E-Readers

[fairygoddess68]

Looking into getting an E-reader. I love books. I love the smell of books. However, my son happens to like to shred paper--and that includes my books. He has the same taste as me. My favorite books are his favorite targets. And before parenting advice/lectures becomes the focus of the thread...he has Autism and it's one of those things we are working on. However, one of the things to work on is removing some of the temptation.

The real point of this is to ask, if you own an e-reader, what kind is it and how do you like it and what DON'T you like about it (if anything).

Thanks for feedback!

 

[virtualfwb]

Kindle. Didn't take long to adjust to the electric screen. Love the ability to carry lots of books in a very portable fashion. One of the best (and most dangerous) things is the immediate gratification of getting a recommendation, reading a review etc and getting the book instantly. Somewhat alleviated by the free sample of the first chapter or so, which is somewhat equivalent of the whole standing in the bookstore aisle thumbing through a book, but actually gives you a better feel for the book.

Not good for books that have any sophisticated graphics at all.

Overall, a definitive yes for me.

 

[jeninflorida]

Looking into getting an E-reader. I love books. I love the smell of books. However, my son happens to like to shred paper--and that includes my books. He has the same taste as me. My favorite books are his favorite targets. And before parenting advice/lectures becomes the focus of the thread...he has Autism and it's one of those things we are working on. However, one of the things to work on is removing some of the temptation.

The real point of this is to ask, if you own an e-reader, what kind is it and how do you like it and what DON'T you like about it (if anything).

Thanks for feedback!

I have a BN nook. its nice and little, easy to read but no back light. I'm not sure about the kindle

its very easy, toooo easy to purchase Ebooks from Amazon and BN (I use both readers on my laptops)

 

[Balladeer08]

The real point of this is to ask, if you own an e-reader, what kind is it and how do you like it and what DON'T you like about it (if anything).

Thanks for feedback!

If you've got a smart phone, you can get e-readers for them. I've got an Android, and I use Aldiko. Very nice. Day/night mode, portrait/landscape, pick your font and size... pretty much all the features I've seen on others, except scroll. And I've never found one with scroll that I could adjust to the right speed anyhow.

One major advantage to this: FREE. You can buy a BUNCH of e-books for the cost of one of the readers.

 

[JustaSCOUNDREL]

My wife bought me a Kindle II last June and I love it. The only bad thing I can say about it is any graphics are not displayed very well. Everything is black and white. The books are much less expensive then paper. The 'whisper net" is fast and very reliable even when WiFi is not available. Price about $180. I have seen predictions the price will drop later this year.

Me being a nice guy bought my wife a Nook Color for Xmas. She loves it. The best part is she can read crafting magazines and see the pictures in color. She uses it all of the time. The Nook Color comes with 8GB of memory and is expandable to 64GB with mini SD cards. She has 29 books stored and is using less then 5% of the 8GB. It also has several built in games. Chess, Crosswords, Sodoku, etc. The Nook's screen is about 20% larger then the Kindles.

She insisted the Nook was for both of us. Yeah, right. So far I have used it zero times. Price was about $250.

Both have a read to me feature. I have not tried them so I can't comment. B&N sells their children books pretty heavily discounted.
Nook magazines subscription are also nicely discounted. National Geographic is $2 a month.

Wife had a couple of ideas on things you might be able to do using the Nook to help entertain your son. If you are interested PM or email me and I'll have her get back to you.

If you have a friend with a Kindle see if they would be willing to show you some of its features. B&N is pushing the color pretty hard so I would go to a store and talk to one of their people at the kiosk give you a demo. there are very knowledgeable.

Any other questions feel free to ask. Both have a lot of free books. Having thought about it I think had I known then what I know now I would have 2 Nook Colors.

You can also download Kindle for PC and Nook for PC free from their respective web sites.

I hope this is helpful.

Mike C.

