Kindle Fun!

I'm a dork posting from my Kindle I got today for school. Definately not the easiest thing to do since the text is smaller than I could ever do by hand and no spellchecker...

 

Who else has a Kindle? What's your favorite thing about it?

 

More of my computer classes have pdf textbooks so a Kindle became non-optional. Other than that I'm thrilled to finally have easy access to the Victorian perioticals and cookbooks I've had on my laptopfor ages. I love Project Gutenburg! Raven is just laughing because he can see my geeky side.

 

~Sister Kyoya (who giggles like a madwoman when she sees her sig in B&W in preview mode...)

Well, instead of using a Kindle, you could have gone for pretty much any tablet PC. Apple, Samsung, HP, it wouldn't have mattered, and all of them have the advantage of being much more capable than a Kindle.

 

Add to that the fact that Amazon can (and has) deleted people's purchased books without their permission...

I wouldn't buy one.

 

Having said that, and referring specifically to your use, I absolutely can't live without an ebook reader these days. The capability to have access to so many books on an incredibly diverse range of topics just sitting next to me at home, at work, on the train... it's phenomenal. Project Gutenburg has been one of my favourite websites since it started (or at least since I became aware of it) and I've found so many hidden gems on that website. I've found it especially useful for romance period poetry and prose, not to mention all the old classics that you often can't find at the bookshop.

 

The only drawback is that there is no paper. Reading for me has always been as much a tactile experience as a mental one. Not being able to turn the page and just feel the weight of a book in my hands is a bit... wierd. But despite this, almost 100% of the books I read these days are ebook.

just recently purchased a note 10.1. imho its amazing. the wacom will certainly help me in the future for note taking. besides that the preinstalled adobe photoshop touch is a bonus point for photographer like me

I upgraded to a Paperwhite from a 3rd gen (the last one with a keyboard) and I absolutely love it. For extended reading sessions, nothing beats an e-ink screen. While I can do some reading on a backlit screen, I can't read all day on one without my eyes getting tired. Then there's the battery life... don't need to recharge an actual eReader very frequently.

 

To me, I always travel with at least two devices now, a tablet and a Kindle. I've been kicking around the idea of trading up my Surface to the Pro version, however I don't know if I want to make the sacrifice in battery life to get the full x86 experience and truly cut down to two devices. It'd be nice to be able to run the full versions of Lightroom and Photoshop while on the go, though sometimes I question how much I'll actually do it!

 

As for what I'm reading on the Kindle, I recently finished all of the main books from the SAO light novel series (fan translated). I'm also reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, which will take quite some time for me to get through at the rate I'm going...

Well, instead of using a Kindle, you could have gone for pretty much any tablet PC. Apple, Samsung, HP, it wouldn't have mattered, and all of them have the advantage of being much more capable than a Kindle.

 

This is one of the reasons I went with the Kindle, I didn't want something with all the bells and whistles. I love my computery gadgets, but being surrounded by them almost constantly really wears me out because there is always one more thing to be done with them. I simply wanted something to carry and read my "textbooks" from my 3D design class without the stupidness I dealt with last quarter and my programming class. It was my first time having a PDF textbook and I printed out all seven chapters (all 375 pages...) because I knew it was way too much to read through on a glaring computer screen. Just from the cost of the ink I could have paid for 3/4 of a Kindle.

 

Having said that, and referring specifically to your use, I absolutely can't live without an ebook reader these days.

 

For ages I thought I had no use for one and viewed it as a curiosity of sorts. Books are easy to have around the house, if I need one with me when I'm not at home I just toss it into my backpack. The Kindle just seemed like an expensive toy, especially when most books I read are between $5 and $20. I thought I had no need for one and surely didn't feel compelled to go out of my way to even look at them. College has slowly been changing my understanding on things such as those. My professor said that our books were free (because they are PDFs) and I quickly realized that if my degree is headed in the direction of web design or 3D modeling of any sort, buying a $130 Kindle "textbook" would save me more money in the long run and I wouldn't have to print off a forest. After spending $300 on my Japanese textbooks, yes the price of the Kindle is very reasonable and competitive for a college text.

 

Project Gutenburg has been one of my favourite websites since it started (or at least since I became aware of it) and I've found so many hidden gems on that website.

