Do you have an ereader?

[moonfroggy]

Late here, too, but I have a Kindle and I love it! Since I live abroad, I don't have easy access to English-language books. Kindle puts them right at my fingertips--just a click away. Love it!

my father and younger brother live in south america and find getting books in English difficult as well. they do not have ereaders but they find better world books is a great resource for buying paper books http://www.betterworldbooks.com/
used books good prices free shipping worldwide
i don't work for them or anything i just like better world books a lot and thought i would mention it. sometimes books are only available in print and sometimes they are cheaper that way

i really want an ereader but feel too picky about the features i want and what is available to buy one right now. what i want is a notion ink. or something with same features. waiting patiently for something to become available that is also within my budget...

[badger]

I thought I'd revive this thread, as I'm on the cusp of buying a Kindle. But there's one small part of me that thinks it's just going to end up costing me more, but I do like how I'll just be able to download a book in seconds instead of going to the library or buying one or worse yet, waiting for them to be shipped.

I pretty much disappeared off the face of the earth last week plowing through the Twilight series. I finally caved and picked it up and it just sucked me right up. But I loved remembering what it's like to be lost in the world of books and I want to keep that momentum going.

I just hated having to lug around massive tomes of books (especially since they're library books, they were hard cover).

[Titania]

Honestly, my Kindle is one of the best purchases I've ever made. I'm an avid book reader, and it was getting ridiculous how many books I had in my house. I love having instant access to anything I want, and best of all I don't have 1,000 books sitting in my house.

I also have the Kindle app for my iphone, so I constantly have my books synched between my Kindle and phone for go-anywhere reading.

[DonnaS]

Another super-pleased Kindle owner here. I bought my second Kindle last spring...the less expensive WiFi version with ads. The ads are not instrusive, more like a screensaver when the Kindle is off.

[badger]

I was speaking to a co-worker who has a Kindle, and he said that it's a bit of a pain for us as we live in Canada, and some books you can't download. Didn't think of that...

[CyborgQueen]

I'm a Nook user. When someone asks about which eReader to get...I give them all a list of pros and cons for Kindle/Nook and sometimes others.

Badger - since you live in Canada, you'll be better off getting a Kindle.

The reason why books cannot be downloaded is because of America copyright laws and publishing rights. Some are country restricted. Each country has costs when it comes to publishing/copyrights. Not much you can do about that. I'm sure there's a lot of books that are available in Europe (for example), that are not available in Americas. Same idea.

If you like the Nook, just find someone that you know and trust with America address. That's one way to get around the loop (I think if you Google search threads, you can find information on how to use a Nook other than America).

Since I've gotten my Nook, I've downloaded over 300 books (many are freebies), and it's way better than hauling them and having them added to my already 500 books collection. It was EXPENSIVE to move, just because of those books....they weigh more than my big screen TV!!

Good luck on your eReader search!! You'll love it no matter what you buy!!

[MomOnBike]

Yet another e-reader convert here. DH bought me a Kindle when I was undergoing chemo. It was nice having (at that point) dozens of books to read during chemo. I wasn't able to concentrate on any one thing for long, so having lots of choices was nice. My elder daughter helped by suggesting titles that would be OK to read, but would be easy to discard when I developed an aversion to them.

Now I use the Kindle for any situation when I will be sitting and waiting. Doctor's visits, for example.

The Kindle has also proven itself on bike overnights. It is small, light and easy to carry. I could use the Kindle function on my smarty-pants phone, but there is the battery life issue.

Yep, the Kindle is one of the best gifts DH ever gave me.

[badger]

I'm a Nook user. When someone asks about which eReader to get...I give them all a list of pros and cons for Kindle/Nook and sometimes others.

Badger - since you live in Canada, you'll be better off getting a Kindle.

The reason why books cannot be downloaded is because of America copyright laws and publishing rights. Some are country restricted. Each country has costs when it comes to publishing/copyrights. Not much you can do about that. I'm sure there's a lot of books that are available in Europe (for example), that are not available in Americas. Same idea.

If you like the Nook, just find someone that you know and trust with America address. That's one way to get around the loop (I think if you Google search threads, you can find information on how to use a Nook other than America).

