Notes of Life

I’ve had my Kindle since May 2009. I finally realized that traveling with a small suitcase of books just wasn’t practical anymore. I was on my way to Germany and wanted to make sure I had plenty of reading material for the long flight (I live in California). I’ve been traveling with my Kindle ever since and love it. There’s no substitute for a “real” book but the convenience of having hundreds of books to read on my Kindle when I travel is phenomenal. I hope you will enjoy hours if you decide to buy one.

I think I’m going to finally get a Kindle too. I don’t need the 3G connectivity and the savings here is $50 for the model that gets released late in August. I’ve not pre-bought it yet but I’m pretty sure I am going to. It’s going to cost $139 and that’s low enough for me to switch from paper.

Good luck with snagging a review version!

I’ve had a Kindle for at least a year now. I initially bought it because I travel a lot and read a lot too, and books are just too heavy. Like you, I used to say that I would never give up my paperbacks…. I still love books as objects, but having had the Kindle for a while now, I really like it. It took me about a day or two to get used to reading on it, and now I read about 70% of my books on it. It’s easy to use, you can have thousands of books on one device, something important as well is that books are usually half the price, and you don’t have the problem of too many books and not enough bookshelves. With my version of the Kindle I can also connect for free from all over the world and buy books instantly! To be honest, it’s hard to beat, even for paper book lovers. The only drawback is that not all books exit in e-book version. But maybe that’s a positive because it allows you to buy paperbacks too!

I’ve heard good things about Kindle and Barnes and Nobles Nook. I loved the idea of the Nook because it plays audio too. One day I will get one…Not sure which though.

I’ve had my Kindle for a few days only, so I’m hardly an expert! However, I bought the Kindle -like other commenters above- for travel purposes.

Whilst I don’t like ‘big name’ populist brands, I went with the Kindle because of the bookmarking, the choices in books and the integration with audiobooks.

What I have discovered is that there are gazillions of free books (not just classics, but newish releases by popular authors) on the Amazon website.

I live in Australia, so the choice of books isn’t as great as it is in the US, however there’s still a lot (like 300,000) books available just from Amazon alone.

I still prefer real paper books though. I don’t ever think that ereaders will replace real books.

I’ve had my NOOK for several months now and it is growing on me. I esp. like the fact that I can load my magazines (in PDF version) on to it and take them everywhere. I read I lot of goofy independent mags, so it’s either that or on the net. Not sure how possible that is with a Kindle, I think the new one has PDF capability.

Unfortunately we can’t get a Kindle in New Zealand, but I’ve had a Palm reader for several years. I do a lot of travel, and it’s so good being able to travel with my entire library and read as my mood takes me. I’ll probably get an iPad eventually.

I still read paperbacks, but it’s surprising how much I use my reader. I like being able to download a book at any time day or night and start reading it straight away.

I have the Sony E-Reader and I do love it and it is my best new toy . But, I have to admit, I thought I would use it constantly, but I don’t use it as much as I should, I still prefer reading paper books, I haven’t quite got used to reading ebooks yet.I hope that I will get used to it, but I think that I will always love paper books.
Hugsxx

Like you I’m considering getting one, as they’re finally coming down in price, and also because the piles of books are threatening to collapse! Haha

i think i will get a kindle soon. there are so many ebooks being offered that would be more convenient to read on it.

I still have a Sony e-reader, which is about 2 years old. It works well enough, but isn’t wi-fi so requires a PC connection to upload new books. I also found a few challenges with book formats between different systems and the e-reader was more geared towards PC than Mac.

So its OK but not excellent for my needs. The B+W typefaces are fine and clear and it has a long battery life. I assume the Kindle is similar in this respect.

When I acquired it I recognised that I was buying into ‘under development’ technology and my assumption is that these systems will all improve over the next 2-3 years. I note that the prices have dropped for these devices as they become more mainstream.

[...] my To Kindle or not to Kindle post – I gave in and pre-ordered one. However, Amazon’s original “lot” of [...]

I’ve had a Kindle(2) since Feb ‘09 and really like it. I read a lot and maybe 20% is on Kindle. Still buy and read paper books but always love reading on the Kindle. Nice that the price has come down a good deal since mine was purchased. One thing I love is the dictionary – you place the cursor by a word and the definition appears at the bottom of the screen – very handy and I miss it when I’m reading a paper book. Hmm, maybe I’m simply lazy