What is good and bad with your e-reader?

[Judith]

I am happy with my hudl it is my lack of expertise that prevents me from using it to it's full potential. It is great to know that I have 100,s of books at my fingertips.

[Victoria]

I have a Kindle Fire.

The only downside is that it's very difficult, if not impossible, to read in direct sunlight. Increasing the screen brightness sometimes helps, but not in very bright sunlight. I don't like to sit in the sun for too long, so it's not too much of a problem for me, but might be for others.
It also has a much shorter battery life than the other Kindle types, but it will last for a day out and about if all I'm doing is reading.

Plus points are that it has full internet capability, so as long as I'm somewhere that has wifi, I can use it as a tablet.
I can download books in a variety of formats from a variety of sources.
I can also upload documents from my own computer.
It has colour, which is a benefit when looking at book covers, illustrations, etc.
Plus it does everything a tablet does - games (that's what eats the battery) store photos, and so on.

[Victoria]

I download a lot of free, out of copyright books from sites such as Gutenberg and archive.org. Amazon doesn't get in the way of that.

I'm not that bothered about having apps. I have the Overdrive app for library books, a word processor app, Adobe Acrobat, calendar, calculator, some games, but I didn't buy it for apps. I wanted an e-reader that I could also load my own documents and photos on and use to access the internet, all of which it does just fine.

I've sometimes thought about getting a basic Kindle just for reading, as well as the Fire, but I'd probably still want to take the Fire with me when out for the day, and there's only so much one can carry!

[Mary]

Has anyone purchased the Kindle Voyage version? It is on sale today and I am considering it. My Kindle is a keyboard version I purchased in 2012, and it is still perfectly serviceable. However, my eyes are now 5 years older and I'm thinking that the improved lighting and pixel count might make it worth considering an upgrade. It is pricey, of course, and maybe a Paperwhite would suffice (it is also on sale today).

Thanks for any feedback!

[Judith]

I have just read my comment from a while back, I said that I was happy with my Hudl and indeed I am, but not as an e.reader, I am however happy with my Kobo Aura, it has a back light and is a slim size, and of course has a lot of lovely books.

[Mary]

You're the second person to recommend a Kobo to me JUST today. Probably because I'm asking everyone about their Kindle experiences. I have so many Kindle books, it would be painful to switch to an epub format at this stage.

[Maureen]

I have a Kindle Paperwhite and love it

[Terri]

I have a kindle fire hd 10, of which I am extremely fond. I don't understand why it is no longer on offer. Love the larger print which is helpful to my aging eyes. Just about any function on a regular tablet can be done on this kindle.

[Steven]

I had a Kindle paper-white and bought a Fire. The latter is very slow as a tablet (what it's advertised as) but seems to be OK for most ebook reading except when I'm in direct sunlight.
I used to be only a print-version reader. That first Kindle won me over. And ebooks save forests, my sagging bookshelves, and my eyes.
r/Steve

[Mary]

I decided to purchase a Kindle Voyage to replace my 5+ y/o Kindle keyboard and now wish I had done it much sooner. The reading experience is totally different on my new Kindle - the backlight and superior resolution have really sold me on using it. I still read paper books mostly because I get them at no charge from the library and I'm too darned cheap to keep buying all the books, Kindle or paper (except for the group reads here, of course!) I read. Our local library system is improving the selection of e-books to borrow, so I see myself transitioning more to Kindle-based material.

[Judith]

E readers are great, so are paper books, it is essential to keep using libraries, not because you are cheap LOL but because they are so under threat from cutbacks in finance.

[Steven]

Judith and Mary,
As a mostly partial DIY guy, I can testify that it's more costly to publish a print book than an ebook--so why do many traditional publishers charge almost as much for the ebook as the print version? Only my last book was traditionally published and that of course has both ebook and print versions, but I'm in the midst of the slow process of adding print versions to my many ebooks. For one book, it's not so much, but with my number of books, the task seems daunting. That's one reason why I went traditional (pros and cons for both, of course).
That said, our local PL is in the grip of some service where they can lend an ebook only some number of times and then have to buy a new one, and they're not allowed to purchase anything other than traditionally published ebooks.
As a believer in PLs (my main source for reading as a kid), I've donated what few print versions of novels I have available to our local PL and PLs on the West Coast, thanks to an HS school chum.
I see a brighter future for ebooks as print versions go up in price and ebook prices go down, and also because of all the potential multimedia applications. I'm a wee bit too old to experiment with the latter, but they will come. That "pfft!" from a gun with a silencer or scent from a bouquet of flowers could be replaced by sound and scent subroutines embedded in the ebook file. It's just a computer file after all.
r/Steve

[Judith]

Goodness, I had never thought that sounds and scents could be incorporated into ebooks, that being said could we ever have thought that a slim piece of technology could hold up to a thousand books and more, back in the past. It was good to hear how much you do to support your library.

