OT ? ebooks, nooks, kindles et al

I used to have a sign in my office that said, in part, "We have studied the
question and have come up with questions at a higher level."
Me too.
I imagine I would like to have one of those. But there are so many
questions to consider. Such as, if I have a book on mine and want to share
it with my sister, can I?
Will my 'book' communicate with our public library? How in the Sam
Hill do you return a copy when the time's up?
I see that some of them come with ear pod somethings. Why would I need
them to read a book?
Just a personal problem, I expect, but I borrowed one from a friend, a
much older model ( the book, not the friend). I thought it was dim, slow
and heavy.
Are some models easier on old eyes? Are some easier for old brains?
Do you have one and have a ' I wish I could' list? Do you tolerate it
or love it? Polly

I have a Kindle from Amazon. I love it. Although you really can't share
books without giving her your Kindle. You can adjust the font size so that
you can read it -- whether you need 16 pt print or have super eyes that can
handle 8 point. I have read it while sitting poolside -- so the sunlight
doesn't bother it. I read at night before bed. It is not back lit - you do
need "room" light. Books run from 7.99 to around 9.99 for most titles.

They now come in small, medium and large sizes. Mine is about 6" x 10" and
I purchased a leather cover for it -- so it holds and feels like a book.
The cover also protects the screen.

My DS's girlfriend has a Nook from Barnes & Noble. She chose that one
particularly because she wanted to be able to put library books on it. I
can't do that with my Kindle.

http://news.cnet.com/kindle-vs-nook-...should-you-buy

You might find this helpful.

When I travel -- I used to cart 3 or 4 books with me. Now I just tuck my
Kindle in my purse and I'm good for weeks (or months... or years!)


Hope this helps.

--
Kate in MI
http://community.webshots.com/user/K_Groves



"Polly Esther" wrote in message
...
I used to have a sign in my office that said, in part, "We have studied the
question and have come up with questions at a higher level."
Me too.
I imagine I would like to have one of those. But there are so many
questions to consider. Such as, if I have a book on mine and want to
share it with my sister, can I?
Will my 'book' communicate with our public library? How in the Sam
Hill do you return a copy when the time's up?
I see that some of them come with ear pod somethings. Why would I need
them to read a book?
Just a personal problem, I expect, but I borrowed one from a friend, a
much older model ( the book, not the friend). I thought it was dim, slow
and heavy.
Are some models easier on old eyes? Are some easier for old brains?
Do you have one and have a ' I wish I could' list? Do you tolerate it
or love it? Polly

My sister just got a Nook for Christmas, and I echo much of what Kate has
said. I have a really old, about 7 or 8 year old, eBookwise, and while I
love it, it is heavy and I would probably go with a Nook now as well.

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

I also sent my sister the link above. There are over 33,000 free books. It
is a project of already digitized books, and others typed in by volunteers.
The formats available for download support a very wide variety of devices.
I really like this site because as someone who has never read many of the
classics, as they were out of favor in English classes in the late 70's when
I was in high school and then college, I can now get them for free and read
them.

Kate, Polly, that is what I love about having a device such as this. When I
travel, or even just about town when I know that I am going to have to sit
for a while, I can take this and have something to read, and if I don't like
it, I just switch to a different title.

Steven
Alaska


"Polly Esther" wrote in message
...
I used to have a sign in my office that said, in part, "We have studied the
question and have come up with questions at a higher level."
Me too.
I imagine I would like to have one of those. But there are so many
questions to consider. Such as, if I have a book on mine and want to
share it with my sister, can I?
Will my 'book' communicate with our public library? How in the Sam
Hill do you return a copy when the time's up?
I see that some of them come with ear pod somethings. Why would I need
them to read a book?
Just a personal problem, I expect, but I borrowed one from a friend, a
much older model ( the book, not the friend). I thought it was dim, slow
and heavy.
Are some models easier on old eyes? Are some easier for old brains?
Do you have one and have a ' I wish I could' list? Do you tolerate it
or love it? Polly

"Steven Cook" wrote in message
mmunications...
My sister just got a Nook for Christmas, and I echo much of what Kate has
said. I have a really old, about 7 or 8 year old, eBookwise, and while I
love it, it is heavy and I would probably go with a Nook now as well.

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page


Have you explored manybooks?

http://manybooks.net/

I also have one of the ancient eBookwise units. It's not as pretty as the
newer ones, and it is heavy, but I use it all the time. I guess when it
finally dies, I will have a decision to make, but right now it does what I
want. That is, I can get all the free books I want! Manybooks actually
allows downloads in the rocketbook format, which is what eBookwise uses.

