What are your thoughts on E-Book readers?

In the big picture, I think they're a great idea that isn't quite there yet. The readers seem a little expensive but the e-books strike me as very expensive. And the restrictions on the books along with the enforcement mechanisms turn me off entirely.

I prefer going to the library, it's free. But I guess that really could come in handy for new or occult books or anything a library doesn't have. I find it hard to sit and read, though. Also, I don't know if you can really beat the sight and smell of a book.

I don't know..I like actual books..My mom has a Kindle though and she likes it a lot.

Sure, why not!

Not for me.

First of all, way too expensive. I could just get a data plan for my phone and have access to all that info.

Other than that, I don't think it would be for me. What I ultimately love about reading is that feel of book on my lap. I also enjoy underlining the text and sometimes writing little notes about my impressions.

I detect a certain negative bias from the survey author. *sigh*

I own a Kindle. It was a gift ~2 years ago. I like it. It's good for reading things. The e-ink display is nice, comfortable for reading, etc.
It is too expensive, agreed on that. Also, availability of books is an issue. Mostly, popular books are available (e.g. best sellers). I don't tend to read a lot of those, so I can sometimes struggle to find stuff I want available for the Kindle. Though, on the other hand, I also read a lot of stuff that's so old, it's out of copyright and then there's a good chance it's available for free (see: http://manybooks.net or http://feedbooks.com). Free ebooks have been around for many years, but trying to read them on my laptop or PDA never worked out (eye strain, weird format?). The Kindle (really, the e-ink display) changed that. Now, all these free, classic ebooks are very appealing and I've been reading lots of them.

My impression is that there's a lot of negative press and negative reaction to ebook readers, especially Kindle, especially online. Every time someone has a minor problem with their Kindle it seems there's a scathing article about it and all my facebook friends update their status with, "OMG, I HATE Kindle! Never NEVER gonna buy it, never"

*sadness* ...because, Kindles are pretty nifty. But, yeah, books are good too. I still buy and read regular books. Either I can't get them for Kindle, or it's just cheaper to pick up a used book than the cost of downloading it for Kindle (the prices of Kindle books seem a little high to me sometimes, especially compared to used book prices). But, regular books have issues too. We're always running out of place to put them. We try to get rid of them at the local used book store, but they wont even take many of them. I guess a lot of people just allocate more and more space for their books, but that seems kind of silly/pointless to me too. Digital format for books has many advantages (minimal storage issue, searchable, etc.)

There really isn't much reason to get a Kindle unless you have money to burn or read so many books (while traveling?) that carrying them around is a great burden. I read pretty slowly myself and I don't go out much. Also, I don't have cell-phone reception where I live, so the Kindle is kind of silly for me. But, I still like it. Oh, I could dog about the buttons a little too (don't love the roller control on it), but the display is nice. I like the dictionary lookup and the way you can clip quotes out fairly easily.

I detect a certain negative bias from the survey author. *sigh*

Not at all Bill, I do not have one, but
a) I use Amazon alot
b) I do live in a country that the Kindle (US & International) works
c) I do read alot of books

I kinda wanted a good review on it (Thank you) from people that I know a little, I am seriously considering it, I just gave away a large (114Litre) Rubbermaid container full of books I just do not have the room for.
I kept the hard covers & favorite paperbacks James Patterson, Lee Childs, John Grisham, Michael Connelly, I am an action, courtroom drama, Police procedural junkie and I still have a huge abundance of books still left even after this clear out, to give you an idea I have 7 shelves about 5ft long full of books and they are"doubled Up" so another set of books in front of another set.

Please tell me how the storage works please?.......... If you download a book and your kindle gets full, can you dump it somewhere? but you can retrieve it at your leisure?

Regards David

> There really isn't much reason to get a Kindle
> unless you have money to burn or read so many
> books (while traveling?) that carrying them around
> is a great burden.

Lol, I always do that when travelling. My carry on usually contains five books because I'm always terrified that I'll finish reading my current book and not have anything to read while on my travel. Which, actually, is horribly ridiculous from me, seeing that it takes me good month, on average, to read a book.

Well, I suppose I'm just a little sensitive. But your survey had 3 negative answers, 2 neutral, and just 1 positive answer.

I have an original Kindle which has a ton of extra storage. It comes with a built in flash card (or whatever it is) that seems very large. I get the impression I could put 100s of books on it. If you do audio files (books or mp3s), then you can use up the storage fast. But, a typical kindle book is pretty small. Of the books I've purchased, the average size per book is 375K. The internal memory card is 250mb. So, that's 665 books. The original Kindle also has an SD card slot, so I could put even more crap on it. I've never used the SD slot, though and I don't think I ever will. I actually don't like to store a lot of books on my Kindle because I really just like to have stuff I haven't read yet and not too much (can be intimidating). I try to keep it 1 page worth or less. ...checkin stats on the new Kindle, it actually has no SD slot, but 1.4GB available internal. So, that like 5,000 books. Maybe I tend to read shorter books, though because the stats for Kindle 2 say 1,500 books. But, it's just a crazy large number.

The authors you listed are likely very well covered for Kindle downloads (popular/recent fiction). I think you'll do well with Kindle book availability. I'd recommend just browsing amazon for books you might like to read and just check if they are available for Kindle.