 

I have had my Kindle a total of 3 days and I already have 325+ books on it because I have been collecting books off of Gutenberg for a couple of years now but never got around to reading them much. Being trapped behind a computer to read for hours didn't sound like fun because I'm on the computer most of the day since it is my major work tool. Now it is unbelievably easy to read any of it even when I'm fighting against a short attention span. I can spend my free time reading instead of hunting though our many bookshelves for just that right book. I'm most excited about finally reading through the Victorian cookbooks and periodicals I've found on there, not to mention Twain, bleepens, Baum, and any of the classics I can remember. Dishes & Beverages from the Old South is really interesting, and I've also found a handful of Victorian vegetarian books too. I have a theory that you can learn just as much about a period and time in history from studding the food they ate just as much as studying a history book. Maybe I should make myself a badge that says "I'm a Project Gutenberg fangirl"

 

For extended reading sessions, nothing beats an e-ink screen. While I can do some reading on a backlit screen, I can't read all day on one without my eyes getting tired.

 

This. I wasn't actually looking for an e-reader but when Raven and I were out getting my school supplies for this quarter he started poking at the paperwhite while I almost ignored it. I stopped to see what he was poking at and mildly started paying attention. There were a few other e-readers in the display that I looked over real quick, but the e-ink screen and how it is lit really is what stood out to me. Two days later we came back and bought it. The actual task of reading is very difficult for me because of my dyslexia, and having black text on a pure white glaring background makes my comprehension drop painfully low simply from that. Having the ability to adjust the "color" of the page with the brightness and the option for changing the text size is amazing to me. Now I feel like I can be on the same level as everyone else instead of having to fight my way through just understanding the words on the page before I can acquire the knowledge they contain. And then the bonus of being able to select a single word and have it pull up the definition, I can read books the way my Literature professor told us we should read, without having to search through another book or being stuck next to a computer. I'm sure this is standard with e-readers but since I've never had one before it's really awesome.

 

Even simply the e-ink combined with how you can light the screen or not, I am totally in love with that it actually LOOKS like you are reading from a page in a paperback book when the light is turned completely off. This just totally makes the Victorian illustrations look awesome.

 

~Sister Kyoya

I've had the 1st and 2nd gen kindles and I love them both very much.

 

I've never had the problem of my purchased books deleted so it's not a problem for me.

The Kindle is ever useful because of the e-ink screen. My iPad (sold, lack of use) and my phone both have the Kindle app on it but the light really tires me out and it's stressful when I take the bus first thing in the morning. I already look at screens all day at work and I don't need more of it on the way to work. The e-ink doesn't tire me out with light so it's really like a real book. Oh! And I can turn the page with one hand so I don't fall over while turning the page on the bus!

 

I also love it because I can change the text size on all the books, especially for ones with really small font when it's printed like the Game of Thrones series. It's also good for replacing really fat and heavy books into the thin little kindle since my purse doesn't really have a lot of space to begin with.

 

Oh, and no one world look at me weird when I have a controversial book in my hand. :p

Oh, and no one world look at me weird when I have a controversial book in my hand. :p

 

A similar thought I had was that people wouldn't think I was weird or a moron for reading the Ramona books again. I can sit there and look intellectual while taking a stroll though my favorite childhood books.

 

~Sister Kyoya

For those of you who have problems with eye strain/tiredness from working with digital screens all the time, have you heard of a type of glasses called Gunnars?

 

They've go special lenses in then that cut out a lot of the glare from backlit screens and really help improve contrast as well. They've been a godsend for me, since I work in front of computers all day, and most of my hobbies are computer related as well. They're good for tv watching as well. The website also offers a custom service for people with prescription glasses.

 

They're available here. I swear by them these days, as I used to get headaches some times after a long day, but not anymore.

I'm a dork posting from my Kindle I got today for school. Definately not the easiest thing to do since the text is smaller than I could ever do by hand and no spellchecker...

 

Who else has a Kindle? What's your favorite thing about it?

 

More of my computer classes have pdf textbooks so a Kindle became non-optional. Other than that I'm thrilled to finally have easy access to the Victorian perioticals and cookbooks I've had on my laptopfor ages. I love Project Gutenburg! Raven is just laughing because he can see my geeky side.

 

~Sister Kyoya (who giggles like a madwoman when she sees her sig in B&W in preview mode...)

 

YAY congrats on the new kindle. I have the kindle fire and I love it. I love to watch downton abbey in it LOL or Youtube videos. Also I'm playing a free game that is call "Style me Girl" and is very fun and addicted. I mostly use my kindle to read my books and I love that I can find lots of cheap books for 0.99 cents. Also they have some cool free books. Like the Jane Austen books.