Iris

On Dec 30, 11:14*pm, "Polly Esther" wrote:
I used to have a sign in my office that said, in part, "We have studied the
question and have come up with questions at a higher level."
* * Me too.
* * I imagine I would like to have one of those. *But there are so many
questions to consider. *Such as, if I have a book on mine and want to share
it with my sister, can I?
* * Will my 'book' *communicate with our public library? *How in the Sam
Hill do you return a copy when the time's up?
* * I see that some of them come with ear pod somethings. *Why would I need
them to read a book?
* * Just a personal problem, I expect, but I borrowed one from a friend, a
much older model ( the book, not the friend). *I thought it was dim, slow
and heavy.
* * Are some models easier on old eyes? *Are some easier for old brains?
* * Do you have one and have a ' I wish I could' list? *Do you tolerate it
or love it? * Polly

Polly, sorry I don't have one but my SIL recently got the Kindle from
Amazon as well and loves it. Tons of free titles. FWIW she joined
some online discussion groups prior to purchase to see what would work
for her. If you're interested I can get that info for you. Avid
doesn't even come close to describing her reading habits and I agree
that it will make her life considerably easier travelling with reading
material. I looked at it as well but was looking for something that I
could read in bed at night without the aid of glasses. And even with
the font sizes available, I still would need glasses so it lost some
of it's appeal for me personally.

Kim in NJ

On 31/12/10 04:14, Polly Esther wrote:
I used to have a sign in my office that said, in part, "We have studied
the question and have come up with questions at a higher level."
Me too.
I imagine I would like to have one of those. But there are so many
questions to consider. Such as, if I have a book on mine and want to
share it with my sister, can I?
Will my 'book' communicate with our public library? How in the Sam Hill
do you return a copy when the time's up?
I see that some of them come with ear pod somethings. Why would I need
them to read a book?
Just a personal problem, I expect, but I borrowed one from a friend, a
much older model ( the book, not the friend). I thought it was dim, slow
and heavy.
Are some models easier on old eyes? Are some easier for old brains?
Do you have one and have a ' I wish I could' list? Do you tolerate it or
love it? Polly

Hi Polly,

DH & I both have Sony E-readers and love them. We travel a lot on
business and it is wonderful to be able to carry a huge selection of
books on one slim, device. It can also double as a MP3 player, but I
have never bothered with that, as it uses the battery up faster. Sony
have brought out a pocket sized version that is a bit smaller than the
ones we have. "Print" size can be varied and it will also happily
handle .pdf without any problems.

On an aside DH bought me Cryoburn, the latest book by Lois McMaster
Bujold, in hardback, for Christmas and it included a CD with all the
previous books in the series inside it. On further inspection the CD
had printed on it "This disk and its contents may be copied and shared,
but NOT sold." So now I have the whole series on my e-reader and I can
introduce others to her wonderful world. Well done Baen books!

Lizzy

Now there's something I had not considered. We studied classics but there
was no pleasure in it. We were commanded to answer questions such as 'what
if the secondary theme blah, blah,blah?'. I might have enjoyed them if
given the opportunity without the hassle. Polly

"Steven Cook" ...
My sister just got a Nook for Christmas, and I echo much of what Kate has
said. I have a really old, about 7 or 8 year old, eBookwise, and while I
love it, it is heavy and I would probably go with a Nook now as well.

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

I also sent my sister the link above. There are over 33,000 free books.
It is a project of already digitized books, and others typed in by
volunteers. The formats available for download support a very wide variety
of devices. I really like this site because as someone who has never read
many of the classics, as they were out of favor in English classes in the
late 70's when I was in high school and then college, I can now get them
for free and read them.

Kate, Polly, that is what I love about having a device such as this. When
I travel, or even just about town when I know that I am going to have to
sit for a while, I can take this and have something to read, and if I
don't like it, I just switch to a different title.

Steven
Alaska

"Polly Esther" wrote in message
...
I used to have a sign in my office that said, in part, "We have studied
the question and have come up with questions at a higher level."
Me too.
I imagine I would like to have one of those. But there are so many
questions to consider. Such as, if I have a book on mine and want to
share it with my sister, can I?
Will my 'book' communicate with our public library? How in the Sam
Hill do you return a copy when the time's up?
I see that some of them come with ear pod somethings. Why would I need
them to read a book?
Just a personal problem, I expect, but I borrowed one from a friend, a
much older model ( the book, not the friend). I thought it was dim, slow
and heavy.
Are some models easier on old eyes? Are some easier for old brains?
Do you have one and have a ' I wish I could' list? Do you tolerate it
or love it? Polly

I did a bunch of research on the Nook and Kindle when I was debating on
which one to buy.

