Kindle V Books. My verdict.

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

PaulB

Legendary Member
Location
Colne
As an avid book reader, I thought it only fair to give the new electronic reading-system a thorough going over and these are my opinions.

Advantages of Kindle:
You don't need to take loads of books in your suitcase when you go on holiday.
It uses 3G roaming so you can download pretty much any book you fancy pretty much anywhere.
The books are, by and large, cheaper than their papyrus-based counterparts.
Adjustable light and text size means you can read it nearly everywhere.
That's about it.

Disadvantages of Kindle.
It's not a book; which means you don't get the pleasure of holding something which has been crafted and produced and has a dust jacket, artwork or photo on its cover.
It's advisable not to read it in the bath - drop a book in the water, loss of one book: drop the Kindle in the water, loss of a couple of hundred quid.
In books with photo sections, such as biographies, autobiographies and historical tomes, the photo sections are all in black and white, the descriptions are out of sequence, they are always right at the back and not at intervals through the book so you can't see the images being described while you're reading about them.
Initial outlay of price.
Books can't run out of battery power.
Tends to 'jump' about and can have pages out of sequence.
No possibility of making notes in the margins.
If reading in public, it looks right poncey!
That's about it for that.

Anyone else got opinions about Kindle?
 

classic33

Leg End Member
You make notes in the margins in books!
 
Same as you mostly...There are loads off free kindle books out there and it's made me try a lot of different authors...I've made some fantastic finds (I know I could go to the library!!!)
 

welsh dragon

Thanks but no thanks. I think I'll pass.
Don't read your kindle in the bath. I have a sony Ereader and a galaxy tab. I have books on both of them. Love them both. Wouldn't go back to paprbacks for any amount of money. I don't have any problems with storing books, or books taking up space I dont have. They are great inventions.
 

Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
I don't have a Kindle so I can't comment on how good they are. But I do have an overflowing bookcase with books going back to the sixties, all still readable. My experience with electronically stored music is that sooner or later you're going to lose the lot when the storage device packs up or something wipes it clean, so I'm not particularly tempted by a Kindle.
 
Location
Hampshire
I've had the paperwhite version for about a year, overall I like it. They're especially handy when you're cycle touring, all the books you need for any length of tour in a small package and you can read in the dark.
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
I don't have a Kindle so I can't comment on how good they are. But I do have an overflowing bookcase with books going back to the sixties, all still readable. My experience with electronically stored music is that sooner or later you're going to lose the lot when the storage device packs up or something wipes it clean, so I'm not particularly tempted by a Kindle.
That isn't a problem with Kindle. Amazon lets you download copies of your ebooks to any Kindle device or app so if your device gets destroyed, just redownload to its replacement. My ebooks are nicely synced between my laptop, desktop, tablet and phone.

One plus which Paul didn't mention was being able to search the text of the book. Being able to link directly to the web is also a plus. I find those features useful for technical books. Maybe not something which you would want to do very often with novels, but I usually buy them in paperback form from charity shops.

One thing which the ebook industry has done is to let everybody have a go at writing a book. Obviously, 99% of the books published this way will be pretty poor, but from time to time something special will appear, which might never have been picked up by a conventional publisher.
 

raleighnut

Legendary Member
You can't really swat wasps with a Kindle, or use them to prop up an armchair with a castor missing.:whistle:
 

stephec

Legendary Member
Location
Bolton
I've got the Kindle app on my tablet, it's full of free books but I still prefer proper paper.

I usually go to The Works once a month and pick up a few books on the cheap.
 
Top Bottom