Kindle-ed

[Pleater]

As I did not go on holiday this year due to family commitments, I used some of the fees from my annual servicing of the knitting machines at the local Art College to buy a Kindle.

Our house will never blow away, it is too full of books, but the Kindle has enabled me to reread some of the science fiction stories from those little periodicals there used to be - my original ones disintegrated some decades ago, and to find other tales by the same authors - and to hoover up costume books, Greek and Roman writers, poetry, philosophers, detective fiction - the equivalent of a ton of books which I would probably never have been able to afford or would never have been able to carry with me, and which I am now reading or rereading when I am away from the house.

My Kindle has probably vastly increased the time I spend reading and I wondered if anyone else has experienced a similar revolution in their reading habits due the this little device.

Also - does anyone have the large size Kindle DX - something not easily available here in the UK - and is it worth the extra?

I bought the touch screen version, as I found I could make it work without instruction.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Tobus]

I bought my Kindle a couple of years ago, and yes, it has dramatically increased the amount of reading I do. Instead of having to go to the bookstore or order online, I can sit on my couch, purchase a book, download it using the free 3G service that came with my Kindle, and start reading it immediately. And the best part is that there are a LOT of books out there which are absolutely free to download, especially the classics (which are the majority of my reading). I love my Kindle!

Mine is just the old version. Black-n-white screen, no touch-screen capability. I didn't buy it for anything else than reading books. I can use my Kindle for other things as well, such as browsing this forum, checking email, listening to music like an iPod, etc., but I really prefer to use it just for reading. It will hold thousands of books in its memory, which is a lifetime worth of reading. And even if I lose it or damage it, those books are still available in Amazon's cloud, so I can always retrieve them. I have also installed the Kindle application/program on my computer, my smart phone, and my wife's computer and her smart phone, so we can share all our books and read them simultaneously, using whatever device we happen to pick up.

For instance, if I am reading my Kindle at night before going to bed, I can just sync it before turning it off. Then, the next morning, I can pick up my phone, open the Kindle app, and start reading where I left off the night before. I can even plug it into my car's auxiliary jack and have it read my book to me while I'm driving to work. It's brilliant!

If you don't know, you can go to Amazon's website and browse their free book selection while on your computer, and send it via Whispernet to your Kindle. You can also download free books from places like Project Gutenberg (make sure to select the Kindle file type). The Kindle is the beginning of a whole new world for people who love to read, which is very much in line with their stated goal of one day making books available to everyone in the world.

[JohntheBiker]

Haven't got a Kindle, mine's a Sony eReader. But I have to agree that it has profoundly changed the way I manage my reading. I have a daily commute by train and the ereader is a lot more practical than carrying one or more books around. It's also a lot handier travelling - I can pack multiple books, I never run out and it fits easily in carry-on. I can honestly say that I generally don't buy hard copies any more. Haven't got rid of books around the house, but I am not adding to the library. Use my iPad for mobile computing and keep the ereader strickly for reading - the battery lasts a lot longer on the Sony.

[Cynthia]

I have a Kindle Touch (my husband has the Fire, and while he likes it, he kind of wishes he'd purchased a Touch as well). I go through chunks of time where I don't read at all, but I'm working out certain things like sewing projects and spend my winding down (when I normally read) time contemplating issues then instead. But yes, when I do read, I definitely read. I've only purchased one book so far, and that was to purchase my husband's eBook to tell him if it downloaded correctly when he first installed it. The rest of them, I pick up for free because they're old. I've been enjoying catching up on books I've always wanted to read, and having a light gadget to hold has been nice. I have fibromyalgia, and as much as I love books, some of those huge heavy ones make it difficult to get comfortable and read for long amounts of time.

[ScotFree]

I got my kindle a couple of years back. It hasn't changed the way I read really, as I always had a book with me wherever I went, but now I have 100 books with me wherever I go. So while it hasn't changed my reading habits, it has changed what I read. I tend to read now what I feel like at the moment instead of what I have with me.

[Tobus]

I should add that there is one other thing I occasionally use my Kindle for. It will open and view PDF documents, and you can zoom in as close as you want. Because of that, and its ability to hold a lot of documents, I have used it to store my construction drawings when going to visit a jobsite. Instead of having to lug around a roll of paper drawings (which is really difficult when you have to climb ladders), I just put them on my Kindle and carry it with me in a leather pouch slung over my shoulder. It's a little slow trying to find the drawing I want and open it up, but it's still a very convenient way to carry drawings. And since it uses e-ink (instead of a screen with backlighting), I can read it in full sunlight. Can't do that with an iPad or other computer screen. The black and white e-ink screen of my Kindle is perfect for viewing drawings.

[McFarkus]

I've had a Kindle since it first came out and am now on my 4th model the Touch. I paid extra to have both 3G and wireless. I find myself reading when I should be doing other things. One great thing, with the cover I have from my Kindle, I can read with one hand while walking the dog, so my morning walks have gotten a bit longer.

One dangerous secret: On Facebook there are two services which each offer 12 or more free books on Kindle. My "to be read" folder now contains over 200 books. The services are "Pixel of Ink" and "Kindle Author."

[DScottHunter]

I've had a Kindle Fire for a while now and I really like it. I had a regular Kindle reader prior to it and liked reading from it. The Fire has so much more with the color touch screen, access to the web and apps with wi-fi and the many other "smart" workings inside. It is a little heavier than the regular Kindles. There is no user fee to access the wi-fi info, but sometimes I wish I had 3g to access away from wi-fi sources. What I found I like to use with the touch screen is those stylus pen specially made for touch screens. With my big fingers and the often small buttons or info. to tap, it really helps to "type" better. With readers becoming more popular the access to e-books is becoming more difficult with the wait times becoming longer. But all in all with the ability to carry more books and info it's a great machine to have. Enjoy

[unixken]

No Kindle here, but I have taken to audio books, over the last couple years, for similar reasons. I spend a lot of time in my vehicle throughout the week, and the last two Garmin GPS units that I've owned include audio book players that support the audible.com aax format. With the audible support in the GPS, and the audible app installed on both my laptop and my iPod Touch, I too, am able to take some "reading material" with me just about anywhere.

It's a 13-hour drive for me, from my home in Ohio, to my sister's place, north of Orlando, Florida. When I made the drive to visit her at Christmas, the time passed effortlessly as I listened to Homer's "The Odyssey" (which as well, was 13 hours long.) That's probably the longest single stretch of "reading time" I've ever experienced, but the audible format was convenient and effortless to enjoy.

[Riverkilt]

Was gifted with a Kindle Fire last year...still struggling with the learning curve but have downloaded a few books. Use it as an on line thingie too when I can get a wireless signal...which is rare here. Just took it to the week long conference thinking I could use it during the presentations but the tech folks at the venue had blacked out the conference room...grumble.

Main hassle is getting the thing to work...gave up on touch - it usually ignores me...got one of them sticks with foam on the end but they only seem to work about half the time. It also has a mind of its own and likes to jump around at random. So far, its mostly been a challenge for me.