Anyone own a kindle?

[dfetl1]

My wife got a Kindle for Xmas and by her loading books she takes it wherever she goes by putting it in her purse. Especially on the NY subways where she has a distant to travel. It won’t add anymore weight to her purse that’s for sure.

Thanks Dennis

 

[frankp]

I just purchased a Kindel last week. I like it a lot. I tend to read severel books at a time. With the kindel I have all of them with me. Many of the books I read are free or nearly so. I believe it is well worth the investment for someone who reads a lot, especially if you read older non fiction. I seldom buy fiction books. The library has all the fiction books I want to read.

Frank

 

[lareinatortura]

I don’t have a Kindle, but those ads drive me crazy because. . .

I want one so bad!!

 

[danders3]

I’ve had mine about a week, and am slowly adding books to my newly portable library. I think I’m going to really enjoy and use this – especially for my daily train commute!

The Kindle store recently began carrying two new Catholic books that are available in beautiful, Kindle-optimized format, for bargain prices. These editions correct the hundreds of typographical and formatting errors that plague the other, public domain versions available for free online:

The Catechism of Saint Pius X (1908) is a concise Catechism written specifically for the laity by Pope Pius X (who was later canonized, and remains a favorite pope among traditionalist Catholics).

The Catechism of the Council of Trent (1566) was the teaching text commissioned by the Council of Trent, assembled under the guidance of St. Charles Borromeo, and published by order of Pope Pius V. This authoritative teaching resource for parish priests was the favored universal catechism for over 400 years, until promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1993. This version (w/ the maroon cover image) is FAR superior to the other, cover-less version available in the Kindle store (which was just a free public domain PDF uploaded directly to the Kindle service, and is rife with typos and terrible formatting).

Both of these are available for under $2 each, and are very worthwhile purchases for anyone interested in Catholic catechesis or history.

 

[whatevergirl]

*Thank you for your replies, all! Think this is going on a wish list for mom’s day, or anniversary…or Christmas.

So…question…there is a ‘‘kindle store.’’ I wondered how you download or from where I should say, the books to add to your kindles. So that’s similiar to itunes, whereby you can only download songs from their selections? I love the idea of downloading Catholic books that I can’t ever find in brick and mortar stores. *

 

[LittleSoldier]

I keep seeing these advertised whenever I visit amazon.com…and it has me so curious, this kindle. Just wondering if anyone here has this…and what do you think of it? It looks like it could be a good investment if you like to read.

I have one. Have you heard the term “Kindle Swindle?” Well, Kindle is a swindle. It sounds like a great deal, but the books they “send” contains mistakes, many times massive mistakes, like paragraphs missing but then showing up in the middle of a sentence pages later, misspellings, errors in punctuation, etc. etc. etc…

I want to return mine. It’s not worth the frustration and anger I feel when I find out that Amazon can’t even send a simple poem without such horrible errors that it is absolutely unreadable. In this case some of the sentences appear with just a tiny bit of the words showing. Take any sentence, cover up 90 percent of it so that just a bit of the top appears. Then try to read the sentence. It can’t be done.

It’s a mess. It’s awful. It’s horrible beyond belief. I bought it so I could have an easily accessible copy of the Douay-Rheims Bible and now I’ve found an error in that. It’s just a punctuation mark, but I’m sure there are massive errors. If Amazon can’t send a simple poem without errors that make it unreadable, how can they send a whole Bible free of errors? I’m not talking about a few typos (which can be found in any book) but massive errors.

In fact, I have not found one book that does not contain several errors (with the exception of the Douay-Rheims Bible but of course I haven’t read it all). Are we supposed to buy hard copies to compare with the books on the Kindle? That doesn’t make sense. What’s the point?

My recommendation is to wait until the technology improves. Then I recommend that you check out other company’s devices (Amazon is not the only one, but if you buy a Kindle you are stuck with buying every book for that Kindle from Amazon).

I am going to return mine if I can.

I’m sorry to tell you all this, but it’s true. The complaints I have about mine have been echoed by many other Kindle users. I’ve had mine a bit longer than most of the posters in this thread have had their’s, so maybe that’s why I know about the problems.

Good luck!! I’m glad you asked your question. I wish I had. It’s a lot of money (and BTW, the cover must be bought separately and is a rip-off in itself).

 

[LittleSoldier]

I’ve had mine about a week, and am slowly adding books to my newly portable library. I think I’m going to really enjoy and use this – especially for my daily train commute!

The Kindle store recently began carrying two new Catholic books that are available in beautiful, Kindle-optimized format, for bargain prices. These editions correct the hundreds of typographical and formatting errors that plague the other, public domain versions available for free online:

The Catechism of Saint Pius X (1908) is a concise Catechism written specifically for the laity by Pope Pius X (who was later canonized, and remains a favorite pope among traditionalist Catholics).

