Amazon Kindle/E-Book Readers?

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Mr Monty

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Hi everyone,

I'm looking to buy six books from TakeaLot and when the total came to R 1200+ I was wondering if an Amazon Kindle or some sort of e-reader would rather be a better idea?

I have a Samsung 10 inch tablet, but I'm not sure if reading books on that screen would be a good idea as I think it will fry my eyes.

With a Kindle would I add my credit card and buy books directly from Amazon.com?

Any suggestions or input on the best current models?

I appreciate everyone's input :)
 
Mr Monty said:
Hi everyone,

I'm looking to buy six books from TakeaLot and when the total came to R 1200+ I was wondering if an Amazon Kindle or some sort of e-reader would rather be a better idea?

I have a Samsung 10 inch tablet, but I'm not sure if reading books on that screen would be a good idea as I think it will fry my eyes.

With a Kindle would I add my credit card and buy books directly from Amazon.com?

Any suggestions or input on the best current models?

I appreciate everyone's input :)
Click to expand...
Look if the titles is available from http://www.kobobooks.com then use this http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=115233 thread for discounts. You can get a Kobo Glo for R1400 or cheaper at CNA, PNP and/or online etc.
 
I've got a Kindle Paperwhite. It has an E-ink display that is perfectly visible in bright light conditions and has a back-light for reading after dark. The screen is about the size of the readable area of a mass-market paperback and you can set font type, size, contrast etc. Comes in Wifi or Wifi+3G. I've got the Wifi version, no need to buy or download books that often myself, your needs may differ. The 3G is $70 more expensive. Battery life is measured in weeks, not hours. With the light on and reading a couple of hours a day, a full charge lasts 4-6 weeks.

You tie the Kindle to an Amazon account and if you add your credit card to the account, you can set it up for one-click purchases from the Kindle store. With the Calibre application (open source e-book library manager), you can load other books onto the Kindle via the supplied USB cable.

I know the Americans often complain about how high e-book prices are, but even at their highest levels, they are still way cheaper per book than the South African shelf prices for paperbacks, let alone hard-covers.

For South Africa, you have to get the Kindle from the US Amazon site and buy the books there. The UK site is limited to the UK only. The direct link to the one I've got for international customers is http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JG8GBDM and they courier it to your door.
 
Download the Kindle app to your Samsung Tablet first and try it out with a couple of free books.

That way you can decide to use your existing tablet or buy an e-reader.
 
ITCynic said:
Download the Kindle app to your Samsung Tablet first and try it out with a couple of free books.

That way you can decide to use your existing tablet or buy an e-reader.
Click to expand...

Great advice, I'm going to give that a shot first - thank you.
 
The code SAV50 worked perfectly! Thank you backstreetboy

I'm looking forward to reading my first ebook :)
 
The Kindle and the Kindle App (which you get for Windows + Android + IOS devices) works identical in terms of buying / reading / paying . So having a Kindle device does not make any difference in terms of your books and collection when it comes to Amazon books.

As for the screen and frying eyes, i don't think that should be your concern. Amazon is selling the Kindle Fire , which is a standard LCD tablet afterall.

Now as for the Kindle e-ink readers (paperwhite etc) , main reason i'd go for them is

1. Battery Life = like forever (can go a month easily). Catch is, you can't do much else on that display but read.
2. Reading in sunlight
3. Natural reading feeling when reading at night (need external light, not glowing screen in your face)


The rest of the features you can get in the Kindle App on any device. I got the ooold kindle with the keyboard and sometimes use it to read my books, other times i read my books on my tablet or phone or even on my PC. Especially if it's a technical book, i read it on my PC.

So Amazon's main feature for me = one account = everything sync across all devices (including where you are in the book). This includes Audible , which is the audiobook arm of Amazon. This also syncs with your text books if you happen to own both text and audio versions.

Now as for Kindle devices right now, i'd wait a bit and get the Voyager or at least make sure the Paperwhite is on special as it's an old model now . Voyager has been released overseas in Oct, i think it'll probably be here in a few months.

Also if you DO buy an older model of the Kindle, make sure you get one with some sort of built-in backlight (all the later models have it). Trust me, you can't read on the kindle in the dark (unlike LCD tablets) without a light , and having those little bookmark lights is annoying.

Finally catch 22, the e-ink Kindles come with almost zero space, i think for some reason the later models came with 2GB space. This is fine for books, but not fine for audiobooks. The voyager i believe is back to 4GB space.

You also can copy and convert your own ebooks onto the Kindle, but it requires some conversion software and so on, so this can be a limitation or issue if you have books in different stores. This is where a generic tablet can be better as you can get your books from any store and use their app to read with, something you can't do on a Kindle device.
 
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ITCynic said:
Download the Kindle app to your Samsung Tablet first and try it out with a couple of free books.

That way you can decide to use your existing tablet or buy an e-reader.
Click to expand...

I use Kindle app on my Lenovo. Works great and I have never felt impact on my eyes. Reading in direct sun only issue.
 
I read books on my tab 3 with Aldiko every day

You can adjust the brightness and the font size to suit you, Change the background and font colors etc.

http://www.aldiko.com
 
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