[Steven]

Hi Judith,
The hardware for sound is already there. We'd need it for scents. Of course, one would have to be selective. A flower bouquet = good scent; a week-old decaying body = bad scent. BTW, I'm expecting the multimedia stuff to come to TV first.
One reason 99% of my ebooks aren't exclusive to Amazon is that I can offer them at a reduced price for libraries on Smashwords, which also has library-like lending services as affiliates. That makes it hard to figure out how many readers I have (readers don't equate to sales in my case), but I know I've replaced print versions in our local PL at least once because the original donations became dog-eared and the covers basically unreadable.
Having been an avid reader since I was a kid (and still am--speed reading skills help), I'm in constant fear that readership is rapidly diminishing because of all the passive entertainment available (I consider reading to be more active for the mind). Maybe that should be another discussion thread?
r/Steve

[Steven]

David,
I read and played music (using a Colombian tiple to accompany my bad singing). Both kids like music; only one loves to read.
You're doing the right thing, but I'm not sure it works that well anymore--too many distractions--streaming video, computer games, and social media (excepting Goodreads, of course).
r/Steve

[Steven]

David,
...and I'll participate in the thread if someone starts it. I'm new to the group, so I'm a bit reluctant to do that.
Any takers?
r/Steve

[Steven]

David,
We share a love of history. My most recent novel has an art history theme.
I do wish they'd keep the pigeon poop off Nelson's statue. ;-)
r/Steve

[Beth]

I read some books using the Kindle app on my iPad but if find that i get eye strain after about four hours

Am wondering if there are features on the actual kindle that one can adjust to reduce eye strain?

[Mary]

Hi Beth,
I had moved to only reading large print books and was having problems. So I bought a nook...hated it and went back to big print books. Finally, with birthday gift cash I bought Amazon Fire HD 10.1 Inch Tablet. It is a tablet and a kindle. I absolutely love it. You can change the background lighting, many sizes of print to choose from and even has a nighttime lighting setting to sort of help your pupils ready for the dark and sleep.
Truly recommend it...Amazon has lots of sales on these type of things, so keep checking prices. They also have really big sales a couple times a year with amazing prices. My son bought 5 kindles at $25 each last year for his older kids.

It also has a feature that lets you save quotes or pages, paragraphs etc..I like that.
I also borrowed an older Kindle (not sure what it was) that gave me problems with keeping track of the page I had stopped reading on. Very frustrating.

[Beth]

Thanks, Mary. I will look into that. I am finding that a lot of books are printed for kindle first and come out in paper some time later (someone told me that publishers decide what to print depending on how well the e-version sells).

But the eye strain is an issue so will look at your suggestion

[Erunyauve]

My Kindle Keyboard is the easiest one to use on the train, when I usually need one hand to hold on to the bar. I do use my Paperwhite on vacation or when I want to read in bed. (One small issue with that - the cats can and do turn the pages for me.) I only use my Fire for books with illustrations - it's a bit heavy to hold in one hand, and the battery doesn't last as long.

I was one of those kids who had to be told to put her put down at the dinner table, but I didn't read much at all as a young adult. When I switched to taking the train, I started to read again, and after I got my Kindle, I started to devour.

[Marie-Laure]

Up until recently I had a kindle paperwhite and used it with pleasure for 5 years.
Then my elder daughter left the house to go and study away from home and took the family kindle (another paperwhite) away with her. So we were looking into buying another one for her sister (mainly) and brother (wishful thinking ... he doesn't read much :( ). But my husband surprised me at chistmas with a brand new kindle oasis ... and I gave my paperwhite to my 2nd daughter.
I'm pretty pleased with it.
I enjoy reading in my bath and feel safer doing it now. Before, I would put my previous kindle on a stool next to the bath tub and twist my neck to read. OK, that was the fun part, and mostly futile, but that's what presents are for :D
Contrary to the comments I've se en on amazon, the battery does have a slightly shorter usage time thant with the paperwhite, but nothing drastic ! I plug it on sunday evenings to have it full at the beginning of the week, and it's usually low but not empty on the next sunday (I usually read serveral hours each day or night)
The screen definition is also better.

On the not as good part, it's wider, so doesn't fit as well in a pocket or small handbag ...
And it's also quite expensive ....

[Steven]

I have a Kindle Fire. As a tablet, it's slow and the battery doesn't last long. As an e-reader, it beats reading on a laptop. But I'm not sure I'd ever buy another Amazon product (I won't go into reasons), in particular ebooks. If any author insists on being Amazon exclusive here, please reconsider. I'll be buying my ebooks from Smashwords! (Yeah, I know this is probably going to be censored because the retail giant owns Goodreads. So be it--it will just be another reason to boycott Amazon!)
r/Steve