Printable View
A friend at work got a Nook a few weeks ago and loves it. The battery life is excellent. What I like about the Nook is that you can swap books between other Nook owners(for 14 days) and the fact thats its Barnes & Noble. I really like the idea of an ereader, especially for travelling and convenience. But I grew up in the 'library' era, where our second grade field trip was to the library and got a library card and being able to browse hundreds of books. Just my .02.
I LOVE MY KINDLE! I DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT MY IPHONE AND MY KINDLE!
My husband and I love our books--we have a whole room ("Library") in our small house dedicated to our collection. However, we were running out of room. We actually were considering moving to a bigger house to accommodate all the books (and we don't usually buy hardbacks!)
I bought the first kindle for my husband when they came out. We both travel for a living, he reads 2-3 books at a time, he was starting to wear reading glasses, and we're "techies." The wireless downloads and different font sizes were big selling points. My husband didn't take to it at first, so I stole it. I became addicted.
I read more, now, than I have since high school. Any books that are in public domain are free from Amazon or other websites (gutenberg, freebooks). Also, I read more new release hardbacks because they can be as low as $9.99 (publishers don't like this, and it may not last). I never dreamed it would pay for itself. Now, we have 2 kindles on the same account--so we can share books (you get up to 5 devices, including iphone and pc). We can actually buy a book and read it at the same time instead of waiting for the other person to finish! Instead of buying every book I'm interested in, I download a sample into my "virtual book pile" and only purchase when I'm ready to read it (that alone is a money saver--I never did get anywhere near the bottom of the book pile before hubby stole, read, and loaned out to someone else--then I ended up buying again). When I went to sell/donate some of our old books, we also discovered we had quite a few copies of some of our favorites. Amazon is polite enough to keep you from downloading twice.
The other advantage is ergonomics. I can hold my kindle in one hand. Much easier than holding SK's lastest "Under the Dome." At the time, I was reading "Snowflake" about Warren Buffett. It was so thick, I wasn't comfortable sitting in a chair, at a table or in bed. With a Kindle, reading in bed is much more comfortable.
I love bookstores and still go--with my kindle tucked in my purse. I download samples and anything not available on my kindle, I purchase. I also donated a lot of my old books to the library.
The screen is e-ink so it is easier on your eyes than a computer screen. It has a grey background and less glare.
I would advise checking the Amazon and Barnes & Noble forums to learn more. Rumor is the Nook is slow to ship and has quite a few software problems. I finally demoed a Nook at B&N with a friend who was interested and it wasn't very user friendly, IMHO. I couldn't get it to open a book, and the employee wasn't doing much better. Also search both stores for your favorite authors (Grisham and JK Rowling are not available in ebooks).
Sitting on an airplane the other day, someone next to me had an interesting book. I downloaded a sample before we pushed away from the gate. Sweet. I can sit at home in my jammies, watching letterman while it snows and download a new book by an author just interviewed on TV. Sweet (and lazy!)
Not all books are available in e-book format. Authors have the right to say no. Being able to borrow from the library would also be nice. However, I don't miss loaning books--my friends never brought them back anyway. Mooches. The color screen seems to be a big selling point, but I can do without it. Rumor is Amazon may be working on color, but they claimed up to this point it wasn't feasible. Also, think about all the fingerprints on your "book" from the touch screen?!
You can also convert word and pdf's for your kindle.
Oh yeah--battery life. If you turn off the wireless when you're not using it, the battery lasts over a week (I lost track after a week and a half).
But, it's really up to you :o
soon I'll be going on a year with my kindle, and I love it as much now as when I first got it. I recently downloaded the free "kindle for PC" and can access my kindle books on my pc, but it's not as easy reading with a backlit screen, for me. I hope the kindle for mac comes out soon for macbook, although I won't use it much it would be nice to be able to continue a book I've started if there should ever be a time I don't have my kindle with me. That's hardly ever, though, because it goes everywhere with me.
The internet access is a nice convenience, if you are reading and want to check your email or something (and you are in a wireless area). I don't find it that easy to use the keyboard (but I don't text or anything). But it's nice to have when you need it, and no extra charges for it either.
I keep telling myself I will go one month without buying a single book, but usually I find something I want, although luckily they are usually 1.99 or something like that.
vickie
The Kindle2 accepts .pdf's, word docs, etc via an email address. It's very easy to do. No converting anything.Quote:
Originally Posted by Irulan
I love my Kindle2. I also have shelves upon shelves of books and quite honestly, I was running out of room to put them all. The Kindle has a wonderful screen, very unlike a computer screen. It's a flat ivory and the words are black. It looks a lot like newsprint. It is not back lit, and I can read it with the sun shining on my back and on the screen. It's the size of a book, so it's comfortable to hold. On recent business trip to Munich, I was able to carry one, slim Kindle and went through 3 books. I was so happy not to have to carry all of the books. It took a bit to get used to hitting page forward instead of turning a page, but I got that. I think the only real drawback is that if someone mentions page 200 in the hard copy, I don't have an equivalent - at least that I found.