 

[AngusMan]

For Kindle

I have a Kindle 2 myself. Its about the size of a standard paperback and very portable. They're advertised as storing more than 3000 books, just on the on board memory, plus amazon.com backs up any books you've purchased, so if you somehow manage to fill it up, you can clear up some space and amazon will save them so you can download them again if needed. You can also read documents on it and even some editing. As for the read me feature, its a little unsatisfying. Basically, its the Mac voice reading words. No emotion to them. You can download audio books to it though, and even music through a usb cable and play them, so its not all bad. Its all in black and white, so it isn't able to produce good images, but lets face it. You don't buy a kindle to look at pretty pictures anyways. They're also working on giving Kindle some internet surfing capabilities. I can check my email on mine through their whisper net, so I don't need wifi, but thats about it right now. The best selling feature in my opinion though is the screen itself. Its not like a computer screen that glows. It really is more like reading a page in a book. Much easier on eyes. No eye strain like what you get staring at a computer or phone screen.

Also, Amazon has a lot of free books they offer. Classics like Treasure Island and Sherlock Holmes, and a number of games as well can be had for free. Here is the link if you want to check out whats free.
Free Books
The Kindle 3 has the same abilities, plus maybe some more memory and a larger screen.

Oh, and the real kicker is, for some of you who dream of publicly publishing stories, you can do that too through amazon. Because of the kindle reader apps for phones and computers, you can "Self-Publish" and earn money for it. Here is that link if you want to read more into it.
Self-Publish

 

[RunningJib]

e-readers & technical material

Has anyone have any experience with technical material / course books on a device?

An e-reader has lots of appeal for me. Especially intrigued by it's portability as the technical material that I am reading typically comes in a three inch thick paperback book. The material that I'm speaking of includes:

• http://www.amazon.com/Effective-Mod...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1424973792&sr=1-1
• http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Ser...=1424973642&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=t-sql+ben

 

[islandman]

Not sure why anyone would spend the money to buy an e-reader when you can get a tablet with an e-reader app for the same price.

 

[Sean]

You should PM Fata Morgana. She's the expert, has about four different kinds.

 

[CandiCame]

I've got a nook and 2 kindles that were all gifts. The first Kindle was the first one on the market, and it's really shitty. It's black and white and just an e-reader. The second Kindle and the Nook are almost exactly the same thing, as far as reading and net surfing go, but one of them, the Nook, I think, runs on an Android OS and is therefore loads better for Apps. But for reading I love all three of them.

 

[RjThoughts]

I have the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook, 7.0 screen.

I love it, though it does run Android apps so there's that to distract me

 

[unregistered]

 

[Riles]

I use my tablet. It works great because I need to jump back and forth to do my reporting and billing on clients during night and having it all in one is handy. I already have to carry two phones so cutting down on devices is my goal.

And whoever mention the instant gratification bit was spot on. I probably spend more I books now than before though because it is so accessible.

 

[MonaLittle]

I have a Kindle. It's first generation and old. I used it a lot when I first got it. Then I slowly faded on it and went back to books. There are pros and cons to eReaders.

The pro's are using it when you travel. It's less bulky than carrying books and you can D/L more reading material as needed.

The one major downfall I found in using it was referencing. If you needed to go back to look something up, it was difficult to do. When reading a book that has a lot of history and dates, I often flip back and forth. Same goes for books with lots of characters. It might be easier to do that on the new devices, but I found it difficult on the one I own.

 

[Noor]

Not sure why anyone would spend the money to buy an e-reader when you can get a tablet with an e-reader app for the same price.

When you fall asleep reading and drop the tablet on your face, it bruises, e-readers not so much.

I mainly use my tablet for an alarm clock. It has a rooster alarm.

 

[1HF]

E-readers are evil. Don't succumb to the allures of modern technology.

