Ebook reader thingies

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Proinsias

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My wife cuts through a frightening amount of books. Granny-in-law has decided she needs to buy her an ebook reader. Which one is up to us. Price doesn't seem to be much of an issue, but I think an ipad is pushing it. Portability or capacity shouldn't be too much of an issue, maybe a few times a month it will travel from the bedroom, down the stairs, to the living room and back again. Aside from the odd holiday in the UK it won't leave the house, it might never leave the house.

The new wi-fi Kindle at around £100 seems like the obvious option but I've also heard good things about the Sony ones.

Any opinions?
 
My daughter has a Sony - not sure which one. She loves it. It's easy to use and see the text.

There seems to be a lot of choice. Good luck!

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The kindle is excellent and now they are selling the new model cheap that is the one I am thinking seriously about getting.Works great in sunlight.
 
Mrs M bought a wifi Kindle (ie not the 3G) on release the other week. It is indeed a nice thing and it is quite a neat piece of kit. Comparing it with a Sony turned out to be a one sided decision for us. Although I like the solidness and build quality of the Sony compared to the slimness and plastic of the Kindle, once it is in the case she bought it is not an issue anymore. She chose the Kindle based on superior battery, capacity, price and availability of books. That said for book availability, there are dodgy downloads, free downloads and format converters out there, so you pays your money you makes your choices.

That said, I bought another 3 hardbacks (Jostein Gaarder) through Abebooks just yesterday. :)
 
Im still not entirely sold on E-book readers at the current price tbh.

I still dont think im ready to give up the tactile experience i get from a decent book in my hand.. Not for £100 anyway.

Ill wait till they hit around £50 before i dip my toe in the water.
 
The price of the electronic versions of the books is what is putting me off purchasing one as a gift for my other half at the moment. She tends to get through a few books a week, most of which she picks up from charity shops or loans from friends. I'm sure there are places to get copies of them though, I suppose it's just a case of knowing where to look.
 
here is a place to start...altho i have around 600 in that format

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I like the idea but I just can't justify the expense, especially as I don't read a great deal these days. I could persuade myself that I'll read more when I own one but deep down I know that won't happen. The only big positive for me would be if you could read a book and not know when it was going to end.

Oh, and we have a library down the road and both I and Mrs PC (an avid reader) are making the effort to use it. <insert smug smiley here>
 
Obviously I'm in favour of people supporting their local libraries, especially since there's a good chance that we'll be losing branches left, right and centre before long, but it's only a matter of time before I treat myself to one of these gadgets. A lot of my preferred reading matter is out of copyright, so an ebook reader would get stuffed with files from Project Gutenberg. My wife, a librarian, is very anti though - one of her arguments is that you lose the serendipity factor of browsing bookshelves and coming across something that you didn't know you wanted to read - good point that.
 
I don't think buying an ebook reader means you will stop reading traditional hard copies. I know it wouldn't replace browsing book shops for me.I see it more as a device for travelling with and getting some 'trial versions of books that I wont buy.I reckon it's also useful for newspaper or magazine downloads.
 
The new Kindle has been ordered. Might be a bit of a wait for delivery from Amazon as it's showing as sold out.

I'm hoping I can get used to it fairly easily. I prefer charity shops or second hand bookstores to the library but books do take up quite a bit of space and I don't like getting rid of good books. I think I'll have a good route around on project guttenberg over the next few weeks, any other sites recommended?
My wife does use the library quite a bit, she's got an addiction to historical biographies and likes gardening/hobby books, the library is perfect for that. She also has an addiction to most new vampire novels and likes reading boy meets girl, oy loses girl, bot gets girl back books, they never arrive quick enough and are read once usually in one sitting. This will be good as she can get it the second it's out and I won't spend half of my life in a post office queue sending out cheap single paperbacks.
 
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