So, you Kindle people...is it worth it?

My bookshelves usually make people dumbstruct, or they used to.

I used ta like the coffee place, Ramone's, in an old home town: good bakery, good coffee, comfortable room with local art put up any which way (gnashes teeth), and, towards the restroom, a shelf of freebee books, which kept changing.. that was the kind of place you could start to chat about books.

Another one, similar idea but cozier, was back on Marine, between Venice and Santa Monica. Places made for book talk.

Alternately, I can be chary about approaching zealots. Reminds me of a greyhound bus ride I took from San Diego to LA. Longest ride ever, while the older woman next me went on and on and on and on about the Lennon Sisters.

yes, that's exactly my point.

what do you think the cover of a book does?

I've been reading books on my Palm PDA for almost 10 years now. The Palm is smaller than the Kindle, and I can read it one-handed. I like that I can read without lights on and without bothering my spouse if I'm reading in bed. Books for the Palm OS are available through ereader.com, and they're usually less than the hard back version.

I got one last June. It's great but you have to pay FULL price for books. New releases cost the same as a hardback book. Plus it's slow to match the paperback price when it drops.

Personally I think that electronic media should be cheaper than buying the book. They have a mark up in order to make a profit (understandable), however when you purchase the book at full price their markup is drastically increased. How much, I don't know, but I'm sure it's well over 300%.

I've been going back and forth on this for over a year. I was given a Kindle a year ago but returned it unused; there were many reviews at that time saying, wait until the next model or the one after that, and wait to see who jumps in as competition. There were definite drawbacks...can't page back quickly to find something you just read and want to check on; no backlight; can't use this device if you have been told to turn off electronic devices while you are on a plane (e.g., when you are stuck on the tarmac in a queue to take off, and it can be an hour); hard to read gray-on-gray screen.

A big plus for me would be that you can get all major newspapers downloaded on some of the new readers; a negative trumping that plus is that many books are not available on the Kindle or on other e-readers. So...when I go abroad, do I take my Kindle AND a book in carry-on luggage? This is what I was trying to avoid by buying a Kindle. Can you download while outside of the US or must you download anything you want before you leave? Last I heard, you must download before leaving US.

Still dithering but I wouldn't buy it, or hint to anyone who asks, until the market shakes out a bit.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/150-kobo-ereader-the-real-kindle-killer

apparently kobo is the way to go

a friend is an editor - she's had one in preview for a week or so - loves it - and at $149 cdn it seems like a decent purchase

Interestingly, I am currently using my iPhone as a "kindle".

I got their free version for PC as a stopgap, then an app became available so that the iPhone became a reader. It's not great, but it's not bad.

But I shall go running off to look at this what you have posted!

I love my Kindle. I've had it for a little over a year now, and I love the idea of being able to carry around a whole "bookcase full" of books in one small device that I can carry and use anywhere. Since my eyesight is starting to fail, the ability to change the size of the type allows me to read without my reading glasses.
I love paper books, but I have so many of them that I am running out of places to put them. I can't bear to part with any of them, however, so being able to add to my book "collection" without finding more space to store them is a real value to me.
Although I have purchased a number of best sellers, some of the books I have on my Kindle I got for free, or for only $1 or so. These include books like the complete works of Charles Dickens, the King James Bible, The Federalist Papers, and Treasure Island. It is comforting to know that I can open up "Martin Chuzzlewit" or "Oliver Twist" anytime I want to and start reading. It also comes in handy when I want to look up one of Dickens' characters, such as Sairy Gamp or Mr. Pecksniff, to refresh my memory about them.
I recently purchased an iPod Touch, and I can add any or all of my Kindle books to it and read them in my iPod, as well. This is very handy in those cases where I am cooling my heels waiting for my wife in a shopping mall or somewhere like that, and don't have my Kindle. I can just pull out my iPod and read my Kindle books on it.
Any time I have access to WiFi, I can connect to my Kindle library and download any of the books I have into my iPod. The reading experience on the iPod is quite surprizingly comfortable.
I don't think reading on a Kindle diminishes social interaction at all. In fact, there have been numerous cases where I have been reading from my kindle in a coffee shop and someone has approached and asked me if I was reading one of the new electronic readers and were quite interested in learning about it. I think the Kindle has introduced me to more new people than reading paper books ever did.

Hi Bob,

I also read a lot of books on my Ipod Touch, and I would recommend that you check out the Stanza app - it works great for reading stuff outside of the Kindle store and environment.

Cheers
Cycloptichorn

i use kobo & read me on my ipod touch

At the current sub-200 price point I'm considering it even though I'm already reading kindle/ibooks on an ipad. The month-long battery life and the ergonomics (the ipad is too heavy to be comfortable holding it some ways) make it an attractive dedicated reader to me.

If I were in the states right now I'd pick one up (it's a bit more of a pain to get it delivered here so I usually wait till I travel to buy).

I wonder if states based ones work in Oz?

But then, they MAIL them to Oz so they must either work here or they have ones that DO work here....hmmmm...

I wonder if some kind New York soul would let me have a Kindle mailed to them?

As far as I know the wifi-only kindle works the same anywhere, the version with cellular data depends on whether they negotiated a local deal but I'm not that interested in using a kindle on cellular data (that is, I'm fine with only being able to connect via wifi).

But in your shoes, given that you already have an iPhone, I'd go for the $500 iPad before getting a kindle, on the iPad you have access to all the main bookstores (e.g. I am using iBooks and Kindle right now, and have the other two big ones installed and waiting in case there is a title they have that the others don't). It's more expensive, yes, but it does a lot more and I suspect you'd use it like a laptop as well as an ebook reader.

Interesting...

But if I go with Wi fi only ipad, don't I have to pay for Wi fi access?

There are literally only a couple of places here I can do it for free...and 3G has been a blessing on my iphone for this reason.

You're right, the kindle does work here...but they talk of download charges.

You have an internet connection -- any chance it's wireless? If not, I think you could make what you have wireless rather than having to get something entirely different.

I'm not really sure of this. All I know is that I have a wireless internet connection (DSL, with Airport, an Apple product that makes the DSL wireless, and an Apple computer) and that works fine with my iPod touch (which is basically a teeny weeny iPad).

No, it is wireful.

I guess that would be wire-more, really.

I think you could make it wireless...

I just Googled "wireless router" and the five that were displayed right off ranged from $27 to $140.

But there is probably an easier way to do all of this. Bluetooth perhaps? Who knows. I'm over my head, techie-wise, just have the impression that this is pretty solvable. Will let people who actually know ass from teakettle (is that the expression? I'm still waking up) give specifics.

pretty much need to get a wireless router, and if you live in an apartment you're going to want to make sure it's secure, or folks nearby can steal your bandwidth

actually, you should try looking for an unsecured network in your building, chances are there's one or two

I did and there was one for a while.

I'm not gonna go wireless for a number of reasons.