ourLittleFlock
Member
I'm seeing posts show up about downloading ebooks on your reading devices, so I just have to ask......
Maybe I'm a purist, but I keep thinking how I love to hold a book in my hands and feel the pages......do you like your electronic readers? Would you be willing to share which reader you have and your opinion of them?
Thank you all of you who are so willing to share your time and experiences on this forum!
=D
Kim
my3boys
Member
I have a Kindle 3G and I love it. Just this past week I bought at least 10 used books (put a couple on Paperbackswap), maybe more. So, it doesn't keep me from wanting to "hold a book in my hands" or to buy more. Plus, there are plenty of books out there that will probably never be made in kindle format, or if they were, they wouldn't quite be the same.
Certain picture books just wouldn't work for me on my kindle, especially if there's lots of pictures (I'm thinking geography and the such).
HTH
baymoose
Member
I hear you Kim about holding a book, but I read on a Kindle now and LOVE LOVE LOVE it. It feels so much better in your hands because it is so much lighter, you can read so fast and you don't even notice that it isn't a printed book. I just got a new Kindle and it is so much better than the old 2nd generation I started wtih. I also have an iPad that was a Christmas gift two years ago and I detest reading on it. It is so heavy and reflective of light. It is nice if you have a book that has color pictures or reading PDF file. You can read PDF files on the Kindle, but you are stuck with a very tiny print unless the PDF was created for Kindle use. If you have any specific questions feel free to ask.
~April
I have a Kindle and love it. If I get a book in Kindle format my printed copy is given away to a new home. We even got a second Kindle (the cheapest one) for the kids to use. Of course I have 7 kids so we'll eventually need more than that...LOL.
There are a few books I want in my hands. First and foremost - scriptures! It's just not the same if I can't easily flip back and forth following references in the footnotes.
Well we have Kiindles here. Dh loves his. Mine is usually only used if we're travelling or dr. appts. etc. It will NEVER EVER EVER replace my books. Ever... It's fine and I don't mind reading on it. Easy on my poor eyesight. But it is not the same as holding the book. Of course, I have a 15,000+ volume homeschool lending library so I guess I'm sort of hopeless. And no, not my Bible. :)
Bookworm
Member
I have a Nook Color. I like it very much--I can get some magazines on it inexpensively that I cannot get otherwise for cost reasons. I get The Old Schoolhouse on it in its new format. I can follow several webzines I like from my living room instead of being stuck on the computer chair. I have read a number of books on it, which I got free or almost no cost, and I do like that--I've been able to read some things on it that my library did not have and that I did not own. If I had a choice of reading a real book or on my Nook, I'd pick the real book every single time, though. I guess I'm like Robin and hopeless too. :-) I also don't like reading Scriptures on my Nook as well. I do occasionally use my Nook WITH my open scriptures and look up links and cross-references on my Nook instead of riffling pages, but I can't live without my own marked-up scriptures. So I do like my Nook. It's a useful ADJUNCT but for me will never totally replace The Real Thing.
ourLittleFlock
Member
Well, when I mentioned to my husband that reading the SCM forums was making me reconsider the whole Kindle thing, he suggested I find another forum ;D lol
Whatever happened to the days when I thought I would homeschool with just a library card!
You know, it's amazing (and sad, to me, but not to most, I guess.) My oldest son is in college. Much of their work is done on computers, their grades are posted on computer, their assignments are given on computer, ad nauseum. On his first paper, he was required to use an internet source and cite it. When he was looking up how to do that (I certainly had not taught him that) he came to me. I said, "John you have to remember that when I was writing these papers, the internet didn't EXIST!" I'm not techy, at all, not on facebook, don't know what a webinar is. Just give me my books and I'll be happy. For me, Kindles have their place, and if I were a foreign missionary, I would love to own one. I do have some old gems on mine that I haven't been able to find a hard copy of, but I always get the book when I can.
Speaking as a foreign missionary...I LOVE my Kindle. I love real books too (and believe me, even with all our international moves there are some very well loved volumes that have literally been toted around the world with us...picture books in particular), but the number of books that I can keep on a device that I can put into my purse, or get without having to PAY (big bucks) or WAIT FOR (usually a minimum of 4-6 weeks, regardless of what they tell you at the post office) shipping....priceless.
Just another perspective. =)
I have a Kindle and love it. I also have a lot of books and love them. I use my Kindle for grabbing up the older public domain books for free (or very cheap) that would cost me TONS of money to buy. For example, I have almost all the G.A. Henty books that I've paid nothing for....each of them starts at $20 used, if I'm lucky. I still buy, read, and love new and used books, when I can find them. But for older books you just can't beat an ereader. We're a military family so having a large part of my library on my Kindle saves us a lot of weight and hassle when moving.
I love my Kindle... It is light, portable, comfortable to hold while reading, etc.
However, some books I do prefer paper - not sure if I can qualify which ones exactly... certainly some instructional books are better on paper. For instance - "Planning your CM Education" I have on the Kindle (in pdf format - so not the best for the Kindle to begin with...) - I just find better on paper.
Also, one thing that is hard on a Kindle sometimes is figuring out how much farther there is to read to a good stopping point... with a paper book you can flip forward a couple of pages and see the next chapter is coming up, or a gap in printing showing a natural break, etc. With some Kindle books, there is are little marks at the bottom ton indicate roughly where you are and how far to the next chapter (just a line with the marks... so just a judgement idea) - but most free books don't have them.
zillymom
Member
I have a Nook Color, which I really love. But like suzukimom, there are some books that I prefer in paper format, but it's hard to describe exactly which ones. Definitely anything I might want to make notes in. Even though I CAN do so on the Nook, I love the pencil to paper sound/feel. :)
I read so much and pretty fast though, it is very nice to have very many books in one place without the extra weight. And it's nice to have the extra space in our very tiny house!
ourLittleFlock
Member
Thank you everyone for your great feedback. Sounds like it can definitely be an enhancement.
For those of you with a color version - do the pages still read with that easy on the eyes print like the other versions?
Kim
Suzq
Member
I have a Nook color as well. I do like that I can change the brightness and sometimes the background for different lighting settings. I don't notice any eye difficulties at all unless I am tired which I would get with a real book too. However, the Color is backlit and not like the e-ink of the black and white e-readers. It looks more like a computer screen. I don't have an e-ink device but I have read where some people feel they get eye strain on the backlit versions and not on the e-ink versions. My Nook Color has been fine for me -- I did put an anti-glare screen protector on my Nook Color so that may have made some difference.
I have Android on an SD card so I am able to get the Kindle app and then I can get either Kindle books or Nook books. I really enjoy that. But if it is a book that I need to page back and forth then I am all for the real thing. 
DawnD
Member
I love my Kindle, but... I also love real books. What I have discovered is that it takes some adjustment in thinking to embrace the Kindle. And this takes time. At first you get it and it's great, you go put all these free classics on there. You love it. Then, there is a book you want and it comes on Kindle for $2 less, but it still costs $6-7 and it is hard to think you "have something" when you only get it on your Kindle. You have to adjust your thinking to feel like you Own a Book when it's not in paper in your hand. I have found it to be a process to get all the way there with the Kindle.
My daughter on the other hand, didn't take long at all to go through this process. She is much younger and hasn't been through years of real books first. The Generation Gap I guess. :)
Then, when you think you have adjusted, you find out how many books you want to get for the kids aren't on the Kindle yet. That is frustrating too.
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