Someone convince me to get a Kindle (or some such device)

All right, I saw the summer reading thread on here and this bubbled up in my brain.

I went to the bookstore (Barnes & Nobles) the other day and was surprised at the cost of paperbacks...got me thinking about the Kindle or some such device (been considering it for awhile now).

Give me the pros and cons of the different devices, or should I just bite it and keep stocking my personal bookshelves?

thanks in advance for the feedback...this may top my Christmas list in a few months.

 

I got a Kindle for Christmas and love it. It's easy to use, it's great for travel, if I want to buy a book I can have it in seconds.... love it. I'm reading a lot more now that I have it, too.

My chief gripe is pricing for books. In some instances, Amazon is charging more for a Kindle version than for a hardback. That's inexcusable. It seemed like Kindle books were cheaper around Christmas and universally went up about a month later, too.

One other slight beef: I've had a few books that were riddled with typos or other glitches -- like every time there's an apostrophe-s, the copy jumps down two lines. Most have been fine, though.

Despite those issues, I'm very happy with it overall.

The chief difference between the Kindle and Nook seems to be that the Nook is color. If you think you're going to be reading magazines on it, the Nook may be the way to go. The screen on the Kindle seems a little more book-like to me, which was a bigger selling point.

 

I have one, but most of the reading I do on mine comes from pasting long Internet articles into Microsoft Word and sending them off to be converted to Kindle's document type (that is free, by the way) and then added to the Kindle manually. I have never purchased a book on it before, but the free ones that I have gotten have been just fine. I also have a couple word jumbling games that are ok when I'm bored with reading.

I used to live in a small town with bad cell coverage, and that equaled bad Kindle coverage. That was my biggest downfall to it.

 

Interesting stuff...keep it coming.

So give me a ballpark range...how much do new releases cost via Kindle, etc.
Also, how does the magazine thing work? I could see myself using that option.

 

New releases typically top out at $12.99. There have been a few that have been $14.99 and people have absolutely blown a gasket in the reviews section, driving the ratings down until Amazon or the publisher relented. Beyond that there's a pretty big range. For example, Robert B. Parker's last Spenser novel is $12.99, but most of the older ones are $7.99, and are as low as $2.99.

If you go to Amazon.com you can browse the newspapers, magazines and books available. For example, USA Today is $11.99 a month, sent to your Kindle each morning. Time Magazine is $2.99 a month.

 

WTH, US Weekly isn't available for Kindle or Nook? Boooooo.

 

Keep track of rumors as Christmas gets closer ... supposedly there's a touch-screen Kindle coming later this year and there have been Amazon tablet rumors for a while. And note that whichever e-reader you buy, most of the non-free books have DRM and don't transfer from one brand of device to another. (Well, I hear there are ways around it, but I don't have a Kindle and haven't tried it.)

 

seems like the answer for most newspapers once the supply/demand cycle ensures enough people are using these handhelds. I like the idea of subscribing via Kindle...I know I will for a few magazines. Do you get the full product via these services?

Another key question...what's the life expectancy of these things...will I have it for 6 months or 5 years before it needs to be replaced/upgraded.

Also, what can I expect for battery life?

 

I believe you get the whole product, but I've only used it for books, so I can't say for sure.

I haven't heard anything negative about the life expectancy. I don't see any reason to think they'll need to be replaced soon. I don't see upgrading being an issue, at least for me. There are fancier versions out there that are sort of between a Kindle and an iPad, but I really did want it strictly for reading, and to me the Kindle seems the closest to reading an actual physical book. It looks remarkably like a printed page, while competitors seem a little too glossy to me, like you're reading off a computer screen.

Battery life is tremendous. I'll go for weeks without charging the battery, particularly if I turn the wi-fi off.

 

Great for travel. Instead of lugging several books around in your bags all you take is the Kindle.

Low glare screen allows you to read outdoors in the sun easily.

You can buy Chris L's new book for only $0.99.

You can download a new book to the Kindle in only a few moments - - far less time than you will normally wait in line to pay for a book in a "bricks and mortar store".

 

Love, love, love my Kindle.

I was on the fence about it like you, then they came out with the $114 model that comes with ads on the screensavers. There also is a small strip ad on the bottom of the homepage. When you're reading, no ads at all. Very good option for a cheapskate like myself.

I priced the books I was wanting to read (about 12-14), and found that I could buy the Kindle unit and all the Kindle versions of those books for less money than it would take to buy just the hard copies of the books themselves. Some of the Kindle books were as cheap as 99 cents, while the paperbacks were $8-$10. That did it for me.

If you have an iPad, you can get copies of the books you've purchased on Kindle transferred to the iPad for free through their Kindle app. Plus like someone else said, adding books to the Kindle is a breeze.

I've read more in the 3 months I've had in than I did in the year before getting it. If mine died tomorrow, I would order another one the same day.

 

cool...i'm think I'm sold...my birthday is Labor Day, maybe I'll move it up to that wish list

How many books can you store on the Kindle at a time?
What do you do when you've reached your storage limit?