The Catechism of the Council of Trent (1566) was the teaching text commissioned by the Council of Trent, assembled under the guidance of St. Charles Borromeo, and published by order of Pope Pius V. This authoritative teaching resource for parish priests was the favored universal catechism for over 400 years, until promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1993. This version (w/ the maroon cover image) is FAR superior to the other, cover-less version available in the Kindle store (which was just a free public domain PDF uploaded directly to the Kindle service, and is rife with typos and terrible formatting).

Both of these are available for under $2 each, and are very worthwhile purchases for anyone interested in Catholic catechesis or history.

I’ve had mine for about eight months. It’s a mess. When I had mine for a week I thought it was wonderful. Now I know how bad it is.

 

[DHC1Chipmunk]

My sister-in-law gave me a Kindle for Christmas two years ago. It’s awesome. You can buy get classic literature at terrific prices (for example, a collection of all of Charles Dickens’ works for about $3) and there are even some freebies available. Current fiction runs about $10 a book, which is still a good deal.

The Kindle is not good for picture books. Stick to text.

 

[novaslasher]

I think I’ll wait until the price comes down on e-readers and they find a way to display color pictures in e-ink. I also hope they will find a way to organize books better. The I pad could be a good alternative, but the price is sky high right now.

I don’t like buying first generation products. First generation users are always the ones who pay premium price to subsidize the research that went into it. For instance, I bought a first generation Ipod Nano, and I immensely regret it. It was very pricey (I think nearly 200 dollars for a 2 GB nano). It suffered from the screen cracking problem that plagued the first generation. I did return it and got a replacement, but years later the software now locks up and has become corrupted.

 

[KostyaJMJ]

I’ve had mine for about eight months. It’s a mess. When I had mine for a week I thought it was wonderful. Now I know how bad it is.

How do you find dealing with the DRM on the books you purchase? I can’t imagine dropping loads of money on a device to purchase a product that I will never really own. I would never purchase anything with any kind of DRM to begin with but I’m curious what you think of the Kindle store.

 

[TraderTif]

I have one. Have you heard the term “Kindle Swindle?” Well, Kindle is a swindle. It sounds like a great deal, but the books they “send” contains mistakes, many times massive mistakes, like paragraphs missing but then showing up in the middle of a sentence pages later, misspellings, errors in punctuation, etc. etc. etc…

Really? I haven’t noticed too many errors. (Admittedly, I find a lot more of them in the free books, but I expected that.) I’ve read about 30 or 40 of the books on mine, and only found massive errors in a couple of the freebies. I found small errors (punctuation, etc.) in maybe half of the books, but only 1 or 2 errors per book. I’ve noticed that some books contain graphs or illustrations, which don’t transfer well into kindle format. But, other than that, I haven’t had any massive problems.

 

[KarenElissa]

I don’t own one and have no interest in one, but I’ll throw out my reasons for the other side.

Mainly I just like books, I’m a reader, but also somewhat of a collector. I like owning the books I’ve read so I can go back to them and see them and whatever.

As for the other issues that will be more universal, I don’t like the idea of not actually owning the things I purchase. You can’t sell them when you are done, you can’t loan them to friends, you often can’t even look at them on another type of device, in some cases they can actually delete the book off of your device. That is a major issue. You are essentially paying a lot of money for a long term lease, on their terms.

E-books also aren’t really that much cheaper than what I’m spending right now. I can’t think of the last book I’ve paid more than $10 for, most are around $5. I buy pretty much everything from a local used book store or from the Amazon Marketplace, where you can find an amazing number of books (including almost new) for less than $1 plus $4 shipping. E-books at this point aren’t cheaper than that, and some are actually going up. One of the big publishers just had a tiff with Amazon over pricing and they are now making Amazon charge more for their e-books.

 

[whatevergirl]

*Having mixed thoughts on it, now. After reading some negative reviews here and elsewhere on the net…I might pass…but I have seen some positive reviews which make me curious. I will say this, in thinking it through, I think these ‘‘contraptions’’ while great in their own right…sort of like laptops, ipods, etc…they have removed that personal touch that you get when you physically walk through a book store. I still love to do that. I like grabbing a cup of tea and browsing for an hour or two with my kids. It can be a fun family day out with hubby joining as well, when he’s not working. So, I think while e-shopping is good for many things, I see it as removing that personal touch of the brick & mortar stores…convenience has a price, I suppose. Anyone else like the ‘‘experience’’ of walking through a book store and just browsing…reading backs of books…looking at everyone around you chatting and reading…and talking about the latest books. That’s fun to me, and the kindle would take me away from that. I dunno…maybe that’s just me.

