Do you have an e-book reader?

[IglooDame]

I'm thinking of getting one now so that it's easier on the eyes and trees. Which one is the best?

I have less than an hour into it, but I'm happy with the (very basic) features and readability of my B&N "Nook Simple Touch", it's a 6-inch screen, "e-Ink" black&white, and a battery time measured in weeks. However, it will not do games, email, movies, or web-browsing. It's an electronic book library, and nothing more.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

That is a point people has to have clear. E-books readers are not PCs. Even the more expensive and complex ones cant do everything a tablet PC can. The same e-ink technology is not good for games or movies, since it has a slow refresh time compared with LCD screens (remember there are floating particles moving up and down there) .They are for reading documents mainly.

 

[Furiey]

I have a kindle and love it. I also have shelves full of books and have run out of space for more. The kindle solved that problem. It's also great for reading in bed as it doesn't lose my place when I fall asleep reading. I would not use it for "coffee table" books, large format with lots of pics - I would still go for a physical copy for one of those.

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

I don't. I hate touchscreen devices.

There's one version of the Kindle that has a keyboard, but it's not worth $139. Easier to just trade used books online.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

You could have gotten a Kindle Keyboard 3G for $90 from BestBuy just before Thanksgiving, but that deal was over by Black Friday.

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

You could have gotten a Kindle Keyboard 3G for $90 from BestBuy just before Thanksgiving, but that deal was over by Black Friday.

Not a terrible deal but I could still trade about 25 books for the same price. And I can get the Kindle app for the PC for free if I want to buy e-books.

 

[classical_hero]

Eventually I might get one, since it will be convenient to use and not having t carry around lots of books, but for now I don't have a need for one

 

[wilbill]

I've had a Kindle for about 3 years and I love it. I still buy a real book occasionally, but the Kindle is convenient and I've really come to prefer it. One advantage is that I can set the type large enough for my feeble old eyes even if I forget my reading glasses.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

A question for Kindle owners: Are Kindles limited about format, DRM or something? So can you read any PDF EPUB DOC from any source (free or not) you can find at Internet or it is somehow limited to books you buy from Amazon?

 

[JohannaK]

I have 50 books in my Kindle, and none were bought in Amazon. But you need to convert them. There is a program called Calibre, is for free and converts everything.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Ah OK. Um... Personally i would rather recommend other readers then. Converting books always have been annoying for me. Books always lose his original page design when converting, particularly PDFs with graphics columns and such. An important thing in e-readers is versatility. That is the reason i bought the Hanlin V3, it is a OEM reader and there are lots of firmwares from different resellers so you have many "different" readers in one so it is able to read almost any book without converting it.

 

[JohannaK]

The files are automatically converted when transferred to the Kindle with Calibre.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Said it because i also use Calibre sometimes as last resort and many times the book gets chaotic after conversion. However i just read that last kindles models have native support for different formats including PDF. So not need for conversion then I suppose.

 

[JohannaK]

Pues vale

 

[Samez]

I just got the Kobo touch before Christmas and like it till now.
Only point to criticize is the amount of page turning you have to do if you are a fast reader.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

If I ever run out of books to borrow from the local library, I'll get one.

 

[Furiey]

A question for Kindle owners: Are Kindles limited about format, DRM or something? So can you read any PDF EPUB DOC from any source (free or not) you can find at Internet or it is somehow limited to books you buy from Amazon?

I have lots of books from elsewhere. Just download the appropriate format, mobi or prc I think from memory. It'll also take pdf, including your own. Calibre is only needed if you want to use something that isn't in a suitable format, and with the large number of kindles around it's in the seller's interest to make it available in a kindle compatible format. I download lots from places like the Baen free library and that all goes on without converting, as has everything else I've downloaded so far.

 

[Glassfan]

No, I regard them with suspicion and contempt and refer to real books as...well, "real books" to get my point across.

Amen, brother. I prefer real books - I like to write in them and keep them. I do, however, have a cheep Sony to download old materials from Gutenberg.com and other freeware sites.

I'm not against new technologies, but I'd recommend some of the Youtube videos where people show what happens when you drop, wet or sit-on these readers. Pretty funny stuff...

 

[Agent327]

No e- (or i-)reader, don´t intend to buy one either.

And I don´t write in books. (I think that+s the author´s job.)

 

[Algeroth]

I bought a Kindle 3 (or a Kindle keyboard as it is now called) last November and I ing love it. I have to read load of scientific paper and the constant backlight from my laptop was really hard on my eyes. Now they thanks me every day - the Amazon's e-ink is really a godsend. Plus, I can move more naturally in my chair on in my bed than i could with laptop. Plus, thanks to Calibre I can get The Economist for free. Yay!

But for the leisure reading I still prefere dead trees. I use the Kindle mainly for free stuff (like guttenberg. com) or things that would take forever to get here (like when i decided to read Chesterton in original, not in translation).

The reader is very convenient, but book is still book.