That's funny...Quote:
Originally Posted by andtckrtoo
On the books I have that are formatted for the Sony Reader (as opposed to universal format books, which are a little harder to read if they have a lot of chapter titles, short stories, etc.), I do get page numbers, but I don't know whether those match the hardcover, trade paperback or mass market paperback. :confused:
After reading this forum, you all had me thinking and thinking...I went to amazon to check the Kindle out. I can see how this would be great especially with the newspaper and magazine capability. It would cut down on the paper I recieve at the house. It would go to the Kindle. Not only that, I am in the middle of 6 books. They are piled up on my shelf. With this, they would all be in the Kindle and I would have my shelf space. WOW.
I have a question though. More might come later.
If you already subscribe to a mag and want to get it on the Kindle how do you do the conversion? I guess the same would apply for a newspaper.
How do you pay for your books that you download? If they are $9.99 each (or whatever the cost is) how are thy paid for?
How do you get beyond the $300 price tag (or thereabouts)?
Thank you,
Red Rock
I love my kindle. I really didnt think I would because I love the whole sensory experience of a book, the way they smell, the way they feel in your hands. the crack of the spine when you first open it. But I adapted very quickly. It took about 5 minutes to figure it out and then was totally lost in the book on the Kindle. I have been reading even more than normal and my eyes do not seem to fatigue at all like they do with real books. My husband and I both have a Kindle. We literally have 4 floor to ceiling book cases in additon to 2 normal 5 shelf bookcases bulging with books.
Once you set up the account with amazon the books are charged to whatever account you establish with them. Many books are free or very inexpensive. I love that you can read a sample of the book before deciding to purchase. The samples are typically 5% of the book. enough that you have a good sense if you want to continue.
I love that I can hear about a book somewhere and within two minutes have a sample of it to read without leaving my home. I still go to bookstores to peruse the shelves for new things to read and enjoy the smell of books. Yes I know that is a bit weird.
You can get a refurbished one on Amazon for $219.
Thanks ridenread. I will have to think about this for a while. I was tring to explain this to my DH and it made no sense to him at all. He does not like to read though. If we did not have TV he would not know what to do:(. Oh well...
Red Rock
Red Rock,
Justifying the price depends on how much you read and how much you spend on books. I read about one large paperback per week (approx $15). Now I pay $9.99 or less, or FREE! So you multiply that by 12 and I come close to paying for my kindle in a year--definitely 2. This was amazing to me since my cell phone and laptop don't save me money in the long run.
TrekTheKaty I was thinking about book cost to myself. I do read a fair amount when you bring in things like newspapers and magazines, let alone books. I have not figured how much I spend on books overall but it does not take much when they are $15-20 a pop.
I might read more with this around. Who knows? I do know it would have been great on a recent vacation. I was trying to figureout which books to bring on the trip. This would hold them all AND have internet access too at no charge. How good is that?
What is the difference between a "new" version and a referbished one?
Red Rock
I was offered a special deal and got a new Kindle 2 for about $160. I should have bought 10 (as there was no limit to quantity) and offered them to my friends at TE for cost.
DH is thinking about getting a Kindle for himself. He reads a lot of books. And he likes rereading all of his books. We end up purchasing most of our books even though I make a trip to the library weekly.
Paperbacks do cost about $15 a piece now. We can order them for the Kindle for half or even less.
As I mentioned in a previous post, you can store your books on your computer if you want to. DH and I could probably share books that way if we end up getting him a Kindle as well.
So I was curious as to what anyone thought of the newer Kindles that are in preorder right now?
How much of difference is having the internet capability for those of you that have it? What is it like moving in and out of pages?
The price competion has my hubby thinking...Since I am surrounded by all sorts of books.
Red Rock
Nook was the way to go for me. I LOVE the fact that you can share all your books with ANY OTHER nook user--any even niftier way to SAVE MONEY. You can now purchase a Nook for $149.
We are a two Kindle family. After I got mine I had to get my husband one so I could use mine.
As far as turning pages, at first I thought the books were abridged, I read so much faster. The page turn button is great and you waste much less time finding your place and keeping it.
At this point I'm not planning to upgrade to the newest Kindle, but the price is GREAT! I'd definitely go for the 3g just for the rare occasion like driving along in a car when you want to get a sample and then love it so much you must have the book right then and there.
You can find some really good deals on the Kindle boards right now. People are selling there K2 to upgrade to the new model. That's where I got my hubby's and it's in great shape. Some of them even come with a warranty. I'd just watch to see that the person selling has enough posts that they are a well known member.