Do You Love Your eReader? Tell Me Why!

[ramama]

DH wants to make the transition to an e-reader.  Thing is, he is baffled by a no-frills cell phone.  Touch-screen seems like it would be simpler, no?  How easy is yours to use?  Is there a brick-and-mortar store that sells the Kindle? (I don't like buying electronics that we can't test drive first.  Plus, our state has a rockin' automatic four-year warranty on anything bought here, so we prefer to buy in-state, especially expensive stuff)  Anyone have the Kobe, Nook, or Sony eReaders?  Give me the scoop, please!

[Arduinna]

I have a kindle, but no longer read on it because I much prefer reading on the ipad and my iphone. I just really don't like e-ink, I prefer color and the sharpness and contrast of the text are much better on my iphone ( the retina display of iphone 4 is incredible) and ipad. Plus it's backlit, on my kindle I either needed to use a booklight in low lights situations or leave the light on in the room. I can adjust the brightness on my Apple devices and change the background and text colors.

I like reading ebooks but, my biggest complaint is that with kindle books we don't own them, we just have a right to use. And the fact that there is still a format war and DRM ( digital rights management) means we have a long way to go before we get to the level that digital music has gotten, which is now DRM free from itunes and emusic which are the only digital music sources I use. At least with the Apple itunes store I can read ebooks from the kindle store, ibooks, Barnes and Nobles nook plus a variety of other ebook apps plus reading pdf's and epubs ect. There is basically an app for almost every format, although Sony has not gotten their app approved yet.

[Holland73]

I have a Nook Color (bought from Barnes & Noble) and I love, love, love it! 

It has a beautiful color screen, a slot for a microSD card for expanded memory and it can use Word, PDF & ePub files.  And... built in WiFi.

As for ease of use, my 7 year old (he LOVES the Read to Me feature) and my 91 year old grandmother both figured out how to work it pretty quickly... without my even knowing they were playing with it.  

I haven't had any technical issues with it, with the exception of when I first bought it right after Xmas.  They weren't prepared for the mass of people who bought them and they were have significant delays with eBook downloads from the B&N website.  But, when I took it back to the B&N store, they were super helpful and even gave me a $15 gift card for my inconvenience.   

[Holland73]

Originally Posted by ramama 

 Is there a brick-and-mortar store that sells the Kindle?

Our Target store sells the Kindle and has one out for trial. 
 

[ramama]

Thanks for the replies so far, they really help!  Now, I have a couple other questions....if you buy a Nook from B&N or a Kobe from Borders or a Kindle from amazon, can you buy ebooks from anywhere, or just through the store you bought the eReader?  If you don't own the books, just have permission to use them, can you not store them on a disk if the eReader gets full (although it seems impossible to fill one up, at least "they" like to make you think so)?

[tinuviel_k]

This is a really good review that should answer many of your questions.
http://news.cnet.com/kindle-vs-nook-vs-ipad-which-e-book-reader-should-you-buy

[Purple Sage]

I have a Kindle.  I like it, but I use my iPod Touch to read my Kindle books a lot more often.  The only time I use the Kindle is when I'm reading away from a power source for a long time because the battery life of the Kindle is like 50 zillion times longer than the iTouch.  I have a little book light that works well, and it doesn't bother me to use it.  As far as I know, you can only buy books from Amazon for the Kindle, but that's fine with me. 

[Juvysen]

I have a kindle.  I love the e-ink, hate hate HATE reading on my droid incredible.  Did I say hate?  HATE.  love my kindle, though.  I get irritated when I feel like I ought to be reading a book (like someone is willing to loan it to me) because it's not on my kindle.  THe new kindles come with a built in light, so you don't need a booklight anymore.  I like that I can read in bright sun and not worry about not being able to see it.  Or with my polarized sunglasses.  I like the size.  It's a good weight, and easy to use one-handed (important when I'm nursing, especially!).  Mine is a kindle 2, though.  The newest ones seem to have fixed my few gripes with it (like that there's only a back button on one side).  I think touch screen would have a steeper learning curve, but maybe that's just because my phone did.  Kindle was very easy to use, imo.

[Arduinna]

Originally Posted by ramama 

Thanks for the replies so far, they really help!  Now, I have a couple other questions....if you buy a Nook from B&N or a Kobe from Borders or a Kindle from amazon, can you buy ebooks from anywhere, or just through the store you bought the eReader?  If you don't own the books, just have permission to use them, can you not store them on a disk if the eReader gets full (although it seems impossible to fill one up, at least "they" like to make you think so)?

You can't read Kindle books on a Nook and vice versa, same with the Sony e-reader, reason being they each have their own DRM attached to their ebooks. With the iphone and ipad you can read all those, but you need to read them within their specific application. So I read my kindle book in the kindle for iphone app and Brnes and Noble book in their app and Kobo has their own app too. Each of those devices have specific file types they work with. Here is a list of the various file types and which devices use them. 

You can store ebooks on your computer but you need a program/app to be able to read them. Kindle requires the kindle for mac or kindle for windows app. A variety of programs will read nonDRM file types but most ebookstores do not sell non DRM files now.

