Monday, January 3, 2011

Kindles and other E-readers

Well i finally joined people who read ebooks on Kindle. I have had the app on my iphone for a while but didn't like using the small screen to read. Still in a pinch it works, it's handy if your stuck sitting waiting with nothing to do. I had a $50 Amazon gift certificate burning a hole in pocket and I've been eyeballing a Kindle for a while so that's what i used it towards. I received it in the mail Friday and once i got it figured out was adding books like crazy. I have close to 40 books on it now and all were either free or i won them from some place. From the short time i've had it i have made these observations. I have the basic Kindle that is $139 at amazon.com so it has Wifi but not the 3G. I bought a router for my computer at home and  it loads the books very quickly. From what I've been told by friends you don't need the 3G unless perhaps you travel alot and do not have access to wifi hot spots. Wifi hot spots are all over now i believe so that should not be a problem i don't think. Mcdonalds and the local libraries here offer free wifi. If you like to read in bed the Kindle works better for me than a paperback. I always fight with pages and getting comfy when reading. there there are the times i accidentally drop my book and it falls off the bed closed. It's small enough to fit in most purses so if you have to go to the Dr or dentist this fits nicely in most purses so it's not ONE MORE THING to carry when you're out and about. If you travel you can load books at home if you need to and have enough for a couple weeks vacation etc if you want.  Now there are lots and lots of free ebooks if you are on a tight budget. I have had no trouble finding books to load for free. I noticed there is a experimental section on the Kindle menu which includes a web browser you can try out and the ability to upload mp3 music files to listen to music while you read and text to speech. Certain book you can set it up to read the book to you if needed. This past weekend Amazon announced book sharing too. It's not the best thing so far but hopefully it will get better. Right now you can lend a book to someone for 14 days. Drawbacks are you can only lend it out one time. If your friend doesn't get it read in 14 day that's there tough luck. Better than nothing but hey it's something they didn't offer before. You can also gift someone a ebook too. All you need is the giftee's email address. The Kindle is lightweight and about the size of a 5 x 7 book. My Kindle will not be replacing my paperback book though. Love them and just bought a few so for me the Kindle is just another option. Another way to do what i enjoy. Read. 

Feel free to leave some comments here if something i've said's not 100% correct or if there is anything else you can add. Do you have a Kindle or other ereader? Please share your thought on what ereader you have and if you like it and if so tell us what's so great! I love my Kindle so far but a friend of mine got a Nook color and is enjoying it and another got a ipad where she has the Kindle, Nook and ipad apps on it to use for reading.

Happy reading!

No comments:

Post a Comment