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

[tslex]

I’m about as avid a reader as you’ll find. I bought a first generation Kindle shortly after they appeared, mostly because my wife and I wanted to stop having to build all decorating plans around “where can we put some more bookshelves?”
I read plenty of history and a plenty of non-fiction related to my job (as an attorney) and my other job (teaching law) and my hobbies. But I’ve always enjoyed fiction as well, and I always have at least one novel going. (Kindle advantage No. 17: The ability to have multiple books in progress.) My favorite sort of fiction cuts across the thriller, intrigue, mystery and tough guy genres. Chandler, Thompson, Crais, Parker, Hunter, those sorts of guys.
I fought the idea of a Kindle for a while. I always said I liked BOOKS. But I've been converted and realize I like reading more than books. 500-page biography? A LOT easier to read in bed on a Kindle. Traveling? Take your library. Working through a detailed history of the Continental Congress and feel like taking a break with a murder mystery? Two clicks and you're there.
I have stayed true to Kindle because I like the e-ink (not backlit, read in the sun, change fonts), massive battery life (two weeks on a charge), and I find long session reading a backlit CRT strains my eyes. So I don't think an iPad would be a good substitute.
I also love hearing about a book and being able to grab a sample or the whole book in less than a minute. Cost advantage is huge, too. I have paid for my Kindle many, many times over buying e-books instead of paper ones.
Additionally, I have a lot of friends who write books -- about half a dozen who make their living at it -- and they tell me the economics are good on their end. Royalty through-put to the author is comparable to traditional books AND their backlist is always available everywhere when a reader finds they want more.
How about y'all?

 

[kabong30]

E-Ink displays are beautiful. That said, I have an iPad because they do so many different things. I'm conflicted on the whole e-book thing though. First I value tangible things and books were one of the first things that I really could put my hands on that entertained me. Second, my wife works for Half Price Books and she regularly expresses her "hatred" of e-books to me when she catches me using the Kindle app. My only real issue with e-books though is that they require power. The prepper in me likes things that don't require batteries, but I have thought for a while about a solar charger.

 

[mlaug]

I had a Nook that lasted a little over a year and then it failed to load on start up. The warrenty was past by two weeks. :evil:
I decided not to get another Nook and looked at a Kindle, but I still had books at Barnes & Noble and didn't want to lose those....so I got and Ipad and both the free Nook and Kindle apps and haven't looked back. We just returned from vacation and it was nice not having to pack along a half dozen books for the trip.
I love my Ipad, its light, easy to use, and one hand is free to hold a pipe.

 

[radio807]

I got a Kindle Touch last Christmas and I love it. I resisted getting one for quite awhile, but I got tired of lugging books around when I travel so I went for it. I'm a convert!

 

[will]

I got one of the Nook readers last summer and they are nice.

Plenty of old cool stuff available free or real cheap.

My preference is still for real paper but these ereaders do come in handy at times.

 

[lankfordjl]

I use my Kindle almost everyday. It's a great product! I thought of getting a Kindle Fire for other entertainment besides reading such as movies, music, etc. I buy almost everything on Amazon except for everyday food items; so the KF would make shopping easy as well. Supposedly there will be a new Kindle Fire coming out soon with a larger screen (iPad size); if it does come on the market, I'll be happy to purchase one. ::

 

[guitarguy86]

I don't travel much, and I don't read very often(maybe three books a year). For now, I prefer to own a book.

 

[mikemacrdlnds]

Have a Google Tablet with Kindle, Barnes & Noble and G-Books apps. Love it. Am trying to read all the Rex Stouts, Nero Wolf detective series. Play Suduko and crosswords every day, use it also for e-mail. Have it synced to my G-phone and use the G-maps app for in car navigation. Have the Overdrive app which allows me to check out digital books from my local library.

 

[philip]

I had to give away boxes and boxes of books when I moved onto the boat. Not only didn't I have room for them, but I'm sure I could have sunk the boat with them all.
I use a Kobe E-reader. It also has e-ink. It uses EPUB files which are available everywhere. I download lots of books for free at the public domain section of Feedbooks.
It's great since I read a book every few days. It's only not good for reference books when I want to flip back and forth between pages.
I'm thinking of getting an android pad so I can also do internet and email with it, but I'm waiting to learn what's good first. Any opinions would be welcome about that.

 

[kabong30]

Get a Nook and then use an SD card to boot into Android. It's very common and the instructions are all over the 'net.

 

[reichenbach]

I'm a Luddite in regards to books. There is nothing quite like the feel of a book one's hand, the smell of second hand books, the sound of the pages, and the emotions involved (the thrill of a new purchase, the disappointment when something is out of stock, the excitement of coming across something you've wanted but have forgotten, waiting for the mail when you had to break down and order something and FIRST EDITIONS!). I'm not going to buy an e-reader until I have to in order to keep reading.

 

[dochudson]

Santa brought m a Kindle Touch last years and I couldn't be happier with it. I'm also waiting to see what happens with the rumors of a new version of the Fire coming soon.

 

[martiniman]

I use the iPad with Kindle's reader.

I got my wife the Kindle 2 years ago.

I use my iPad for everything but for simply reading books the kindle is the way to go...IMHO :D

 

[mrenglish]

My wife bought me a Nook tablet earlier this year. I think I read around 25 books since then and love it. The only drawbacks are the weight, it is a bit heavy to read in bed. The other drawback is the web is kind of slow. My PC just died and I thought about using the Nook for email and what not, but am kind of impatient waiting for websites to load.

 

[hobie1dog]

Wife has a Kindle Touch that we use for travel

 

[ck12]

i use the kindle app on my asus transformer android tablet and love it, never been a big reader but this makes it easy and convenient and have learned to love reading using this.

 

[juni]

I like the iBook app on my iPad a lot (and also on my iPhone - it syncs where I am in a book so I can continue reading on the iPhone if I am stuck waiting in line or something).

 

[buster]

We have a Sony reader and An iPad. They are nice for reading and all but they lack the feel of a book. I seriously miss that feel of turning paper pages. Also the visual of where the book mark is before I set the book down.

 

[theotherspace]

I use iPad & iPhone for reading. Apps like kindle or iBooks keep me busy. But also read and annotate a lot of PDFs for work in goodreader. I like the flexibility of the iPad as I can jump between a good book/document and this forum!

 

[radio807]

But also read and annotate a lot of PDFs

One thing worth mentioning about the Kindle for anyone considering reading pdfs on it. Even though they say you can read pdfs on it, it's ugly to the point of being unusable.