The storage is like a digital camera. Well, for me anyway. I don't have cell-phone reception, so I download books and move them to the Kindle with a USB cable. I have driven into town to try the wireless download (also for book samples -- another nice feature!). It's really nice and just super fast (literally seconds to get the whole book). Browsing the amazon store from the Kindle works well. But, even if you do direct downloads, you can also copy your files off your Kindle onto you computer with a USB cable. If you just want to make a backup copy. Though, you can also re-download the books from amazon. One of the negative press articles that came out was over someone who was told by amazon that there's a limit to how many times they could download a book they had purchased, though. It was unclear what the full story was on that.

The books do have "DRM" (digital rights management) which means they are encoded to only be readable on your Kindle. If we tried to swap book files between our Kindles, it wouldn't work. A lot of people don't like this aspect of Kindle. When you buy a physical copy of a book, part of what you get with that is the right to transfer ownership of the book to another person or to sell it, etc. But, with a Kindle, that's less possible. Though, I think you can transfer the entire Kindle along with every book you ever bought for it to someone else.

Let me know if you have more questions... I could go on an on. If we lived closer, I'd let you borrow mine for a week.

It does kind of suck to be going on vacation just when you're getting close to the end of a book. Though, it's kind of cool too, since it means you'll probably be reading the good part while you're on the plane and thus the travel time will just fly by. But, then you have to start a new book, which can be iffy. Sometimes, I start a new book and I just detest the style of it and can't read it. So, I'd need a backup book. Or, a safe book, like one in a series of books that I know I'll like. Airports do tend to have bookstores, too...

And the good thing is that most airports have an English section, no matter what part of the world you're in. At the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul about 30% of books were in English, and the cool thing was that many of those were translations of Turkish authors into English.

that is cool

There was also another issue, re: George Orwell's "1984" apparently Amazon didn't have the rights to sell the book and deleted it along with the archives and people who had downloaded were pissed and a court case was bought

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32014285

My biggest reason is to get rid of all my books?..... is it easy to read etc? can you do stuff like increase font size? and I agree $9 for an ebook seems expensive..though maybe not for a newly released book where a new release is $20+ in hardcover.

I understand that Amazon archive your downloads? can you not store your "collection" on say an Ext HD?

Regards David

My understanding of that "1984" situation was that it involved a 3rd party selling the book through amazon. But, then Amazon got a complaint from the Orwell estate (owners of the copyright) saying the 3rd party didn't have rights. So, to comply with the law, they had to do all in their power to undo the damage.

But, yeah, the funny thing from my point of view is that if I'd bought the book, I would have had a copy of it on my laptop and my Kindle isn't even in contact with amazon since I don't have cell reception (and I turn the receiver off to save battery life as well). So, they couldn't have deleted it from my Kindle and if they had, I could have put it back from my copy, as needed.

But, anyway, it was an odd case and not really Amazon's fault per se. But, digital rights are a dog. Especially, with a new media format that some owners are nervous about (pirating worries... is Kindle the next Napster?, etc. )

If you want to get rid of all you book, but a trash bag and throw them all out. Or, try to give them to a local library or used book store, or I've even seen swap shelves in some neighborhoods and such. Maybe you can recycle the paper... Kindle is expensive, so it's not really about saving money. But, yeah, you wont accumulate more books so much with it.

It is easy to read. I think that's the main important point from my point of view. The "E-Ink" screen is good for reading. The Sony reader has the same screen, and I assume it's just as good for reading. Clicking to turn the page works well. With my Kindle, it's a little too easy to click and it took me a little time to get used to holding it so that didn't happen by mistake. But, I think the Kindle 2 is better (smaller buttons). It has font controls that work well. I suspect as my eyesight gets worse, I can just increase the font size rather than use reading glasses, we'll see.

Yes, you can store your downloads anywhere. They are just like files on a computer. So, you can keep a copy on the Kindle files on your computer's hard drive (or on an external hard drive connected to your computer). Or, you can burn the files on a CD-R. Or, put them on a thumb drive, etc. They are just files, much like the picture files that come off a digital camera (only smaller).

Thanks for the replies Bill,

I hear Kindle 2 has ironed out some kinks you had with the 1st Gen........ I will also keep my eye on the Kindle store to see what they are adding before I make a final decision

Regards David

Not for me. I also wouldn't want to pay for one unless it can also be a speed-reader that you can upload your own paragraphs into ... I prefer regular books cuz you can take 'em outdoors or to the laundromat, etc.

Nifty but I prefer real books

I know a woman that has a Kindle, and she's wild about it...it's her baby. My sister just received one from my niece, and I haven't any feedback on how she feels about hers. I guess they would be okay, as you can carry around a library of books, great for travel.

I think they are a great idea, although they are expensive. I've only ever read one myself: it was a bad night and I needed to have something to occupy myself 'til morning. It did the trick. When you're low, they can be a great distraction.

This survey got me to thinking about eBook readers and doing a little research which led to more interest and more research. After finding a few sites where I could get eBooks unencumbered by DRM, I went out this afternoon and bought myself an eBook reader. Now to figure out how to use it.

Not for me. In my experience, people who enjoy reading also enjoy owning, collecting and reading actual books. I don't think they're going to be popular.

I would love to see if anyone is testing eyes after reading this. My thought is the eye might not get enough excercise as it would reading a regular book.
I mean, I don't really know as I have not tryed it, but I could see that it might be practicle in a few isolated moments. Otherwise, I would rather stick to something with a binding.
I real books.

Great idea, not for me.

I'd get it and never feel like figuring it out and it would lay in a box full of similar electronics. The box currently contains Mary's digital camera and MP3 player.