the kindle e book system
 

have any of you used Kindle ebook at all?


if you are familiar with the Kindle system i would be interested to know your thoughts on it.


would you recommend it?


Thanks in advance.

I haven't used the Kindle system personally . . . I'm rather a purist and a technophobe, and perhaps my literature studies have biased me, but in any case I have no inclination to use it at all, lol.

I've used 'e-books' on the DS system, and I do a lot of reading online too, and personally I think it's just too much of a stress on the eyes, you can't sit for hours and hours like you can with a book, and you can't read whilst travelling like you can with a book because the shaking screen is disorientating. I also have a problem with the cost. E-books may be cheaper, but unless you're an avid and passionate reader it'll take you a very long time to buy enough books to make up for the cost of the console itself. Not to mention for students referencing, highlighting, searching etc. is a right old pain too . . .

It has its upsides. I mean it's easier to take a console on holiday than say three or four books, but ultimately I prefer solid books to e-books. You can lend them out, borrow them, not have to worry about a virus or broken console destroying it . . . you can even throw it at someone and not have to worry about it breaking ;)

In all seriousness though I'd only recomend it to non-students and avid readers. Unless you spend the majority of your spare time reading you'll never recoup the cost of the console, and it won't save you any time/space because you don't read enough for it to be an issue anyways. So yeah, very negative thoughts! I'm sure some will disagree, I know people who swear by them and adore them, Kindle especially for its convienience and cheapness. Bear in mind though a lot of books don't come on Kindle (or any e-reader), such as some of Du Maurier's works and Rowling (I think), although anything out of copyright is free, so you can get all the Shakespeare and Dante you like.

Don't know about Kindle but I tested (preproduction model) for a few weeks a Evolio reader, it's the same thing, but another producer. The screen really is ink like, very "easy" on the eyes.
Battery was charged when I received it, and still had some energy left 3 weeks later, when I took it back.
For reading what can I say, you can't beat it, except with the real paper of course. But for that paper a few trees had to come down, so I prefer something like this, reusable and recyclable.

Robinmask makes some good points. it's too much of a strain on eyes and plus, it's not exactly ideal especially when you're trying to find a specific page number, my classmate had one and he would never be able to find the right page in time. See, with a book, it's easily to flip to the right page.

Personally, I don't think I could ever turn to a kindle, because I'm a book freak. I love collecting them, I love going into a bookstore and spend hours flicking and reading excerpts in books. I love the smell of new book pages. (Glue sniffing? Maybe I need to get it checked out...) Kindle kind of takes the romance away from books, y'know.

i love reading books but since i broke my arm it is agony just trying to turn pages--which is why i thought maybe an e book could be useful.

thanks for yr comments. babs. ps how beautiful is spring.it makes me feel so much better--apart from flaming seagulls.

by the way i think it is scandalous that so many of our libraries are closing.

I thought the whole point of ebooks is that it is NOT a strain on the eyes, and is why they are black and white with a matte type screen. I have seen demos, and they look more like looking at a paper page than a computer screen.