OMG KRIS! I love my Amazon Kindle! I bought mine used for $200 (which has probably gone down because there are two more newer ones than what I have. I don't have the oldest, but not the newest.) I have gotten ALOT of my books for free on Amazon (they have a large free book section, and all the classics are free.) I think books are 30% cheaper for kindle than if you buy them right out at the store. You can store thousands of books on one kindle, and change the memory card if you want more. You can also order magazines to be delivered to it (watch out for that b/c some images wont be on the kindle. It's mainly just the articles.), and you can subscribe to blogs as well. Both of these cost money (I'm not sure how much, it varies). I do not use them for that reason. I think it's worth it. We don't have much space for alot of books lying around, and we especially wont when we move (I wont be able to have my books in the house) so this is a great option for me b/c all I need is the Kindle to keep all of them. A few down sides: I bought mine used, so it didn't have the instruction manual. Although you can download one onto youre kindle for free. I can't read mine in the sunlight (the newer models may be different), but the resolution fades and is unreadable. Only in the shade, or indoors is where mine is useful. This doesn't hinder me much, sicne i always have kids to watch when I'm outside (lol), but for some it really could be a hinderance. All in all, their great! (Wish I had the newer ones, but I'm VERY happy with what I have now even though it's an older version.)
thanks want to check it out. but I am still a sucker for hard books something about them in your hands kwim...
Oh, I know! I have a ton (so many that my closet has two plastic tubs of books I can't get rid of! lol) It's just a space saver for me, you know? I mean, I have 35 books on my kindle next to my bed. Just imagine how my table would look with 35 ACTUAL BOOKS sitting on it! lol. The space was a selling point for me, mainly, and it saves space in my purse since it's thinner than a book. lol
I have a Kindle(won it in a contest), and I do like it, mine reads well in the sun it has a no glare surface. The books are anywhere from .99 - 14.99 depending on the book, but they also offer a large selection of free books(not just gutenberg) that changes from week to week. If your kindle gets too full you can ask it to "store" some of your books in your "vault" for you to retrieve later if you wish. I take mine to church with my Bible on it for Sunday nights when I've got the kids and me by myself and can't carry everything I really like it also for trips and things where carrying a large amount of books would be prohibitive. I do still enjoy a book in my hand though so I don't think it will completely replace books for me
I have a Sony Reader (Kindle wasn't even an option in Canada when I was looking at e-readers), the Pocket Edition. Honestly, I can't imagine buying something like the Kindle that is so proprietary, where you can only download Kindle format books from Amazon. My Sony can read a whole slew of different ebook formats, and books bought from the Sony store can be shared between up to 6 different Readers. So dh's cousin and my MIL both have Readers, and we split the cost of books we all want to read... so a $9.99 book costs us each only $3.33.
My hubby won't get one for any of us (even though I want one), because he says it's kinda like "renting" books. They can take them back at anytime, and you can't resell them like you can paper books. *shrugs*
Angie, I have been looking (okay, drooling) over this cute little pink sony e-reader at walmart. I slow down and gaze at it longingly everytime i'm there. I hear that there's no bells and whistles on it...which I don't need! That's why i indulged in an iphone to have a gadget full of whistles and bells...i just want something to put books on because i always have at least ONE book in my purse (sometimes two if my daughter sticks one of hers in there) and it would be oh so much easier to just tote that cute little pink wonder around. I had no idea you could share books on it!!! So...worth it yes? I love the idea of the kindle, nook, and ipad..just WAY too out of my price range.
I'm not one to jump on new technologies, so I don't have an e-reader right now. From those with a Kindle, though, I hear them rave about some of its features. I'm sure at some point I will succumb - but it won't be for a pink one!
bawhahaha....I can't for the life of me understand why not Steve! It takes a mad, confident man to pull that off!