[HollyBearsMom]

I downloaded the kindle and B&N e-reader on to my Iphone but found the screen to small however I just bought the Ipad2 and am loving it for books! I just went on vacation and it was so great to bring 6 "books" with me in my carryon luggage! I use the apple book app as well as the other ones so that I full access to tons of books.

[Ellp]

I have a KOBO, and I have to say that I love it.  Its simple enough that my 6 and 3yo can use it, and it uses formats that are compatable with Library downloads so I can get lots of free books.  I also like the fact that it is ONLY an e-reader, and doesn't have any e-mail/web browsing capabilities so I'm confident that they won't be able to get into any trouble by pushing random buttons.

That said though I am in Canada and the other readers aren't as readily available here.

[TEAK's Mom]

Originally Posted by Juvysen 

I have a kindle.  I love the e-ink, hate hate HATE reading on my droid incredible.  Did I say hate?  HATE.  love my kindle, though.  I get irritated when I feel like I ought to be reading a book (like someone is willing to loan it to me) because it's not on my kindle.  THe new kindles come with a built in light, so you don't need a booklight anymore.  I like that I can read in bright sun and not worry about not being able to see it.  Or with my polarized sunglasses.  I like the size.  It's a good weight, and easy to use one-handed (important when I'm nursing, especially!).  Mine is a kindle 2, though.  The newest ones seem to have fixed my few gripes with it (like that there's only a back button on one side).  I think touch screen would have a steeper learning curve, but maybe that's just because my phone did.  Kindle was very easy to use, imo.

I'm with you. I adore my Kindle. It as absolutely intuitive to use and the e-ink screen doesn't give me a headache the way a lit screen does if I use it for too long. 

I do get most of my books from Amazon, but a lot of them are free. I also frequent Smashwords, Project Guttenberg, and some publishers websits (like Baen Books) for good deals. I'm an incredible fast reader and my Kindle means I'm not stuck at the kids' dance studio reading the same book for the third time in a row. 
 

[tracymom1]

Originally Posted by Holland73 

I have a Nook Color (bought from Barnes & Noble) and I love, love, love it! 

It has a beautiful color screen, a slot for a microSD card for expanded memory and it can use Word, PDF & ePub files.  And... built in WiFi.

As for ease of use, my 7 year old (he LOVES the Read to Me feature) and my 91 year old grandmother both figured out how to work it pretty quickly... without my even knowing they were playing with it.  

I haven't had any technical issues with it, with the exception of when I first bought it right after Xmas.  They weren't prepared for the mass of people who bought them and they were have significant delays with eBook downloads from the B&N website.  But, when I took it back to the B&N store, they were super helpful and even gave me a $15 gift card for my inconvenience.   

This. Love my Nook. I got it as a gift and never in a million years would have bought one for myself.

You can convert just about any ebook format to work on it. My mom is very tech savvy and showed me how. Its pretty simple, and I fear technology.

[syn_ack89]

Love my Kindle. Don't like the Kindle app for iPad as much as the Kindle itself tho it is ok.

[PhoenixMommaToTwo]

I have the pandigital reader, which is the "generic" nook. I love it! It has wi-fi and all of those features and is super user friendly. It has a backlight and it also has a night mode for reading. The only drawback is the battery doesn't last as long as say, the Kindle. But, it's awesome not having to drag books with me everywhere.

[zebra15]

Originally Posted by tinuviel_k 

This is a really good review that should answer many of your questions.
http://news.cnet.com/kindle-vs-nook-vs-ipad-which-e-book-reader-should-you-buy

This is a great review.  I have a NookColor and LOVE it. My 10 yr old loves it (I still dont know 1/2 of what it can do).   I try to only get the free books or cheap books,  I can get library books on it too so that saves me from having to go to the library.

I still read 'old fashioned' paper books too but I love my nook.  (that sounds dirty)

[WifeofAnt]

If I had to do it over again I wouldn't have bought a Nook.  Barnes and Noble stole my money!  I had two gift cards and they couldn't properly bill me for the e-books I bought.  First they billed my credit card, then made the books stop working on the Nook, and then money mysteriously disappeared from the cards with no explanation of where or why.  Every time I called no one knew how to help me and just made the problem worse.  After calling on 4 separate occasions without a resolution I just went back to paper books.

[quest4quiet]

+1 for the Nook. I have the non-color version and LOVE it. If you use Calibre (free software-like a media manager for digital books), you can convert just about any format to be combatible. The latest firmware from B&N really worked out a lot of the kinks it had, mainly library organization/search issues. They really seem to listen to their users as far as what functionality to offer. If you don't have an issue with a backlight, the Nook color can be hacked to make one of the most affordable full-function android tablets on the market.

[Alenushka]

Target sells Kindle

There is no risk is buying Kindle fomr Amazon. If you do not like it, you just return it.

I love my Kindle. If you keep wi-Fi turned off, the battary works for weeks. I love that I can get a book in less than 15 mins. I have subscriptions on that too. It fits in my purse and does not collect  dust. It is everything I dreamed of.

[Alenushka]

Real Kindle does not make my eye tired like Ipad etc. Also, i like that I can share my books with 5 devices, so my husband and kids can read same books.