 

I agree with you about the screen that's my favorite thing about the kindle. That I can change the screen to night mode where it turns all black and the text white. That help me because it doesn't hurt my eyes. Also is more easy to carry around that a book. Don't take me wrong I still love real books. But sometimes they are a pain to carry and your arm gets tire so fast. The kindle you can keep reading without your arm getting tired of having to change position.

 

I'm going to have like 8 months using my kindle fire and I still love everything about it. I'm thinking to upgrade to the new one with the camera, but I may not do it because I mostly use it to read books and play the game "Me style girl". You should download it because the app if free

 

 

I haven't have any problems with amazon deleting my books. Another advantage is that you have unlimited cloud storage. So if you run out of space on your kindle you can keep adding thing to your Amazon cloud.

After looking at SK's kindle for a while, I am very probably going to have to get one for myself, once I have finished saving up for MOMO. I absolutely love the display of the Paperwhite, and the advertisements are not nearly as obtrusive as I was afraid they would be. I also love how light it is.

 

I'm sure it will never completely replace paper books for me, I love the feel, look, and smell of a real book too much, but the Kindle does have a LOT going for it in the convenience department.

 

As to the whole deleting books issue, as I understand it, it has only happened in a few very unusual cirbleepstances, and when it was done, it caused such a PR issue, that I believe they will be very careful about using that power in the future.

For those of you who have problems with eye strain/tiredness from working with digital screens all the time, have you heard of a type of glasses called Gunnars?

 

They've go special lenses in then that cut out a lot of the glare from backlit screens and really help improve contrast as well. They've been a godsend for me, since I work in front of computers all day, and most of my hobbies are computer related as well. They're good for tv watching as well. The website also offers a custom service for people with prescription glasses.

 

They're available here. I swear by them these days, as I used to get headaches some times after a long day, but not anymore.

Yep, I actually have a pair I use at work sometimes. They seem to work better for me if I'm already tired and put off strain when they're not. They have a slight amount of magnification, filter out some light, and reduce glare, so they're great for computer use.

 

Unfortunately, I'm getting old and need glasses to correct for a slight stigmatism. That's actually causing light to refract oddly through my eyes, causing weird glare when I stare at a monitor or drive at night. I'll probably end up selling the Gunnars at this point.

 

For reading though, I'll still take an e-ink display over wearing eyewear. The only potential for strain on reading a book is reading too much or reading in incorrect positions, not because of backlight.

We just got Kindle for Xmas. Didn't have much time to play with it, but I'm looking forward to it.

I like it already

 

I'm using computers since 1986, and been wearing glasses since ~1976.

Since several years all my glasses have anti-glare coating and they works similar way like these Gunnars.

Except they're not yellow. (For driving I have polarizer add-on. Helps a lot)

I've read tons of texts from paper, computer monitors, tablets and smartphones.

Heaps of books and comic books.

Never had any issues. Always had good and properly set monitors.

 

And for the actual e-book reading, so far nothing beats e-ink display. Nothing

Tablets don't even come close.

We now have 3 Kindles in the house, my son bought one last year to take on holiday as he did not fanct carrying his ipad to the beach or poolside, and we bought my daughter one for Christmas as like me she never just reads one book at a time and was always carrying around several books. Having used hers for a couple of days I realised that reading on them is really much much easier than on either my Ipad or Nexus 7 and bought one for myself, its just the basic Wifi Kindle but I have hardly put it down in the last 2 weeks.

 

I really did not realise how tiring it was reading off a backlit tablet screen until I tried the Kindle and went back, my Kindle may be a one trick pony (ereader) but it does its job perfectly and is so small and light it does not matter that I now carrying two devices.

 

Would highly recommend one (or an equivalent) if you read a lot, and the prices seem to have dropped a bit to which helps.

My husband and I both received Kindle Paperwhite devices for Christmas, and we love them. He had an older Kindle from a few years ago that we both used constantly, but we really wanted to upgrade--and now that we each have one it's not a battle for the Kindle. I love the way the screen is lit because I like reading in the dark when in bed, but I get eyestrain from backlit devices and I can't wear glasses. I love having access to so many books in such a slim, light device, and I love the customization options for text size, brightness, and more~ I'm very happy to have one.