I'd like some advice and views on the above please. There's clearly plenty of experience and knowledge, as evinced by the I-Pad thread, however, I didn't want to hi-jack that one, which is still going strong.

Mrs Bobinspain is a voracious reader. 2/3 books a week, mostly crime and mystery. We have over 1,000 books, most of which, she's read two or three times, Michael Connelly, Karin Slaughter, Linda Feinstein, Kellerman's, Tess Gerritsen and the old faithfuls like Agatha, Ruth Rendell etc etc.
There's been a gradual turnover of reading material over the last thirty-odd years, but the 1,000 she keeps are a nucleus of her favourites.

The time has come (against her wishes) to buy an eReader for her, because it's just getting silly. Here is a list of considerations to assume:

1. Total, and I mean total technophobe. (Is able, under supervised instruction, turn her mobile on). Not kidding!
2 Read machine only. No other uses.
3. Access to a good, sensibly priced library of suitable library of books, (see above).
4. Good battery life.
5. Value is more important than price.

Many thanks.

Bob.

big 2

Kindle
Kobo

in no particular order

Kindle, without a doubt.

Kindle is so good it should be Apple

Great battery life, intuitive easy to follow menus ans separate buttons to turn page forward or back!

My version has separate alphanumeric pad which is good for technophobia and is cheap as chips now.

Also you can read it like a paperback when lying in bed - i.e. not like a laptop or tablet which are too big, heavy and cumbersome. screen definition is just perfect for reading.

Drawback is its in black and white - but so are most books! Oh and its just for reading books although it does other things it is poor at them.

You need to have wifi to be able to download books direct to it but it integrates seamlessly.


Cheers!

I'm a huge fan of the Kindle; it really is a properly excellent bit of kit and I've hardly put mine down since Christmas. You can browse Amazons books directly from the Kindle and buy them with a couple of button clicks once you set an Amazon account up. If you spend the extra on the 3G version you don't even need Wifi, you can buy a book almost anywhere in the world (and also use the web browser if you buy the keyboard version, though it sounds like your wife probably wouldn't bother with that).

Some people will bemoan it's lack of support for the open 'epub' format, but it's very simple to convert epub to mobi on a PC if she finds a book only available in the epub format (unlikely).

If you get her a Kindle I can also recommend the leather cover with integrated reading light. This is powered from the Kindles internal battery and is perfect if you want to read in bed whilst your other half is trying to get to sleep.

just brought other half a kindle for christmas and she has never put it done since. but she did say it could be expensive buying new kindle books off amazon most of the new ones same price as paper ones. but they do take up less room. i have got a binatone 1 from argos and its ok for me but i only read about 1 book a year. you can buy ebooks off ebay, which can be cheaper.

steve

Another Kindle vote


Incidentally an Android phone with the Kindle app is surprising good tool for reading Kindle books --- books and books marks are shared between all your Kindle readers --- Kindle, PC, Android Tablets and phones.

Another advantage is easier access to a wider range of material than in a bookshop.

I'm addicted to pulp scifi and it is moderately difficult to get in most bookshops. However on kindle the supply is endless and costs pennies.

Further academic books are also well supported although expensive - usually you can blag your way into a uni library to read though if its too dear for your pocket

Sometimes it's nice to have paper copies though and there is quite a tactile satisfaction in handling a well loved volume so I guess the 2 technologies can live side by side.

Cheers!

All noted. Thankyou.
We have an Amazon and Play.com account which are our primary sources of English books, however, although (say) a two year old book from Amazon costs 1p, p&p is four quid which rather takes the shine off things.
If we were UK based, it looks a no-brainer, Kindle all the way.
Any comments re' downside of ebook buying for eReaders based outside UK?

Blowing a hooley here today, but a most unseasonal 22c with thin cloud cover.

Kindle all the way, but not if you're going to buy books from them (Amazon).

If you buy books straight from Amazon to read on your kindle, you're being ripped off.
There's no way in the world that an electronic copy of a book should be more expensive than a real paper one.

What I do is, I aquire books from elsewhere, then email them to my and my family's kindles.
An unadvertised (or even mentioned) service that Amazon run is the one where your kindle has it's own email address, you can email a copy of any book you have on your PC straight to your kindle, for free.

Obviously Amazon would prefer you to buy their overpriced books straight from them but you don't have to, just obtain them from wherever you want and either plug your kindle into your PC and drag and drop them from the PC onto the kindle. Or as I've mentioned, even easier is to just email them to your kindle using the free email address.

You need to add the email address you're going to send the books from to your "whitelist" on your amazon settings page, but it's easy.
My sister lives in Dubai and my mum is out there visiting, I've sent them around 100 books since Christmas between them, all free and all arrive within a minute or two of me sending them.

I love my Kindle, my mum loves hers and I'm sure when my sister's baby is a bit older and she gets a minute or two, she'll love hers too

Err! This is for a serious technoPhobe remember!

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Originally posted by v8kid
Err! This is for a serious technoPhobe remember!

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quote:

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Originally posted by UncleFista
If you buy books straight from Amazon to read on your kindle, you're being ripped off.
There's no way in the world that an electronic copy of a book should be more expensive than a real paper one.

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Many thanks for the time, expertise and opinions chaps.
Kindle it is.
Amazon it ain't.

Much appreciated.

Bob.

You can actually load books onto a Kindle via USB they need to be in .MOBI format

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Originally posted by mad4x4
You can actually load books onto a Kindle via USB they need to be in .MOBI format

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quote:

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Originally posted by splitrivet

quote:

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Originally posted by mad4x4
You can actually load books onto a Kindle via USB they need to be in .MOBI format

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Easiest way is instal the kindle app onto your pc, the mobi file then shows as a little blue book attach your Kindle and open it up then copy and paste the little blue book into the documents folder on the Kindle.
Cheers,
Bob

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Originally posted by David Jenkins

quote:

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Originally posted by UncleFista
If you buy books straight from Amazon to read on your kindle, you're being ripped off.
There's no way in the world that an electronic copy of a book should be more expensive than a real paper one.

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One problem is that e-books attract VAT, and paper ones don't. That extra 20% makes a big difference.

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One relatively recent development in the Kindle world is Cloud Reader which allows Kindle books to be read via an Internet browser, it works very nicely on Firefox and Chromium on Linux

see https://read.amazon.com/about

Problem there is SWMBO is computer illiterate.
I reckon the basic ereader will be a challenge for the first year or two. All that complicated
switching on malarkey, and I hear the switching off is just as challenging.
Not kidding, she makes Luddites seem progressive. (Fortunately there's no chance of her
reading this). She's a bloody whizz in the kitchen though! Bless !!

Drifting a little off topic over xmas started working my way through the Falco series of novels by Lindsey Davis , very light reading but riveting fun, detective fiction set in ancient Rome circa 70ad -- now 20 books in the series so lots to work through.



[Edited on 7/1/12 by britishtrident]

quote:

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Originally posted by britishtrident
Drifting a little off topic over xmas started working my way through the Falco series of novels by Lindsey Davis , very light reading but riveting fun, detective fiction set in ancient Rome circa 70ad -- now 20 books in the series so lots to work through.



[Edited on 7/1/12 by britishtrident]

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