OT ? ebooks, nooks, kindles et al

I have a Kindle from Amazon. I love it. Although you really can't share books without giving her your Kindle. You can adjust the font size so that you can read it -- whether you need 16 pt print or have super eyes that can handle 8 point. I have read it while sitting poolside -- so the sunlight doesn't bother it. I read at night before bed. It is not back lit - you do need "room" light. Books run from 7.99 to around 9.99 for most titles.

They now come in small, medium and large sizes. Mine is about 6" x 10" and I purchased a leather cover for it -- so it holds and feels like a book. The cover also protects the screen.

My DS's girlfriend has a Nook from Barnes & Noble. She chose that one particularly because she wanted to be able to put library books on it. I can't do that with my Kindle.

You might find this helpful.

When I travel -- I used to cart 3 or 4 books with me. Now I just tuck my Kindle in my purse and I'm good for weeks (or months... or years!)

Hope this helps.

My sister just got a Nook for Christmas, and I echo much of what Kate has said. I have a really old, about 7 or 8 year old, eBookwise, and while I love it, it is heavy and I would probably go with a Nook now as well.

I also sent my sister the link above. There are over 33,000 free books. It is a project of already digitized books, and others typed in by volunteers. The formats available for download support a very wide variety of devices. I really like this site because as someone who has never read many of the classics, as they were out of favor in English classes in the late 70's when I was in high school and then college, I can now get them for free and read them.

Kate, Polly, that is what I love about having a device such as this. When I travel, or even just about town when I know that I am going to have to sit for a while, I can take this and have something to read, and if I don't like it, I just switch to a different title.

Steven Alaska

Have you explored manybooks?

I also have one of the ancient eBookwise units. It's not as pretty as the newer ones, and it is heavy, but I use it all the time. I guess when it finally dies, I will have a decision to make, but right now it does what I want. That is, I can get all the free books I want! Manybooks actually allows downloads in the rocketbook format, which is what eBookwise uses.

Iris

Polly, sorry I don't have one but my SIL recently got the Kindle from Amazon as well and loves it. Tons of free titles. FWIW she joined some online discussion groups prior to purchase to see what would work for her. If you're interested I can get that info for you. Avid doesn't even come close to describing her reading habits and I agree that it will make her life considerably easier travelling with reading material. I looked at it as well but was looking for something that I could read in bed at night without the aid of glasses. And even with the font sizes available, I still would need glasses so it lost some of it's appeal for me personally.

Kim in NJ

Hi Polly,

DH & I both have Sony E-readers and love them. We travel a lot on business and it is wonderful to be able to carry a huge selection of books on one slim, device. It can also double as a MP3 player, but I have never bothered with that, as it uses the battery up faster. Sony have brought out a pocket sized version that is a bit smaller than the ones we have. "Print" size can be varied and it will also happily handle .pdf without any problems.

On an aside DH bought me Cryoburn, the latest book by Lois McMaster Bujold, in hardback, for Christmas and it included a CD with all the previous books in the series inside it. On further inspection the CD had printed on it "This disk and its contents may be copied and shared, but NOT sold." So now I have the whole series on my e-reader and I can introduce others to her wonderful world. Well done Baen books!

Lizzy

Now there's something I had not considered. We studied classics but there was no pleasure in it. We were commanded to answer questions such as 'what if the secondary theme blah, blah,blah?'. I might have enjoyed them if given the opportunity without the hassle. Polly

"Steven Cook" My sister just got a Nook for Christmas, and I echo much of what Kate has

I did a bunch of research on the Nook and Kindle when I was debating on which one to buy.

1. Lending books: Kindle - no, Nook - yes, once per book to one person with another Nook. Whether you can lend or not depends on the book itself. Some publishers allow it and some won't.
2. Borrowing books from the library: Kindle - no, Nook - yes, as long as the books are in ePub format and the library uses OverDrive. From what I've read the books just stop working when the time is up. Not sure if you can renew before time is up or not.
3. Both have adjustable font size. Nook also has a choice of 3 different fonts.
4. Kindle (except for the DX) is lighter weight than the Nook.
5. Both will play MP3 files so you can listen to music or audiobooks.

Here's a good side by side comparison of the Nook and Kindle in all their different versions.

