I’m a Kindle fan. Well, let’s tighten that statement up. I’m an ‘ebook’ fan. I bought a Kindle three years ago, and it changed the way I read. And travel.
Ebooks are easy for a voracious reader like me. I buy the new ones I want to read and in an instant I am reading, not waiting for the book to arrive by mail or UPS. I don’t have to drive across the river to the bookstore.
Kindle apps are available for PC’s, iPad, Android, and there’s even a cloud app that works on anything with a web browser.
Of course, this all only works until TEOTWAKI, but until then, going on the road means I have more than a couple hundred books in one or more devices that just toss into my travel gear. Better, I don’t get stuck in some hotel a few hundred miles from my library shelves wishing I’d’ve brought ‘that other book’, and If I finish reading one, I can browse on over to Amazon and browse up another, click, and in a minute it’s there for my use.
Of course, any ebook user worth his salt knows about Project Gutenberg. Want access to THOUSANDS of free books, including out of print classics? Click THAT link and search. That little package that fits your hand can end up holding the treasures of literature, for FREE.
Commercially, ebooks are usually cheaper than their hard copy counterparts, and there’s another angle to that, too — there are large number of books available in ebook format that you’ll not likely ever see in print, and some of them are dirt cheap. Amazon has a lot of ebooks for in the one to three dollar range. Many authors who wouldn’t get through the traditional publishing maze are publishing on Amazon for a buck a download, and some of ’em are pretty darned good.
If you haven’t yet tried the ebook thing, you’re missing something. I suggest you give it a try. Will it replace the shelves of books? No. But it’s darned sure useful.
I love mine for reading in bed before I go to sleep because I have really small hands and it is so much easier than wrestling a big heavy book while laying down.
I love paper books for all kinds of reasons, but I’m gradually being won over by ebooks.
Heck of a lot easier to shift during moves.
I have a Kindle app on my Android phone. I also have Moon+ reader app that will handle anything the Kindle won’t. Makes is convenient to read while away from home, but there is nothing like holding the printed volume in your hands and turning the pages as you read.
None of them — ebooks, hard copies, work real well when a seventeen pound cat decides it’s time that you pet him.
MC
*lol*
No, certainly not.
It’s good to be reminded of the important things from time to time.
“Must not drink the koolaid”!
I avoid the kindle / Amazon stuff as you have had to have a kindle or a kendle app for your PC to read it. I am NOT going to sit in front of my PC to read when I have several ereaders that work just fine. More DRM crap where I am right from the get-go presumed to be a thief.
But there is plenty out there without amazon. The number of ebooks I have on my readers would not fit in this apartment…
I got a Nook for Mother’s Day. I did not know how much I needed one until I started searching the free books… oh my! I’m especially partial to turn-of-the-last-century books by explorers and missionaries. So often in the old days, some volumes could not be had for love nor money – others were in such demand that I would read with kid gloves before putting them out for sale. Now, that far away world is at my fingertips on a moment’s notice.
I’ll always own and treasure books printed on paper, but the eReader is now officially indispensable in my world!
Tina
tina-
Bingo!
Old cookbooks. Old ‘how-to’ manuals. Old engineering texts. Literature. History. Out there for free, and like you said, otherwise out of the reach of you and me.
MC
Guilty. Got A kindle for Christmas.I love real biiks,there is a problem tho;like MC I read like a junkie needs dope.I’m out of room for the real deal paper.I’ve got a small library on mine & love it.One thing..if you have cat(s) bookmark you E-book like you used to “save” in the old days of computers.Found that out the hard way when Zeppo put his big fat paw on a page & went to the end of the book.
Smashwords.com is another good source of e-books. If you haven’t been there yet, check it out. I resisted the Kindle but gave in about a year ago, mainly for the reasons Cajun gives in his post. For traveling, it’s a God-send. I find that when I’m not traveling, I don’t use it as much, and there are too many publishers/authors out there who think $10 for an e-book is a good price. Having created my own e-books, I totally disagree.
And I’m right there with Tina and Cajun on the availability of otherwise unreachable volumes. Am currently reading the Civil War diary of a lady who lived in/around Baton Rouge. Got it free for Kindle. Earlier, I read the collected letters of a lady who moved to Montana at the turn of the last century. Growing up, I loved Altsheler’s books. Finding affordable hard-copies of those is next to impossible, but I have a fair sampling of them on my kindle (he was prolific), all at $3 or less per book. Ben Franklin’s autobiography was both free, and fascinating.
For bathtub reading, simply insert Kindle into zip-lock bag, and don’t drop it.
I have an ebook program on my iPod Touch. Initially I thought the small screen on that device would make reading impossible, but not so! It displays about ten lines of text at a time, fits comfortably into a shirt pocket (something a Kindle can’t do) and runs for quite a while on a single charge. Highly recommended.
Another good URL for free ebooks is:
http://arthursclassicnovels.com/
I got the nook because it reads EPUB format without any conversion. I’ve had it over a year now and find that the reader accounts for about 75% of all the books I read. My only complaint is that the older nook which I have has a very primitive filing system (alphabetic by title or author only; no folders), so I keep my book count on the reader at 30 or so. My pc is the main library and I transfer eight or so books to the the reader after I have deleted the ones which I have read.
I have a whole library of survival type books on my Kindle Fire. I like the Fire because it display color pictures of things like edible wild plants. The color is important for correctly identifying plants to eat in the wild.
Books ranging from “ropes, knots & hitches” to growing and propogating vegetables, etc.
I highly recommend the Kindle charging cable that plugs in to a 12 V power port in your vehicle. It’s available as an accessory from Amazon. A true lifesaver when traveling or camping in our trailer.
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-PowerBolt-Charger-Cable-Kensington/dp/B005Z6FL80/ref=sr_1_7?s=fiona-hardware&ie=UTF8&qid=1337621239&sr=1-7
Check your local libraries, too. Though I’ve not tried it yet, I understand many now “loan” ebooks, too. Not sure how that would work, but I guess it uses all that evil DRM stuff, but can get you access to current releases for “free-ish”.
On Android, I use Aldiko. Reads epubs, pdf, txt, etc. Decent reading features. Again, not sure how it may play with the library, but I will soon find out and report back.