Anybody have a Kindle?

[Fireball]

My oldest daughter is an avid reader, and she turns 21 next month so I was thinking of purchasing one of these for her. If you have one, are you happy with it? Pros, cons? How much do the books cost?

[Jake]

My wife has one and loves it. That's all I know..

[Tom]

Originally Posted by thejakestir

My wife has one and loves it. That's all I know..

Same here. Wife loves it.

[zachary]

My wife has a 1st generation one, and its terrible. Lesson lerned. Dont be an early adopter. I think their alot better quality now though.

[revjvegas]

Originally Posted by thejakestir

My wife has one and loves it. That's all I know..

Yup, same here too.

I can tell you though generally speaking from what I glanced at, the books seem to run about 1/2 the cost of their physical self. I'm sure some are even less.

[Fireball]

So it's not a man thing, is that what ya'll are saying?

[auddii]

Here's a great cost analysis from my favorite personal finance blog. Apparently it's only cost effective for books released in the past few years. Anything older is cheaper in the physical form.

Pros and cons of e-books/

[SJHester]

Don'5 know about not being a man thing - I love mine, have about 30 books (reading 3 now - do that alot). I dont mark books, if i did, while the Kindle will let you do it, is not easy to do.

[zachary]

Just because you have a Kindle does NOT mean you are locked into buying books from Kindle.

I took my wifes and loaded it up with books from the geutenberg project, all free, though most of them are classics. Not a whole lot of newer books on the geutenberg project site.

[mdparthum]

Again, my wife loved hers so much that I got her the Kindle DX for Christmas. She had the smaller Kindle, now mine, and used it all the time. The only drawback, in my opinion, is the lack of color.

[L Stegall]

I have the Nook, which is the Barnes & Noble version. I got mine last summer, so I was not an early adopter. I have come to love it....a lot. I am an avid reader and I finally got one for two reasons:

(1) I was totally out of book space for hardback books; and (2) I travel a lot.

I love being able to travel with multiple books at my fingertips. I love being able to pick up where I left off. I love the option to "mark" quotes that I can refer to easily. I love the sharing feature for some books. Several friends and I have "loaned" each other books between our Nooks.

I picked the B&N Nook because I really liked being able to go to the store and hold it in my hand and play with it before I ordered it. Also, I thought it was sleeker than the Kindle, but that was a minor reason. I think the Kindle/Nook debate is just like Canon v. Nikon - they are both good and you can't go wrong with either. I think the ebooks are similarly priced - most are in the $9.99 range, some hot books are slightly higher, plenty are less than that. I estimated that I would pay for mine in what I saved over buying hardback books in less than 6 months and I've probably read 20+ books on it so far. I got the less expensive version, wihch doesn't have 3G, so I have to be in a WiFi hotspot to download a book. That's no big deal to me - I have wireless at home and there are plenty of hot spots, including any B&N if I am out and about and I figured that I could buy 4-5 books for the difference in price.

What I do like, for pure book reading, is the b/w screen. It's easy on the eyes and easy to read even in bright sunlight. I know that B&N (and Kindle) just came out with a color version before Christmas. For magazines, books with color illustrations and children's books, that would be great, but if your daughter is really, truly a "reader" then the b/w screen will be more useful to her.

Hope this is helpful.

[stephenpinn]

I have one as does my son and his wife. All of us think they are great, being able to read your books on the Kindle, your PC, Blackberry, iPhone or Android (and having your devices syncronized) makes it even better.

[ggeen]

I have Kindle for iPhone and Kindle for Mac. The synchronizing feature is great especially when reading a large book or if making notes or page marking. It is nice to have on the iPhone because if I get stuck in a waiting room somewhere, I can get some reading in.

Books are generally cheaper when you download an electronic version but I have seen a few books where the price break is not that much. The new e-ink versions are supposed to be more readable in bright sunlight, unlike my iPhone. Another nice feature is the ability to adjust the font size to suit your tasts.

The only down side is the presentation of graphics.

[jeffkohn]

Got my wife a 2nd-Gen kindle a year or so ago. I now have one of the 3rd-Gen Kindles. We both love them. The battery life on the latest model is truly amazing, even with wireless turned on full-time. The 3rd-Gen wi-fi model (without 3G) is the way to go IMHO. I just don't see the need to have the added cost for 3G when wi-fi is so readily available (especially since 99% of my book downloading is going to be from home anyways).

IMHO, right now they're primarily good for books that you read straight through from front to back, such as novels. TOC/Index navigation and searching leave a lot to be desired. They're great for text-only books, but I wouldn't want to use it for reference-type books. The small kindle is no good for books that contain pictures, diagrams, or complex formatting. The Kindle DX may help address some of this, but not enough to justify its extreme price IMHO.

So for me the Kindle is just for novels, autobiographies, etc. But I read enough of that to make the Kindle a no-brainer. For reference-type non-fiction I stick with the dead-tree versions.

[rbalcom]

My wife bought a Nook based on a friend's recommendation, but I bought the new Kindle and I think it is a better reader (smaller, lighter, and like the case with a built in light). At Christmas I upgraded her's to the NookColor. It is not as good as the Kindle when it comes to book reader features, but the color display is very nice. I also bought myself one, hacked the Android operating system on it so I could install the Kindle App and now read my Kindle books on it.

Some Kindle features that are very nice include a link to a free installed dictionary that allows you to place the cursor at a word you do not know and have a short definition display at the top or bottom of the screen with an option to go to the full entry in the dictionary; when finished, it takes you right back to where you were reading. Also, for books with chapter end notes or footnotes, putting the cursor on it will display the note and then return you to the page.

I would say the Kindle has the best reader, but the NookColor has the greatest potential for future growth.