I ultimately decided on a Nook (3G+WiFi not color). For me it came down to the fact that I want to be able to borrow books from the library, download free books from many different sites, and buy books from multiple sources rather than just from Amazon. I also don't really care about being able to surf the internet or check email. I have a computer to do that. I also really like the idea that the Nook has an SD card slot so I'm not limited to the storage on the device itself and that the battery is user replaceable. (Beware, if it matters to you, the battery is not user replaceable in the NookColor. I'll be trading the one DH got me for Christmas for the 3G+WiFi Nook today. He's a sweetheart but he just refuses to believe that "the latest and greatest" isn't always the best.) :o) ~*~ Jeri

A friend got the latest Kindle for Christmas.

It's small (about the size of a paperback in area, and about half an inch thick), VERY light, the batteries las for weeks, and it'll hold more than you can read in a lifetime. While Kindle books are a bit more expensive than paper books, there are also millions of free books available through things like the Gutenberg project, so you need never run out of things to read.

The display is totally non reflective, you can change the text size, and you can add your own footnotes!

Me want!

I'm thinking about getting a Kobo. It's put out by Borders and comes preloaded with something like 100 books. I think they're some of the "classics" that are no longer copyrighted. You can download books from the library with the Kobo, but it doesn't come with audio, so you can't listen to audio books or music on it. According to the reviews, it isn't fancy, but it's a good basic reader to start with (no internet, no keyboard, no 3G). It doesn't appear that you can share with others, but I don't plan to buy books - I'll download them from the library. Oh, and it's very lightweight - something like 8 oz. I think.

I've been listen> I used to have a sign in my office that said, in part, "We have studied

My daughter bought me a Kindle for my birthday. My first thought was that I would never use it - I am a book person. But I find myself using it most of the time. I particularly like that I can use the Kindle ap on my phone if I happen to get somewhere without a book and need to wait. It knows what page I am up to and can adjust to that. Then when I pick up my Kindle it syncs to that page.

I did download the free Calibre program so that I can convert to Kindle from other formats. I haven't tried with Library Books though.

Linda PATCHogue, NY Queen of Boxtops

Oh my goodness. I have seriously considered all the opinions and reviews offered by you all. Honestly. I feel like Doc's lab, Fudge. Doc mentioned that thinking made Fudge's head hurt. I'm pretty sure I really don't need color pictures. With some books, if you forget your book at home, you can continue reading whatever wherever on your phone. Don't think I'll really long for that ability either. Maybe I'll just hand my credit card to a friend and say, "Go buy one for me". I am dithered. Polly

"Kate XXXXXX"

On Thu, 30 Dec 2010 22:14:12 -0600, Polly Esther wrote (in article ):

I have a Kindle which I love dearly. I can't borrow library books with it, but that is not a problem for me as our library doesn't lend ebooks. I know there is a way to "lend" one of your books to a friend, but I'm not sure how that works. I haven't tried it yet.

One of the pluses of the Kindle for me is that it is not backlit. I find it much easier on my eyes than backlit screens. But the downside is that to read in the dark, you need a lamp or booklight. Just like with a paper book.

Maureen

On Fri, 31 Dec 2010 07:55:47 -0600, Jeri wrote (in article ):

Actually, Kindle just announced a lending feature that pretty much works the same as Nook. I haven't tried it yet though.

10th grade english was a brand new home ec teacher doing one class of english that year. I nearly dropped out of school altogether over julius cesear. It was torture and she probably ruined any joy in reading classics for a lot of people. I doubt anyone learned anything. Good luck on your reader hunt! Taria

That was my thought too, Taria. Borders went belly up over here in the UK just before Christmas last year :-( I really miss them, they had a good selection of quilting books, a coffee shop and they carried US import magazines at reasonable prices.

Lizzy

Lizzy, Baen books has been ahead of the curve with ebooks for several years. Most of Rick's books are available in e-format for not a lot of money, as are many other out of print books. Rick does a lot of "kindle" books on his computer, neither of us has a hand held reader yet, but I think they are in the not too distant future. A very tech savvy friend of ours told us back a couple of years that the Sony was the way to go. With the changes and improvements he now says that the Kindle is the best. It has the largest selection of books available and the ways to use it are more intuitive. (Just a review from someone out there...) Depending on when the back SSD money gets here and how much it is, I may actually try to surprise Rick with a Kindle. That way I could also read some of the books he has bought to read on his computer.

Have fun, Pati, >>