Kindle

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  • love it, love it, love it.
    perfect for one handed reading when hooked to the platelette machine for 2 hrs every fortnight. image
  • love my kindle to, best pressie i ever received. Am an avid reader and I think I've actually read more since getting one. Got about 100 books on mine, keeping me out of trouble image

  • Is your book available on Kindle, Holgs?
  • Not yet, but I'm hoping it will be as actual book sales have been good making it a bestseller in the sports biography category. I asked the publisher about it, they said if the book took off they'd probably release an electronic version.
  • cool!

    I'll be looking for it at the end of the month

  • evil, evil things - i appreciate it is an entirely irrational and possibly Luddite fear, but i just don't see what is so wrong with books in the first place - what needed fixing? where will the character of the curled pages of a well-loved book go? Don't tell me that despite the improved sound quality, vast amounts have gone from listening to music since the demise of vinyl and nice big covers to look at - in the case of books the reading experience is no different reading some wanky electronic thing compared to a printed page and no equivalent improvement to compensate for all those intangible sensory losses. I love my bookshelves - the spines of all those memories sitting there. Seems it's just me though 
  • MuttleyMuttley ✭✭✭

    The Kindle didn't perform too well in this test.

  • that's a class test.

    Nothing wrong with books and I really appreciate them, I'm a librarian and author, my wife is also a librarian. I got a Kindle because we've just had a baby and had to make room in our small house, painfully a lot of books went.
    So practical reasons mean that I can now store my new books in a lot less space.

    E-readers whatever the make won't be for everyone.

  • The ebooks do seem very expensive.   I was looking at Cathy Cassidy books as my eldest is going through her novels at the moment - on Amazon you can get the book cheaper than the kindle download.     Then I had a look at a couple of cycling biographies - Lance Armstrong and Robert Millar - same thing cheaper in paperback.     Then I had a look for the novel I'm reading at the moment - it's a penguin modern classic so not exactly obscure but they don't even have it for download.

    I can see how they suit some people - if you travel a lot maybe -seems a shame as I like the idea of being able to access lots of books cheaply but it doesn't seem to offer that for the sort of stuff I would read.   

  • I am afraid I agree with Pottingshed and Popsider.

    I read about 3 books a week and my other half said he was going to get me one for Christmas but had been quizzing me and changed his mind. (I was oblivious to this at the time) I then said that a guy I work with has one and I had a little play with it and that although it was easy to use and good at what it does, that I much prefer physical books.

    It seems he was going to buy me one for my birthday if I had said I liked it, but to be honest £111 is too much money for something, that if I dropped it over the side of the bed or it fell off the arm of the chair then what happens?

    Also there is the issue of price, at the moment you can buy most books at £0.01 on Amazon with £2.80 ish delivery. And other people can benefit from them if you pass them on afterwards.

    If you travel alot then they would be great, or if they were only £50 and then the ebooks were at least half the price of actual books, but I would rather have something to show for my money.

  • NessieNessie ✭✭✭

    I must admit I was sorely tempted when I spotted this on e-bay today.  There are lots of classic books that I'll probably never buy, but might have a squint at a chapter or 2 if I had them in e-format, and may then read the whole book.

    I love books - the feel, the smell, just the whole bookiness of books, but I also am fascinated by the whole e-book thing, probably from watching Star Trek and not believing we would ever have such things.

    I will treat myself to a Kindle some day - Santa brought the GHDs instead.

  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    I'm in two minds - I love my books, though. 

    My friends and I pass them around, and we have a book case here at work where people put books they don't want to keep, for others to try.

    I think I'll stick with paper for now.

  • I have lots of paperback classics which I will never throw away but are too yellowed and smelly to read now. I won't throw away my paper copy of 1984 given to me by my beloved for Christmas 1983 but in its current state I wouldn't read it again either,

    Books have a place in a home but they do as Holgs points out take up space, they get old and yellowed and dusty, each to their own. I will still buy cookery books and knitting and craft books but am very much looking forward to getting my Kindle tomorrow image

  • MuttleyMuttley ✭✭✭
    A lot of my books are old and yellowed and smelly ... I feel a strange affinity with them.
  • Muttley I have to sniff library books before I can borrow them. image

  • @beebs - yes, the iPad is almost 5x the price and at least 3x the weight, so they're not ideal for reading if you need to hold the book. However, iPad is a lot more than an eReader, but it doesn't necessarily fit the bill if you want an alternative to books. I wouldn't swap my iPad for a Kindle, even if I was offered my £500 back and a Kindle for nothing, though.

