Thread: To Kindle or Not To Kindle?

My DD has a Kindle and I tried to use it with an open mind.

Still, just didn't enjoy it. It's so much more pleasure for me to actually hold the Real book and read it for myself.

Am I just OLD ... weird ... odd ... or what?

Yep, all of those....... LOL

I really enjoy my Kindle especially since my DDs like to share it too. I dont have to pack so many books.

Just try it again soon and maybe it will grow on you.

LuLu, I LOVE my Kindle!!!! I don't read hard/paperback books anymore. I think its the greatest invention ever. Reasons?

1) I no longer have to take books for my cruise--taking up valuable space and pounds.

2) I have arthritis and find the Kindle easy to hold and I have no more problems trying to turn pages

3) When I'm in a good book, I hate to put it down, but there are times my eyes are tired and the print seems to get smaller and smaller. When that happens, I just bump up the font size and can keep reading.

4) Amazon offers free books and I have discovered some great authors I never would have read.

5) I no longer have to drive to the library. I can just browse Amazon's and download books in less than a minute.

Bob and I both have Kindles and read the same authors. We just got off of a b2b cruise and one of them was a transatantic with 9 sea days. We took our Kindles and had 31 books loaded onto it. That gave us a big choice of "what do I want to read next?" and we don't fight over who is going to read what, when!

We have bought some really beautiful (and expensive) leather covers for our Kindles and they feel more like holding a book.

LuLu, I guess you can see I'm a really big fan.

Garry

I guess as there's competition (Borders, B&N) now for the Kindle, the price will come down eventually. It would be nice for vacations as that would save on luggage space. It would be nice if my daughter was able to have one in her backpack as everyday in homeroom she is required to bring a free-reading book...and her backpack is heavy! There was a story on the news the other day about a classroom in which every kid has a netbook or i-pad (or something like that) and all their textbooks are on the computer. I think that is the future. Maybe it'll take a lot longer for the general population to switch over, though.

Originally Posted by LuLu

My DD has a Kindle and I tried to use it with an open mind.

Still, just didn't enjoy it. It's so much more pleasure for me to actually hold the Real book and read it for myself.

Am I just OLD ... weird ... odd ... or what?

No Lulu, none of the above. I read dozens of books each year.

However when it comes to cruising I do hate to add to my weight limit by carrying books, they also take up quite a bit of room.
I don't have a Kindle, but I do have a Sony E Book. I find that downloading several books is more than enough to see me through a cruise.
I also have other interests and if I have to learn lines etc, I just scan and download as a file and read as I need.

Speaking of BOOKS ....

Has anyone read:

The Truth About Cruising by Jay Herring

It just came out April 2010 ... by a ship's officer telling his experiences.

Barnes & Noble has it for KINDLE ... but out of the book (last time I checked).

We were looking at Barnes & Noble's Nook last weekend.

Anyone know the difference between the Nook and the Kindle?

Lulu, I have friends who love their Kindle and others who can't use it. I still love to curl up with a book, but I have downloaded Kindle software onto both my phone and laptop, and I use it to read samples of books from Amazon. I belong to a book club, and after I hear what book is selected, I download the book sample, and then decide whether to get a library copy or purchase a copy to get the rest of the story.

On the plus side, you can lie down on your side and read, without having to worry about holding the book in such a way that you won't lose words in the crease between the pages. You don't have to worry about pages or font size as Garry said. On the negative side, you don't have the visual effect of seeing yourself make progress through the book. There is no page counter, and while you can tell your progress on a sliding scale when you tap the page, it's not the same.

One thing someone noted is that your eyes scroll up and down instead of side to side. This would be good for people with neck problems, I think.

It is lightweight and it does save storage space. But I havent' bought one, because I don't want to carry around another piece of technology. When they built an application for my phone, that was enough for me.

For those of you who aren't sure about whether this is for you, go to this page for free kindle software to download to your computer or, if your phone allows applications, to that:
Free Reading Apps

While most books cost $9.99, you can get some for free (as Garry pointed out!) and almost all have a free sample of about the first chapter or 2. You probably can't download magazines or the other Kindle features, but this gives you an idea of what to expect from reading books electronically.

Mindy

Originally Posted by Krazy Kruizers

We were looking at Barnes & Noble's Nook last weekend.

Anyone know the difference between the Nook and the Kindle?

I've been looking at them, and there's one benefit the Nook has over the Kindle: the Nook reads a standard format that can be borrowed from a lot of libraries. The Nook also has expandable storage for music files, although I have heard that the functionality to create playlists, etc. is not as good as on an iPod, but that's expected to improve.

Our county library has thousands of ebooks you can download and read for up to 21 days, then they "disappear" from your reader (the library takes them back, so to speak). The Sony readers and the Nook from Barnes & Noble, and the Kobo reader from Borders, can all read the format, but the Kindle cannot. So with the Kindle you are tied more closely to one vendor, Amazon, than you are the other readers.

The Kindle and the Nook both have the ability to buy books right from the device, without hooking it up to the computer first (like you have to do with the Sony readers).

I'm leaning toward the Nook because of that (and the fact that the Nook is now $199 and $149 now.

Thanks -- that is just the kind of information I was looking for.