Pecora Nera

I have just gone onto Amazon to buy a paperback book costing 5 quid and the gits want to charge me another fiver for postage. WHAT ARE THEY ON. It seems super postage is only available to the UK BAH!!!! Rant stomp %##**%$$

Where do you buy your books from because I have run out and wont be in the UK till January. And if I have to read Pillars of the earth for the fifth time I think I might scream, in a manly kind of way.

Yours Stressed Eric

Lorna at Vicenza

Lots of people use the book depositary I think.

Failing that, order a few books from amazon and take advantage of the free shipping to Italy on orders over 25 quid.

Have a look in your local library. I live in a teapot sized village but even the small library here has some original English books.

Pecora Nera

Library!! They have them here!!!!

I will look in Casale because our village mus be the size of the cup, because we don't have a library. In fact we only have one church!!!

Didn't know about the 25 quid order I will go and bulk buy. If a book lasts me a week it was ether a very busy week or the book was rubbish.

Thanks for the tip on the book depsitory

lilibet

hi Pecora Nera I could send you a couple of English books if you like, I need to have a clear out anyway. Only thing is what do you like reading - perhaps a list of favourite authors. I too went through a desperate stage for reading in English then I started in'italiano.!!

Pecora Nera

I am at the stage where I will read anything. The offer is really nice. I have boxes of books perhaps we could do a swop.

I am impressed that you can read Italian books. I have tried but it is very hard going. Unless they are childrens books.

Pecora Nera

Ooops, didn't realise google searched expats so fast.. I went to search for english books in italy and saw this.

http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sourc...646461bb6d78c4

My post was 5th down

duffer

Be careful, not all items on Google qualify for Super Saver free delivery to Italy. You will see in the item listing if it qualifies. Combined order total must be £25. Even if afterwards you add another item, if it doesn't qualify, you'll have to pay postage.

I just downloaded 4000 books onto my iPad. I can't even read!

I also think the 3G Amazon Kindle at £149 is a bargain. Unless you're one who prefers to collect books, it's fantastic. Pages are very much like printed paper but the real bonus is the free worldwide 3G coverage so you can download books whereever you are from Amazon but also use the net (not proper full on internet because its a webkit based browser) for checking e-mails, checking prices, etc without any additional costs. You just need a 3G signal.

Pecora Nera

yes I did think about a kindle, then found out it will only work with amazon. and wondered whether to try another device. Also don't like reading books on my laptop. Is using a kindle similar to a laptop?

TestaRossa

My OH loves his Kindle. The screen is about 6" x 4" I think and the whole device is the size of a page from a hard back book but a few mm's thick. The screen is mat and the ink technology really makes the page look like paper - when it arrived I thought there was a piece of paper stuck to the screen as an example but it was the actual screen!! There is no back light so you do need to use a book light or normal light to read. Downloading is easy peasy and everything is linked to your Amazon account and the card you use there to pay for your downloads. The price you see is the price you pay, download costs are included. If you get the wi-fi only version the books aren't any cheaper!! Personally I'd get an i-pad but I'm prepared to wait until the cost comes down and they improve, unlike some!! I got the 1st gen i-pod touch and as much as I still love it as a gadget I could get bigger drive and for less money not that long after it came out, so the i-pad will follow suit at some point! I read loads of books on my touch, most of them from a site that does free downloads and most of them are new or bestsellers... duffer - have you found drinkmalk.com yet?? It works via wi-fi through the Stanza app.

modicasa

why buy new? go to abebooks.com and buy all books second hand from second hand bookshops all over the world, and some have free delivery to Italy.... You save a packet....

Pecora Nera

Which do you prefer the i book or the kindle?

duffer

Well my Ipad came from HK - almost 25% cheaper - it's the 64gb 3G version. I've got a simcard for 3 Italia which is €5 per month for 3gb of data. This allowance can also be used in England with 3 UK. I'm currently adding lots of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes for the flights this Xmas.

The Kindle is probably the best e-reader in my opinion and offers the best value for money. But you are linked to Amazon. However you do get to read the 1st chapters of books for free before you buy.

The Ipad and Kindle are similar yet completely different. The Kindle is an electronic reader on which you can get basic internet functionality. You have no internet or downloading costs. If you want to read books and check your e-mails then its ideal. The Ipad is a multimedia device, offering HD video playback, all sorts of apps as you get on the iphone. You can also download the Kindle app or iBooks app on to it but it doesn't use e-Ink technology so it's a bit limited in certain conditions, i.e. the beach. Plus it's battery life is nowhere near the Kindle's.

But on the Kindle you can't 'enjoy' 'certain' internet websites that I visit. Often.

Pecora Nera

Thanks Duffer, I have a decent laptop, so maybe I need to find a kindle or other book reader

duffer

The Ipad/e-readers are a lot more portable than laptops and have longer battery life. I think I'll leave my laptop at home this Xmas and just take the Ipad.

Just a consideration, if you download media from torrents, you need to convert them into Kindle format afterwards.

TestaRossa

The battery life on the Kindle is phenomenal! I've never known a gadget like it! Literally weeks when in constant use, months when not - we had a problem with the screen on the first one we got - it didn't get used from July to October and the battery was still going..... Amazon were very quick and good replacing it too even though we had to send it back to Kentucky. They sent out the replacement as we packed off the old one and gave us 30 days to return the old one before they would charge us for the new one.

Personally I'll wait for the i-pad, like I said - but that's because I like my i-pod touch and it's a bigger, better version. Having said that there are some other interesting pads on the market that use Android and I have an Android phone - the difference between apple and android is minimal to me and the apps are pretty much identical just with different names, so they are an interesting alternative - I think it's Creative labs that are producing them in 7" and 10" screens.