I greatly appreciate everyone’s (name removed by moderator)ut here. *

 

[soflochristmas]

I LOVE my kindle.

I love my Kindle DX as well!

I used to be a vociferous reader…but my problem is I too liked “collecting” them. Problem with collections is…you run out of space and consequently, you start “collecting” less. Now I find I’m reading much more.

Don’t know a lot about the I-pad, but keep in mind an e-reader is only as good as the electronic books available for use on it…and I don’t think anyone compares to Amazon in the number of books available. Once more, few new hard cover books are under $25 these days…and the best selling e-books are $10. At $15 savings per book, you’ve paid for the Kindle DX (at $500) at 30 books or so. Not to mention many, many books are free and/or very cheap ($3…$5 for the classics, etc.).

Kindle DX has a built in dictionary…highlight a word and you get the definition. A great learning tool for me and is helping expand my vocabulary.

You may make notes on the kindle, highlight paragraphs, automatic book mark for every book you are reading, lifetime internet access and free, instant download of books.

Also read someone talk about the i-pad being in color. I would see that as a disavantage. The Kindle was designed to replicate a book…most books are on white paper with black ink. The kindle and any e-reader in my mind, should replicate as best as possible the reading experience…and the kindle, does that…easy to read with interior light or the bright of day.

Also you can change the font size, pages reorient when you turn the Kindle…so if you get tired of hitting the “next page” button with your right hand, turn the Kindle upside down so you can use your left hand to advance the page…and the text adjusts.

Also, download pdf or word files to your kindle free of charge.

Anyway…the device is incredible and it’s probably clear…I love mine.

 

[soflochristmas]

I LOVE my kindle.

I love my Kindle DX as well!

I used to be a vociferous reader…but my problem is I too liked “collecting” them. Problem with collections is…you run out of space and consequently, you start “collecting” less. Now I find I’m reading much more.

Don’t know a lot about the I-pad, but keep in mind an e-reader is only as good as the electronic books available for use on it…and I don’t think anyone compares to Amazon in the number of books available. Once more, few new hard cover books are under $25 these days…and the best selling e-books are $10. At $15 savings per book, you’ve paid for the Kindle DX (at $500) at 30 books or so. Not to mention many, many books are free and/or very cheap ($3…$5 for the classics, etc.).

Kindle DX has a built in dictionary…highlight a word and you get the definition. A great learning tool for me and is helping expand my vocabulary.

You may make notes on the kindle, highlight paragraphs, automatic book mark for every book you are reading, lifetime internet access and free, instant download of books.

Also read someone talk about the i-pad being in color. I would see that as a disavantage. The Kindle was designed to replicate a book…most books are on white paper with black ink. The kindle and any e-reader in my mind, should replicate as best as possible the reading experience…and the kindle, does that…easy to read with interior light or the bright of day.

Also you can change the font size, pages reorient when you turn the Kindle…so if you get tired of hitting the “next page” button with your right hand, turn the Kindle upside down so you can use your left hand to advance the page…and the text adjusts.

Also, download pdf or word files to your kindle free of charge.

Anyway…the device is incredible and it’s probably clear…I love mine.

 

[soflochristmas]

From what I’ve read on Amazon’s site, this is a common complaint.
It would be an improvement if we could at least alphabetize them by author’s last name.

You can alphabetize them by title, author or last read…but that’s it. The common complaint is you can’t organize them into “folders”.

 

[opusaug]

I have not checked a book out of the library in years…I always forget that it at our disposal. The only trouble for me with the library, is remembering to bring the books back when due. I was never very good at that years back.

The Sony Reader is compatible with the open format used by most libraries today. You can download books from the library, and when the lending period is over, it automatically deletes itself from the Reader and the computer it was downloaded from. No late fees anymore.

 

[Joe_5859]

Speaking of libraries, how are they going to work in the age of the e-book?

My library lets you download e-books and audio books from their website. I haven’t done it myself, so I’m not sure what’s involved with it (avoiding pirating, etc.), but it’s possible.

 

[didymus]

My library lets you download e-books and audio books from their website. I haven’t done it myself, so I’m not sure what’s involved with it (avoiding pirating, etc.), but it’s possible.

So does mine but only for PCs (not Kindles et al) & it’s very clunky, you have to install a downloader and reader.

Do Kindles take SD cards? It just occured to me that if they do someone could run a sort library-cum-Netflix service for a very reasonable monthly fee.

 

[basenji]

As I glance over at the stacks of unread books that I’ve purchased from Amazon in the past few years, I wish that they’d offer a sort of amnesty program for Kindle owners wherein one would receive a slight (substantial??) discount for the Kindle version of a print volume that one has already purchased.

Picky, picky, picky! I know…