E-readers. Use 'em? Love 'em?

[hobie1dog]

Just read my first book on my wife's Kindle, Orson Welles 1984

 

[ruggierm1]

I have a Kindle that I use every day. I only read public domain books though, because I feel there is plenty of good free stuff out there that I have never read.

 

[tokerpipes]

I love my Kendle 3. I have always told people that ask me why I dont get a Fire. I got mine to do one thing... read books. I tell them the fire I use is for my pipe.

 

[cajunguy]

I consider myself a technology junkie but this is one area that I've been a bit resistant. I have a nice book collection, comparable in quality to Kevin's shoes, that I built over years. I love turning pages, having a book in one hand in a cup of joe in the other. I would use a Kindle or similar tool while traveling, but I still love a real book.

 

[unixhelp]

E-Books are to Hardcovers what E-pipes are to Dunhills

 

[thomasw]

Great thread to read! I am still a lover of reading with a physical book. But this thread has convinced to revisit my very traditional stance. Sounds as though some sort of e-reader is worth a try.

 

[cfreud]

For those of us who have piss-poor eyesight, even with glasses, the Kindle is a blessing. A pipe and a Kindle is a recipe for happiness.

 

[jackswilling]

Love it Zombie thread. I have a high end Kindle and it is a blessing. The light is directed at the page and not you eyes. I love books, have an insane collection of books, but the E readers are sweet to use. I have been weeding out the books best suited to E readers, and keeping my favorites and those that are best appreciated in the flesh.

 

[ophiuchus]

I still prefer books, newspapers, and a good reading lamp, but it's nice to be able to keep an assortment of reading material (not to mention a web browser) on the ol' iPad for travel. Keeps the luggage lighter.

 

[alexnorth]

I like books . I like the feel of a book and the smell of them as reichenbach so eloquently put it. I like having bookshelves at home but I'm also running out of space... I don't like to read on regular screens but i understand that kindle got around that with their non back-lit one. My question though would be availability. Are the classics available? Could you get a Solzjenitsyn for example or is it mainly contemporary literature?

 

[cranseiron]

Alexn Iorth, just about anything is available for e-readers. I have found old out of print books from before the Civil War. Example, Frederick Law Olmsted's observational tour through the South as a journalist before a he became a landscape architect. Google has a lot of these old out of print books available in e-format. That said, I'm also on a tear collecting the old Franklin Press beautiful leather bound and gilt page books that are no longer in production. I love the look and feel of these gorgeous books and I'm trying to build a nice sized library-- when they're gone, they're gone.

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

I still read physical books, but I rarely purchase them these days. No more room. I use an out of date Kindle Touch and have yet to see the benefits of upgrading since I mostly read in my easy chair and in bed under good lights. My library has Kindle books available for loan, but I still have to get physical books from them often as they tend to take a long time to get non-fiction in their e book collection. Amazon frequently has daily or monthly Kindle deals that range from 99 cents to about 3.99 that usually have some quality non-fiction choices. For example, I have picked up two titles by one of my favorite non-fiction writers, Bill Bryson, for a total of about $5. I have the Kindle app on m tablet, but rarely use it. Kindle e ink is much better for extended reading.

 

[jmagen]

Everyone here knows about http://www.gutenberg.org/ right?

 

[jerwynn]

Thanks for post that jmagen... I did NOT know about Gutenberg.org! Fascinating! Back to the original thread: LOVE books here, have NO space anymore... plus an intelligent rule applied upon me by My Majesty who declared that no new physical books come in until older ones go out. Not too long ago, I had 25 cases of books in the attic and the floor was buckling... there were probably another 20 cases on bookshelves throughout the house. I donated my professional library to students and only kept "essentials". I have the Kindle app on both my iPhone and MacBook and am glad to have them!!! So I guess it's a matter of both/and.

 

[randelli]

I have not read an analog book in many years. I suppose I have read 50 to 60 ebooks over the last 4, not a lot I know, but I sorta binge read. I think I finished the gunslinger series in 5 months while I was working 12-hour days out of town.
I like to find new authors and nook lets you preview stories to see if you like them. I would recommend one called "All the Light We Cannot See".

 

[hakchuma]

I read ebooks and listen to audio books.
7 years ago it was difficult to read technical books because the format would not display complex code correctly, and often times broke up simple equations into several pages. If the book included diagrams of sorts it would be even worse.
Kindle has improved over the years and I am able to enjoy technical books while I am taking a poop. I'm sure Mark Twain would slap me on the back for saying that.
Also, I love audio books for non-technical consumption such as history, philosophy and all that jazz. Oral stories where part of my ancestry and I like it.
With audio books I can just simply listen. Listening is a skill that needs to be developed, and I suspect many a forum member are lacking that skill while they sound the grammar alarm bell.

 

[username]

I Have 2 kindles. a e ink for books and a fire for everything else. I love them

 

[ssjones]

I've now had nearly every version of the Kindle (original, Fire, and now Paperwhite).
I read about 40-50 books a year, and travel a lot, so the Kindle is a Godsend.
If you only read books the Paperwhite is for you.

- I tried the Fire but you can't read in direct sunlight, so it's no good at the beach or outdoors.

- I never used the Fire web browser, typing is just too tedious (swype on the phone is easier)

- I tried reading newspapers and magazines on the Fire, which was an exercise in frustration

- if you leave the Wi-Fi off on the Paperwhite, the battery lasts for about 6-8 weeks of daily use

- the Paperwhite reader is easy on my old eyes
If you have a Kindle, get Calibre. With that program you can convert any book format to Kindle format.
With Calibre, you can also enable "Heuristic Processing" which fixes most of the formatting issues.
I'll occasionally read a hard book, but it becomes tedious after only a short while with the Kindle (I was the guy who said "no way, never" to E-readers, till a buddy gave me his old Kindle)

 

[jackswilling]

I too went with the Paperwhite

The battery do last

Very happy

 

[jpmcwjr]

iPad. Because it does a lot of other things I like, and I don't read in bright sunlight.