I am kind of an Amazon junkie and have wanted a Kindle for a while now. For all of you that are interested, they just announced a new one at the end of July. It actually starts shipping the end of this week. However, I think they are backordered until the middle of September now. They are selling fast. I almost bought the 2nd generation one around Christmas for something like $259. I'm glad I didn't because now it is much cheaper. My husband told me to order one, since my birthday is next week. The new one is $139 for the wifi version and $189 for the 3G/wifi version. I'm getting the wifi one because I don't need to pay $50 for 3G. I think I'll probably get it next week some time. I'll let you know what I think. Also, from what I know you don't "rent" the books, they are always yours. But, you're right you can't sell them. However, I believe I read on the kindle forum that you could have more than one kindle on your account that shares books. So, if you and your husband each had one then you could use it on both or for your kids or so forth. I might be wrong on that, but I'm sure that is what I read.
How well does the Kindle handle free files? I was thinking about getting this primarily for the free e-books and PDFs. You know, to save on printer ink...lol! I read in the reviews that some people have issues with PDFs. I probably wouldn't be ordering many "pay" books. Are there any other basic readers that handle free books and PDFs well?
I don't have one, but my sister does. She has a ton of free books on it. She sets it to where it reads aloud and sets it so the kids can listen to them when they are coloring, or driving somewhere. My BIL loves his, because he drives a ton and he can keep all of his books handy and not run out when he is on the road. They were thinking of getting one for my dad who is a truck driver, for two reasons. One is that he doesn't have to keep the stack of books in his truck, and he won't run out in the middle of a job and not have new books to read. My dad was looking at my BIL's and liked that the words could be enlarged and made it easier for him to read. I wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea of a kindle because of the want to have the book in my hands. I don't like reading on the computer. I don't think it is the same as a book. But I don't know. I am too cheap to buy one on my own. LOL Christian books. com has ebooks that are kindle friendly now too.
There are tons of free books available for the Kindle. I have actually only bought a few. Most of them are Christian authors that I would have bought real "book" versions of anyway. I have dozens of free books that I have "purchased" for free from Amazon. They function no different than a book that you purchased. There are certain formats that don't work on the Kindle. However, like i said before there are countless free books. Not sure which ones you are interested in, but you can go on Amazon.com and look at the Kindle store and check out all the free books. I have about every classic book I could think of. I know there are still dozen I want to get. But, they are not all just classics. I have a lot of free games I downloaded too. As far as the book versus screen thing, it is just preference. Some people want a book in their hands. To me it is lighter and easier to handle than a book. Plus I have a kindle cover with a built in light that runs off the Kindle battery, so I don't have to fiddle with a book light or batteries. Plus it really isn't like looking at a computer screen at all. I wouldn't like it if that was the case. It is a different technology called e-ink. It actually looks like paper. I knew it was different when I ordered it, but wasn't expecting it to look as good as it did. I acually thought when I received it that it had a plactic screen protecter over it. I thought it was just a picture stuck to the front and was trying to remove it. Luckily I figured out before I scratched it that it was actually what the screen looked like. It is pretty amazing. You can't tell it from viewing the kindle from your computer. It is much easier on the eyes than a computer screen. Let me know if I can tell you anything else. Oh, and the PDFs I'm not sure about I haven't used it for that. I do know that the new Kindle was supposed to improve PDF viewing. If I get a chance I will try it out and let you know.
A couple relatives have been talking me into the Nook through Barnes & Noble. A few reasons: Nook is upgradeable, has access to digital library books, and has a wider selection of books to choose from. The Kindle supposedly will not work with library systems at the moment. The new color Nook that comes out this week supports pictures, magazines, and even moving children's books. The link through our local library says they work with the Nook and Sony readers. http://library.netlibrary.com/Home.aspx
Hey, my new book is downloadable.. its not on amazon yet, but lulu has it with the others. I was wondering if it is loadable to Kindles? Does anyone know? What particular things can you dl to that?
I know that this is an old thread, but my Mom picked up a literati e reader for my son at bed bath and beyond on clearance for $25. ( about two days ago) It is color. I haven't played with it much, but have downloaded a few free books on it.
DH gave me a kindle for Christmas and I love it!! Someone had mentioned they can take back your books, but I never read or saw anything about that. I have a ton of the classics on mine to use with school and my kids love to read from it. Totally worth it in my opinion
