Book Club

[culebra]

I have owned my kindle for years.  I love it. I would never go back to buying books unless I had to.  Kindle - one of my best purchases every.  

[MoJoV]

I love my Kindles. I have a Fire and an ereader about 7 years old. I prefer a real book although I do read alot on my Kindles. Get one...low cost,lots of bang for the buck.

[Pagan]

I much prefer to read on a Kindle for all the reasons others have listed. 

BUT if you're making the choice, be aware that you're not buying those ebooks for your kindle, only the license.

If one day something happens to your Amazon account (anything from customer barring to Amazon closing), you've lost access to your library. 

Right now you can use software to convert your e-books in an attempt to future-proof your books but in the future you're always going to be playing catchup with formats ... and technology changes fast.

Think of that before you sink major funds into your e-library - you're buying products in a technology that will date.

Maybe you mostly only read books once, or borrow them, in which case it doesn't matter but if you like to collect favorites, bear in mind how much money you're putting into this particular technology.

I know that in 25 years, God willing, I can go to my bookshelf, pull out a favorite 50 year old paperback and start reading. 

Where do you think I'll be with today's favorite Kindle ebook? What format will I have managed to preserve it in and what will I be using to read it? 

[debic]

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@Pagan wrote:

I much prefer to read on a Kindle for all the reasons others have listed. 

BUT if you're making the choice, be aware that you're not buying those ebooks for your kindle, only the license.

If one day something happens to your Amazon account (anything from customer barring to Amazon closing), you've lost access to your library. 

Right now you can use software to convert your e-books in an attempt to future-proof your books but in the future you're always going to be playing catchup with formats ... and technology changes fast.

Think of that before you sink major funds into your e-library - you're buying products in a technology that will date.

Maybe you mostly only read books once, or borrow them, in which case it doesn't matter but if you like to collect favorites, bear in mind how much money you're putting into this particular technology.

I know that in 25 years, God willing, I can go to my bookshelf, pull out a favorite 50 year old paperback and start reading. 

Where do you think I'll be with today's favorite Kindle ebook? What format will I have managed to preserve it in and what will I be using to read it? 

---

I'm betting that books stored on Amazon will be in much better shape, yes you will need an up to date reader.

As far as 50 year old books, my cake decorating books are yellowed, the glue is melted off and some with bindings have come loose.   True, some of mine are still good, but there's no guarentee that what you have will last. 

[icezeus]

I have a Kindle Fire that I purchased from QVC last year. It was a bundle and was being offered either as a 2 pk or 4 pk. I compared pricing at Amazon at the time, and it was a little cheaper for me to get the 2 pk from QVC, so that was the route that I took.

First of all, do not let people discourage you from this great unit, especially if you wish to utilize it primarily to read books. I remember reviews that were published that were in my opinion harsh on this gadget. I am sorry but often people do not compare apples to apples. It's impossible to compare a $50 dollar tablet to a $600 dollar I-Pad. If you want a simple device, where you can read books, look up something quick on the Internet, or even respond to a quick e-mail this is worth the money.

I also enjoy the ease of just ordering another book and having it downloaded in about a minute and you are ready to go. There are also a lot of free books or deeply discounted books that are available. I personally signed up for Kindle unlimited which in my view is similar to an online library. I pay $9.99 a month, and can borrow up to 10 books at a time at no charge. There is also no limit to how long you can keep a borrowed book unlike the "Nook" that I had years ago. When you are ready to return the books you just return them online. Let's say that you read more than 10 books a month. (I don't have time) no problem. Just return. It's just a max that you can have checked out at any given time is 10.

The only Con that I have would be for true readers. Most days I only have time to read for 30 minutes or an hour max. However, sometimes on the weekends I just want to lay down on my couch and loose myself in a good book.  I hate having to charge it several times a week. Or worse pick it up to read and notice that you have  low battery life. I believe at the time the selling point was that this unit had 7 hours of battery life. The Kindle fire looses it's charge over the week. I have now gotten into the habit of every night before I go to bed I plug it in to charge.

Last point you can also change the font size which I need to make it easier to read.

Anyway, it's a low cost gadget that is simple to set up. I would purchase.

[jackthebear]

there's some Fathers Day sales on Kindles now

http://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/

[VaBelle35]

Amazon has taken the word "Kindle" out of the Fires now and just called them Fire Tablets.

I have a Fire HD 8.9 that is about 4-5 years old and I just bought the new Fire HD8 that was released this week.

I love to read magazines, but I have not been able to embrace magazine reading on mine.  I have no problem with books, though.

Before they changed the airline rules, you used to have to shut down your Fire for takeoff and landing, but you don't anymore, you can keep it in airplane mode.  I used to take magazines and/or newspapers with me so I had something "non-electronic" to read during that time.

I do so much reading for work that the last thing I want to do is read at home.  Now that I have Alexa on my Fire tablet, she is reading my books to me so I can finish the 5 books I have started out there on the cloud.  

Once those books are done, I am going to use the Audible versions of books as they are read by professionals ;o)

Now if I can just get Alexa to read my work stuff to me, that would be awesome.

I like the tablet because I can take it to meetings and see my work email on it.  I don't have to schlep my laptop around.

This new one is super fast, too.

[culebra]

I have had a Kindle for over 7 years.  Best thing I ever purchased.  I have the kind that has both wifi as well as their whispernet.  I can listed to audio books on mine so I belong to Audible.com. I walk every morning and listen to a novel on my Kindle.   I also can download a book to read.  When you download a book to read it is on your Kindle in seconds.  I love not having to drive to the book store, etc.  I know I read more because of my Kindle.  As I said best thing I ever purchased.  I will never be without one.

I purchased mine directly from Amazon.  I love having a Kindle Account tied to my Amazon account.  I can archive my excess audio books as well as reading books on my Kindle account so my Kindle never fills up.  I just keep the current books on my Kindle. I archive the old ones.  My son borrows books from my archive account all of the time.  Amazon has a program where your friends and relatives can borrow from your purchased stash of audio books as well as written books.