Since I've gotten my Nook, I've downloaded over 300 books (many are freebies), and it's way better than hauling them and having them added to my already 500 books collection. It was EXPENSIVE to move, just because of those books....they weigh more than my big screen TV!!

Good luck on your eReader search!! You'll love it no matter what you buy!!

thanks for the input. I met another person with a Kindle yesterday and she said she LOVED it, so I'm convinced now. I'll get one next pay day, which is Friday!!

[Catrin]

I have a Sony Reader, the Daily edition. Expensive but it has been worth it. The Kindle would have been less expensive but I like the design of the Sony much better.

[chryss]

My partner got me a Nook when I went to the hospital to have surgery a month ago. While I'll always have paper books (and friends of mine run bookstores, which are lovely places and I want to do my share to keep them in business), there are things that I really like the Nook for:

• Ease of downloading samples. I'm often hearing about a good book, look it up on the B&N site, get a free sample, and read through 15-50 pages for free getting a good feel for it before buying.
• Small form factor. Very handy, easy to hold and to operate (I have the touch-screen B&W one).
• Very pleasant to use and easy on the eyes.
• Free ePub books and PDFs render reasonably well. Project Gutenberg ePub are very nice. PDFs can be a mess, but often are quite usable.

As another poster said, if you're outside the US, the Kindle is the better choice. I wanted to go with something that is a tiny bit more open to non-DRM books and a tiny bit less dominant market-wise, and the Nook's a nice device.

There are also other reasons to dislike ebook readers in general, such as the difficulty sharing books within one's family, copying/pasting quotes (both of these should be *easy* with electronic resources but the DRM is in the way), leafing forward/back a few pages, knowing how many pages are left in a chapter etc. Overall, I enjoy the experience as something that gets me to read in situations where I wouldn't have.

[Roadtrip]

I have a kindle... But now also have my iPad... With the Kindle app so rarely use the Kindle now. Also have the Nook app and the Overdrive app where I can borrow e-books from my iPad, which is available here I the US at certain libraries... But only on the Nook (for now.) Yes, iPad is much more expensive.

Shannon

[Catrin]

I can also borrow library books on my Sony Reader, which is quite nice.

[Caddy]

Have a nook, the original. The e-ink is a lot easier on my eyes for prolonged reading and it's very handy since I'm out of space in my condo.

[Bethany1]

The prices have really come down on e-readers. I have an old Nook with the bottom touchscreen. Not really impressed as it was slow to do everything and the battery life wasn't much.

I picked up a Kindle when the price went down and really like it but missed the touch screen aspect as I have an iPad. I like the e-ink format and found the new Nook to be a great buy. It's completely touch screen and super fast. Both Kindle and the new Nook fit into my purse for easy reading.

Out of curiosity I picked up the Pandigital Nova tablet (I have a thing for electronics) as it has the Android system and is great for backlighting but extremely overpriced. Since Android doesn't have a direct link to Amazon's Kindle I had to go around the back way and install it. If you truly need a tablet, there are better ones out there if you are willing to pay for them. Love my iPad.

[Irulan]

My partner got me a Nook when I went to the hospital to have surgery a month ago. While I'll always have paper books (and friends of mine run bookstores, which are lovely places and I want to do my share to keep them in business), there are things that I really like the Nook for:

• Ease of downloading samples. I'm often hearing about a good book, look it up on the B&N site, get a free sample, and read through 15-50 pages for free getting a good feel for it before buying.
• Small form factor. Very handy, easy to hold and to operate (I have the touch-screen B&W one).
• Very pleasant to use and easy on the eyes.
• Free ePub books and PDFs render reasonably well. Project Gutenberg ePub are very nice. PDFs can be a mess, but often are quite usable.

As another poster said, if you're outside the US, the Kindle is the better choice. I wanted to go with something that is a tiny bit more open to non-DRM books and a tiny bit less dominant market-wise, and the Nook's a nice device.

There are also other reasons to dislike ebook readers in general, such as the difficulty sharing books within one's family, copying/pasting quotes (both of these should be *easy* with electronic resources but the DRM is in the way), leafing forward/back a few pages, knowing how many pages are left in a chapter etc. Overall, I enjoy the experience as something that gets me to read in situations where I wouldn't have.

You can use Stanza software (free) to clean up or reformat PDFs.