 

[Sinny]

I go back and forth between books and e-readers. There are plenty of upsides for using an e-reader. They are great for travel and cut down on the amount of stuff you have to cart around an airport. If your local library system has an electronic loaning library like mine does, they are extremely convenient in contrast to driving to the library for a book you want when it might not work for your schedule. An e-reader way cuts down on the clutter in your home. I am down to three book cases. About the only books I won't replace with an electronic version are cookbooks. I hate reading those on e-readers.

You might not know this, but you could get a tablet and use it with an e-reader app. I prefer that over my Kindle II, which is a few years old and doesn't do much other than display books. I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 and it is a perfect size to read on. My son has a Kindle Fire and it runs apps and is a great size for an e-reader. If you have a smart phone, you also can use an e-reader on that. I am toggling between Lit and my Kindle app on my phone right now.

This is cool: If you are a Kindle user, you can synch your book on every device, which is handy if you read a book on several devices. You will never lose your place in a book, the reader will remember where you were at (you have to have internet access for that to work, though).

 

[Miles Long]

I read on an old kindle (circa 2009), an iPad Air, and regular books. I love to read on all of them because BOOKS, yo.

 

[Disgustipated]

I can't read.

 

[RunningJib]

Thanks

I have a Kindle. It's first generation and old. I used it a lot when I first got it. Then I slowly faded on it and went back to books. There are pros and cons to eReaders.

The pro's are using it when you travel. It's less bulky than carrying books and you can D/L more reading material as needed.

The one major downfall I found in using it was referencing. If you needed to go back to look something up, it was difficult to do. When reading a book that has a lot of history and dates, I often flip back and forth. Same goes for books with lots of characters. It might be easier to do that on the new devices, but I found it difficult on the one I own.

That's my concern--going back and forth to specific details

Thanks for your insight

 

[RunningJib]

Thanks

Thanks everyone

 

[patient1]

I have owned a Kindle2, a Kindle DX Graphite, and now the Kindle Voyage. They all access the same Collection of books I've been building up. It really saves money on books and shelves

The 2 is still working fine, I gave it to my parents, and they happen to enjoy many of the same books.

I got the DX for the larger screen, because while the font is selectable, maps and tables are normally treated the same as photos, and can't be enlarged. So the DX was better for non-fiction. I really loved that thing, especially on a tropical beach with a Corona in my hand. I finally replaced the leather book-style cover with a spiffy new tablet style cover, and eventually dropped it . It struck a hard floor, corner first and cracked the screen. If I had left the book-type cover on it, it would still be fine.
The insurance was expired, and the model was obsolete, so no replacement.

I'm not keen on touch ( smudge ) screens, but I got the Voyage. It doesn't have text-to-speech or support interactive apps that play brain games, make calculations, or make stories interactive. The one I have is WiFi only. However, the battery is incredible.

I found this great series of books I wanted to share with another family member, and lent it to her. Meanwhile, I put the Kindle aps on my computer and Note 2 Galaxy.

This is the important part - This Voyage is the greatest e-reader ever in terms of being easy on the eyes and adaptable to any condition, just like they say.
It's a pleasure.
Yeah, I know everybody doesn't have the money, or room for multiple electronic devices. What most people will probably do is read on a computer/tablet/phone, in addition to the excessive time which they already spend staring at them for work/school/personal , and then spend their money at the optometrist. You don't know what you've lost until it's gone.

I suggest you try a Voyage at the store, compare and consider the difference in eyestrain over the life of the device, which is considerable with a book-type leather cover.

 

[AllyRose]

E-readers are evil. Don't succumb to the allures of modern technology.

^

Monies spent on bookshelves is monies well-spent.

Let's compare...

"Winston! Come see my list of books I have on my E-Reader!"

vs.

"Winston! Come see my very impressive library! Many of them are leather-bound first editions, and the entire room smells of rich mahogany! Come! Sit by my fireplace! Let the crackling flames illuminate the 4th century manuscript I just inherited!"

 

[Saint Peter]

Just think of all the time and energy you will spend dusting those bookshelves.

 

[AllyRose]

I won't be dusting them.

My butler will.