    I used a Kindle again on the weekend, and I just can't get over how stupid the page-flip animation is on it. It's utterly ridiculous.
  • I'm another one that loves my Kindle.  I still love reading books and will probably continue to buy books as you can't beat the feel of them.  However I work away from home a lot and also like reading in bed where the Kindle is at it's best.

    Intermanaut, I'm not sure it is an animation, the ink is actually printed or something so I believe it is wiped and then reprinted.  I don't mind that though because with the brief delay you can change page before you get to the end with time to read the last few words, then the next page is ready when you look back to the top.

  • @Alan W - whatever it is, the screen flashes. From what I can tell it actually changes the text to the next page and the inverts the page. To me, it's still stupid and distracting, and that Amazon hasn't given users the option to switch it off beggars belief.

    Edit: I've just read that the entire screen is refreshed (turned to negative, so white pixels swap to black, black to white, then back to their correct state) to normalise contrast. That suggests that the technology is not yet mature - a bit like early plasma displays.
  • I bought one of the first Sony readers and still love it for when I travel. I prefer books when I'm at home though. Also have an i-pad but I feel my eyes get strained trying to read from that for any period of time so would't use the i-pad instead of the Sony.
  • I think a lot of people feel the same here. Proper books at home but if you are travelling then they are useful. When I commuted I used to read o nthe train and got through a lot of books (many of which I wouldn;t necessarily want to keep). They tended to be paperbacks as well to get them in my case. I am reading a good large hard-back at the moment but basically can't take it on a commute because it is too big. If I had it on a Kindle then I could.

     So perhaps a Kindle is a partial replacement for actual books.

  • It hasn't arrived, its got as far as the Royal Mail depot but not made it home image
  • I think you're right Intermanaut, I'm sure they will (and hope) improve the technology.
  • It left the sorting office yesterday but didn't make it the mile up the road to home, I called in at the sorting office yesterday and they have promised to seek it out and deliver it to me at work today.
  • OOh! I love my kindle!

    I have always been a book-lover. I adore bookshops, I have worked in a library, and I have more books than a girl should have. I also enjoy sharing books with family and friends - and that's not going to stop any time soon. 

    But Oh - my Kindle! It's fab. It's light, easy to use, and whatever the screen does between pages, it's still easier and quicker than turning the page yourself! I have all sorts on it already - running books, fiction, reference, loads of free classics to amuse myself - it's fabulous.

    I've got a trip abroad at the end of the month, and I can't wait to take it with me. Gorgeous, gorgeous thing. And it's got the universal socket for the charger which means the charger works on my phone and camera too. 

    What's not to like?

    I didn't bother with the 3G version though, just WiFi is plenty. I have Wifi at home, at work, and in every starbucks or McD's in the land - and I've never had an emergency which required a book before.

    x

  • Did anyone hear a report on the radio this morning re. remembering stuff you read on an e-reader?  They were saying that you're more likely to remember something that has been written in an 'ugly' font, as your brain has to work harder to process it, so it will be more likely to retain it.  This came up with reference to the Kindle (or e-readers in general).  Mind you, the fonts used in books wouldn't suggest they are more memorable, going by the same analogy.

    Aaaaaanyway, I don't want an e-reader; i'm far to much of a book-lover.  I love the smell of the pages, and the feel of a book image  My sister reads even more than I do, and she has an e-reader.  I told her I was disowning her image

  • Its arrived and I love it and the gorgeous red case and I have just downloaded 11 freebies including some fave classics.

    Happy days 

  • skottyskotty ✭✭✭
    those kindles must be good. i know someone that has been reading it for months.
  • I heard that Lee...didn't think much of their "evidence" to be honest..asking a trained journalist what she could remember about the 18th Amendment and Harold Shipman, then using that as suggesting the researcher's theories were supported. image
  • Hi all,

     I travel a lot with work, and this will save room in my bag, and saveme buyinglots of books at the airport of a 2 for 1 etc. I read very often, and am now reading even more.

     There will always be room for real books in my house - books for training and so on. However the Kindle is fantastic. The screen is so crisp and clear, and I find I do not notice the rewriting of the screen anymore.

  • Boing.

    I'm considering getting a Kindle but I'm not sure whether to get a wifi one or cough up for 3G. I'm in temporary accommodation at the moment and don't have wifi at home, so I'd have to go to somewhere like Starbucks and use theirs - can anyone tell me how easy that is to do? If it's a pain in the neck I might just go for 3G but it is quite a lot more expensive.
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