1. Lending books: Kindle - no, Nook - yes, once per book to one person with
another Nook. Whether you can lend or not depends on the book itself. Some
publishers allow it and some won't.
2. Borrowing books from the library: Kindle - no, Nook - yes, as long as the
books are in ePub format and the library uses OverDrive. From what I've read
the books just stop working when the time is up. Not sure if you can renew
before time is up or not.
3. Both have adjustable font size. Nook also has a choice of 3 different
fonts.
4. Kindle (except for the DX) is lighter weight than the Nook.
5. Both will play MP3 files so you can listen to music or audiobooks.

Here's a good side by side comparison of the Nook and Kindle in all their
different versions.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372819,00.asp

I ultimately decided on a Nook (3G+WiFi not color). For me it came down to
the fact that I want to be able to borrow books from the library, download
free books from many different sites, and buy books from multiple sources
rather than just from Amazon. I also don't really care about being able to
surf the internet or check email. I have a computer to do that. I also
really like the idea that the Nook has an SD card slot so I'm not limited to
the storage on the device itself and that the battery is user replaceable.
(Beware, if it matters to you, the battery is not user replaceable in the
NookColor. I'll be trading the one DH got me for Christmas for the 3G+WiFi
Nook today. He's a sweetheart but he just refuses to believe that "the
latest and greatest" isn't always the best.) )
~*~
Jeri

On 31/12/2010 04:14, Polly Esther wrote:
I used to have a sign in my office that said, in part, "We have studied
the question and have come up with questions at a higher level."
Me too.
I imagine I would like to have one of those. But there are so many
questions to consider. Such as, if I have a book on mine and want to
share it with my sister, can I?
Will my 'book' communicate with our public library? How in the Sam Hill
do you return a copy when the time's up?
I see that some of them come with ear pod somethings. Why would I need
them to read a book?
Just a personal problem, I expect, but I borrowed one from a friend, a
much older model ( the book, not the friend). I thought it was dim, slow
and heavy.
Are some models easier on old eyes? Are some easier for old brains?
Do you have one and have a ' I wish I could' list? Do you tolerate it or
love it? Polly

A friend got the latest Kindle for Christmas.

It's small (about the size of a paperback in area, and about half an
inch thick), VERY light, the batteries las for weeks, and it'll hold
more than you can read in a lifetime. While Kindle books are a bit more
expensive than paper books, there are also millions of free books
available through things like the Gutenberg project, so you need never
run out of things to read.

The display is totally non reflective, you can change the text size, and
you can add your own footnotes!

Me want!

--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

I'm thinking about getting a Kobo. It's put out by Borders and comes
preloaded with something like 100 books. I think they're some of the
"classics" that are no longer copyrighted. You can download books from
the library with the Kobo, but it doesn't come with audio, so you can't
listen to audio books or music on it. According to the reviews, it isn't
fancy, but it's a good basic reader to start with (no internet, no
keyboard, no 3G). It doesn't appear that you can share with others, but
I don't plan to buy books - I'll download them from the library. Oh, and
it's very lightweight - something like 8 oz. I think.

I've been listening to a lot of audio books this past year, and I really
like that. I'm just not sure about getting an ereader, because I know me
too well! With the audio books, I can do other things - quilt, knit,
sew, clean - but if I have an ereader, I'm afraid I'll spend too much
time on the couch reading!

Louise in Iowa
http://community.webshots.com/user/louiseiniowa
nieland1390 at mchsi dot com

On 12/30/2010 10:14 PM, Polly Esther wrote:
I used to have a sign in my office that said, in part, "We have studied
the question and have come up with questions at a higher level."
Me too.
I imagine I would like to have one of those. But there are so many
questions to consider. Such as, if I have a book on mine and want to
share it with my sister, can I?
Will my 'book' communicate with our public library? How in the Sam Hill
do you return a copy when the time's up?
I see that some of them come with ear pod somethings. Why would I need
them to read a book?
Just a personal problem, I expect, but I borrowed one from a friend, a
much older model ( the book, not the friend). I thought it was dim, slow
and heavy.
Are some models easier on old eyes? Are some easier for old brains?
Do you have one and have a ' I wish I could' list? Do you tolerate it or
love it? Polly