MillieF

I read the threads on here prior to Christmas - now there's a bit of e-ink under the bridge, what's the vote, you newbies? I looked shocked and delighted on Christmas morn, and I played with it lots when everybody poodled off for a post scoff waddle. I am just not sure that I can read on it...I have the new little Kindle, it seems nice to play with, but it seems more like a toy, it doesn't seem like I'm reading. I'm not a Luddite - I am pecking away at this message on an iPad, because I can't be bothered to get the laptop out, but the Kindle just doesn't feel like a book. It doesn't smell like a book and the cats don't want to climb on top of it. How are all you Christmas techies getting on with yours?

Chookie

Millie - get yourself a cover for it.

I have a leather cover that opens out just like a book. It feels just like you are reading a hardback... and my cover has an integral light that means you can read in bed without disturbing the OH as well...

I LOVE my kindle. don't get me wrong, it will never replace books. But for reading on public transport, during slow periods at work or in bed it can't be beat.

MillieF

Cookie, I will get a cover immediately, thanks. I think I need to try to train myself in Kindle 101. Just a bit hacked off because I tried to find A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth, it's a huge bloody tome of a thing, so would be ideal for the Kindle, but it's not available - for any form of e-book reader!

Novocastrian

I think I mentioned that I bought the OH a kindle (not the mini one) last fall, with a cover although she's never said anything about that one way or the other.

She took to it straight away and were it not for a small matter that she has very little free time*, I'm sure she'd have downloaded many more than the 4 or 5 books she already has.

I haven't tried it myself.

*I'm going to pull the nails at the kitchen sink out of her feet quite soon.

MarkG

The only things I would really complain about:

1. The Kindle wireless is terribly unreliable. It takes forever to connect and a couple of times I've had to reboot the wireless AP before it would connect at all. It claims it can't see the wireless LAN even when my laptop is right alongside connected to the LAN and showing 80% on the reception level meter.
2. Search causes it to lock up and I have to reboot it.
3. There's no 'search for author' or 'search for title' that I can find. The best option is 'go to first book whose title starts with the chosen letter', and I can never remember where that's hidden.
4. Having over 1500 books on there gives me a greater incentive to hop from one to another without actually finishing one.

dollface

Bought one, well a Kobo, for my daughter for Xmas, it has the leather cover etc. She prefers books, the feel etc of a book, just hasn't taken to it.

Novocastrian

As noted earlier, I have limited experience, but it's me that does the downloads (OH's a technophobe at heart, which those who've met her and know her job will recognize as a bit ironic).

1) Never had a problem with wireless connectivity. I've yet to use the 3G but I'll be using that in France over the summer.
2) Never had that problem either.
3) Eh? You're on Amazon.
4) Your attention deficiency syndrome was there before the kindle. I assume you have the sane problem in a library (if you've ever visited one)?

Piff Poff

I think I have finally decided what e-book to buy as Santa didn't get the hint, but I did get some money. I'm going for the Kobo WiFi - mainly because I can 'borrow' Library books with it. I will also get a cover as I love the feel of a book, I just hope convenience out ways the not having an actual book feeling.

ann m

I love my Kindle ( a friend's Kobo feels very heavy in comparison PP ).

I read so much more now.

My one niggle is that when you are reading a book, I would like it to say the title of the book at the top of the screen. I sometimes download about four books by one author. Someone asks me what I am reading and I have no clue.

Novocastrian

I feel your pain. I suggest you get a backing sheet of paper for your kindle and then use a new-fangled device called a "p-e-n-c-i-l" to make a"n-o-t-e" of what you're reading.

I suppose I could make a fortune patenting this idea.

ann m

Bloody hell Novo - I knew you was clever, like, but that's brilliant.

minimeeze

I LOVE my Kindle I have the 'mini' one too. I've read a few of the free books that I could find (that weren't porn or religion). My mum sent me over a CD of about 1500 titles from the UK (bought from some dodgy EBay seller, no doubt!) which I'm working my way through. Am thinking the books on the dodgy CD aren't really designed for the Kindle though as the page layout is all wrong. Still, beggars can't be choosers....and all that

I also have a cover for my Kindle!

Piff Poff

But the library doesn't support Kindles - I checked

MarkG

Good for you. Tonight it was working fine, I turned it off, I turned it back on, it said there were no wireless networks, then it said there were five wireless networks and made me select one to connect to even though it's the same wireless network it's been connecting to forever... then it told me to enter my password again. Which is a 64-character random string.

Edit: So I entered my 64-character random password again, it said it couldn't connect and asked if I wanted to enter it again, I picked 'cancel' and now it's connected.

I have never had to deal with such a crappy wireless interface on any other device.

Maybe you don't have 1500 books on it. As far as I can tell, when you select search it tries to search through every single book on the device with no 'cancel' option. I think I got it to work once when I only had about 100 books on there, and I had to wait ten or fifteen minutes for it to complete.

What's on Amazon? I want to read a book on my Kindle by Joe Bloggs; there's no 'show me all books on my Kindle by Joe Bloggs' option, only a completely useless text search.

Siouxie

You can download that book here (in sections): http://ebookdatabase.net/a/a-suitable-boy-pdf and then use calibre ( http://calibre-ebook.com/download_windows ) to convert it before downloading to your Kindle. I also found it here: http://www.archive.org/details/suitableboynovel00seth