
The Good:
- Lightness - as heavy as a smaller book and can hold many large volumes
- E-ink is great for reading outdoors, much like a printed page because there is no back-lit screen
- Very energy efficient if the wireless is turned off. I charge it once a month or so and I do read a decent amount on my commute

The Bad:
- Requires some overriding of software to get it to run pdf files (though this may have changed as mine is a year old)
- Personally I can't find some books I want to read (but then I can't find them in the local library, either)
- Because the reader can only go ahead or back one 'page' flipping through a book is pretty much impossible if you want to look for something a few chapters earlier. There is a 'go to' feature that will take you to a location of the book, but that's either a chapter break, a bookmark set by the user, or a character location.
- In temperatures below freezing the e-ink will become sluggish and make pages look faint and leave traces of the previous page visible. I had it happen a few times waiting at train stations. Once the reader is in a warm environment again the in 'thaws out' and works again.

[donKey jote]

Missus got a Kindle for her last birthday and she loves it.
Price for e-books might be the same as for paper books -depends where you look for them ;) :erm: :andrea: -, but think of the space you save ! :s mokin:

[schmenke]

...but think of the space you save ! :s mokin:

That is my ulterior motive for the gift. The bookshelves in our house are cluttered with read books, mostly paperbacks, that the missus refuses to part with :erm: .

As I understand some e-readers can download from public libraries? Is this correct?

Thanks all for the welcomed feedback.

[ioan]

Missus got a Kindle for her last birthday and she loves it.
Price for e-books might be the same as for paper books -depends where you look for them ;) :erm: :andrea: -, but think of the space you save ! :s mokin:

Exactly.

Since I've got my Samsung Galaxy tab I read 8 books in 5 months, up that that point I read maybe 5 books in 10 years, other than lots of literature for my job.
Why is that? because you can carry all your books with you, because you can have them there any time you feel like you want to read like in the plane, in the train, while waiting somewhere etc.

I say go for it.

Here you can get classic free literature: Project Gutenberg - free ebooks (http://www.gutenberg.org/)

[MrJan]

I have a Kindle being delivered tomorrow :D I've being toying with the idea for a while but the lack of time that I've spent reading over the last few years was at the forefront of my mind whenever I considered the price of the thing. What tipped me over the edge was a mixture of things. Firstly I'm going to be spending 8 hours on trains this weekend. Secondly, because I'm going to Sweden over New Year and will spend a fair bit of time in airports, on planes, trains and laying around. And finally because my boss had one delivered today and it looked really swish.

I'm still apprehensive about how much I'll actually use the thing, but I think the portability of it will be the deciding factor. At the minute I quite often spend an evening slumped in front of the telly just messing around on my netbook. Hopefully I'll now be productive and read instead. Also the fact that there are millions of free books (albeit most of them a bit ****e) lessens the pain of paying £90.

[GridGirl]

I absolutely love my Kindle. We did have Kindle wars in my house until the other half bought his own Kindle about two weeks ago. As far as Kindle's go we have a wi-fi Kindle Keyboard and the new Kindle model without the keyboard and they are both linked to the same Amazon account. Personally I wouldn't say the keyboard is essential and to be honest I've only ever bothered buying one book through the Kindle itself. Everything else I've downloaded has been via a PC. With so many books on it I've never really needed to buy an emergency book so to speak.

There are lots of classic books that are free and I've also bought some other bargains but overall I wouldn't say recent releases are cheaper than a regular book. I love the fact that e-books don't take up anymore room in my study and I definitely read more since I got my Kindle. However, I do love to cook and I personally wouldn't ever think about buying e-cookery books so my Christmas gift list still includes a few regular cookery books.

I think im going to spend a good six hours travelling on the train to various parts of the country on Friday and I'm taking my Kindle with me. It sure beats taking my laptop and working on the train. ;-)

[schmenke]

...I do love to cook and I personally wouldn't ever think about buying e-cookery books ...

Why is that?

[donKey jote]

too saucy ?

[GridGirl]

Why is that?

E-readers are great for reading books but when do you ever read a cookery book from cover to cover? I suppose the idea of using a cookery book on an e-reader just doesn't appeal to me as I like to flick through my cookery books and then decide what I'm going to cook. I've also got into quite a sad habbit of marking up my cookery books with sticky labels so I can easily find recipes that I've thought about cooking before but haven't yet got round to trying. You can mark favourites on a e-reader but I dont really think a favourites list helps you when you're just looking for inspiration and dont really know what you want to cook yet. Sometimes it might be a picture that catches my eye or a seasonal product which you can much more easily find in an actual book than on an e-reader.


too saucy ?

Only if its Nigella. I aspire to be a domestic godess like her. ;) Still got a long way to go though. :p

[Mark]

My wife reads a lot of books and always spends half an hour reading every night, so I've got her a Kindle for Chritmas - it's the one without a keyboard, as you seem to be able to do everything through your Amazon account anyway I don't really see the point in the keyboard.

Her mother also has a Kindle so she's interested in if she can share books through it, but from what I've read you can only share for 30 days? Which isn't great as it usually takes her 2-3 months to read a book.

[schmenke]

...when do you ever read a cookery book from cover to cover? ...

I wouldn't mind the missus having a go... :p :









:erm:








:uhoh:

[ioan]

Does she read this board. I hope she does! :D

[MrJan]

Initial impressions of my Kindle are very positive. I haven't read a proper book for a long time, I've read a couple freebies on iBooks on my phone, but both were short and ****e. I also started reading the Bernie Ecclestone book but got a bit bored and never finished it. THat's pretty much it for what I've read over the last 2-3 years. The Kindle seems to have given me a real hunger for it though and, since getting it on Wednesday evening, I've read two books cover to cover (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and it's sequel). The display doesn't hurt your eyes, it's easy to use, is a great size so that I can carry it in an inside pocket (I'm lost without an inside pocket) and read it whenever there's a spare 5 minutes and, above all, the battery is superb. Also it's nice to be able to select a book and download it instantly over wi-fi (and it really is instant, it'll take longer when I press 'Post Quick Reply' now than it would to download a novel.

The only thing that is important now is how it stands the test of time. I've had a lot of free time over the weekend (about 10 hours on trains/in train stations) so it was natural that I'd want something to do, now I'm hoping that I end up reading as much, or more, than I watch TV.

[schmenke]

Thanks for all the input :) . I have a dumb question for which I've been seeing conflicting answers during my web-vestigations...
Do e-books for the Kindle have to be purchased from Amazon? Similarly, it seems that books for the Kobo reader (here in Canada) have to be purchased from Chapters.

Also, what is epub?

Sorry... that was two questions... :mark: .

[edv]

epub is just another e-book format. Microsoft, Sony, Adobe all have their formats.
If you've got an e-book in one format, but want to read it on another machine, you can always use online utilities for conversion, like this one: Online converter (http://www.online-convert.com/)

[GridGirl]

Thanks for all the input :) . I have a dumb question for which I've been seeing conflicting answers during my web-vestigations...
Do e-books for the Kindle have to be purchased from Amazon? Similarly, it seems that books for the Kobo reader (here in Canada) have to be purchased from Chapters.

Also, what is epub?

Sorry... that was two questions... :mark: .

I do believe there are various websites that allow you to download books for free.

[donKey jote]

Yep :erm: :andrea: :)

[schmenke]

Update.
Yes, Santa delivered a brand new Kobo for the missus for Christmas. To date, feedback from her is non-applicable.
But our 7 year-old loves it.


:dozey: