should I get a kindle?

PolarityMan

crunchman said:

I've got a Kindle but if I was doing it again I'd get a Kobo one.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/oct/22/amazon-wipes-customers-kindle-deletes-account

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/oct/21/amazon-forces-publishers-pay-vat-ebook

Amazon use their own proprietary ebook format that contains all kinds of DRM.  Pretty much every other reader supports the standard EPUB format.

These days I try to source epub books from other sites and use Calibre to manage my library and put them on my Kindle.  That way I'm not supporting the crooks at Amazon.

One of my mates is a rabid anti-drm guy but he still ended up selling his kobo for a kindle.

People underestimate exactly how convenient it is to one-click-order a bunch of books on amazon and then just have them appear automatically on your kindle.

monquixote

PolarityMan said:

One of my mates is a rabid anti-drm guy but he still ended up selling his kobo for a kindle.

People underestimate exactly how convenient it is to one-click-order a bunch of books on amazon and then just have them appear automatically on your kindle.

^This 

I am that same Linux using geek, but being able to buy something with one click and have it appear on my device next time I turn it on without having to worry about it is brilliant. 

Dicking about with desktop software to sync devices just seems archaic. 

CabbageCat

crunchman said:

I've got a Kindle but if I was doing it again I'd get a Kobo one.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/oct/22/amazon-wipes-customers-kindle-deletes-account

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/oct/21/amazon-forces-publishers-pay-vat-ebook

Amazon use their own proprietary ebook format that contains all kinds of DRM.  Pretty much every other reader supports the standard EPUB format.

These days I try to source epub books from other sites and use Calibre to manage my library and put them on my Kindle.  That way I'm not supporting the crooks at Amazon.

Does the Kindle not support epub? I'm pretty sure I put some epub books on mine. I might have converted them first though. Dunno.

crunchman

You have to convert them.  I'm happier doing that anyway.  I've then got my own copy of the book on a physical disk.  Maybe I'm a bit old fashioned, but I don't like to be completely reliant on Amazon or any other cloud type facility.  Even if I have data up there, I always make sure that I have a physical copy as well.

scrumhalf

I've got a Nook, cost me less than £30. There's a backlit version as well.

None of this tied-to-Amazon stuff.

bertie

*subliminal message* BUY MRS BERTS 

chillidoggy

holnrew said:

I havent seen books for 20p in charity shops for years.

Yes, but you don't live in Thanet. Even the charity shops are struggling.

ToneControl

I'd say vanilla Kindle or a cheap decent tablet (e.g. Galaxy, Nexus)

The kindle fire is locked down too much I hear

I still like buying books, ebooks are mostly stupidly expensive still, when they are half the price of a real book I will change my tune

@chillidoggy get to a school fete in the first 10 minutes, it's amazing what you can get, and at the end they almost throw what's left at you

Skipped

I have the bog standard Kindle. Highly recommended and there is one for sale on the thread.
But if I were buying brand new I would get the paperwhite.

Grunfeld

And of course, how could I forget, the other awesome thing about the kindle is that you can stick it in a zip lock bag and read it while you're in the bath.  Which is brilliant. 

snakemanStoo

bertie said:

*subliminal message* BUY MRS BERTS 

I love my kindle, handy for reading when I'm waiting for the childrens buses to arrive

John_P

While I'm dithering over geting a standard/paperwhite/nook/kobo...

From what I've read above, I would need to use the calibre software or similar if I wanted to get non amazon books?
I'm not overly keen on being tied into amazon (or any other shop) as the only source... 
(unless they do something like the did with CD and gave free access to mp3 versions so I could instantly transfer my book collection).

Lixarto

You can use a free online service, such as this:

http://ebook.online-convert.com/convert-to-mobi

to convert text files, PDFs etc to the required .mobi (Kindle file)

John_P

Thanks!   Nice to know there are ways around it.

roundthebend

bertie;71151" said:

*cough* as new  £40 posted  *cough*

details please?

chrispy108

You don't need to use Calibre to put non-Amazon Kindle.

Your Kindle comes with an e-mail address (configured on the Amazon website), and you can just send yourself stuff.

The best use I've found for my Kindle is Instapaper. Everything I want to read online I save to Instapaper by clicking a bookmark, this then automatically gets sent to my Kindle every morning. It's awesome.

monquixote

chrispy108 said:

You don't need to use Calibre to put non-Amazon Kindle.

Your Kindle comes with an e-mail address (configured on the Amazon website), and you can just send yourself stuff.

The best use I've found for my Kindle is Instapaper. Everything I want to read online I save to Instapaper by clicking a bookmark, this then automatically gets sent to my Kindle every morning. It's awesome.

This^

Instapaper + email and you can get most things onto a kindle.

luscombe

My family got me one for Christmas, but I still prefer printed books. My Kindle Fire is still unused in its box if you want to make me an offer,

John_P

luscombe said:

My family got me one for Christmas, but I still prefer printed books. My Kindle Fire is still unused in its box if you want to make me an offer,

if I hadn't just bought one from Bertie I'd have been interested...   I suspect I'll still prefer real books but for those Authors where I don't rush out for the new hardback, I'm hoping it will save my bookshelves from breaking...

imported_none

I got the bog standard kindle for christmas last year and since then I've read more than I would have otherwise read, and I've read things that I probably wouldn't have picked up otherwise. I'm glad I got it.