Queston about Kindle or other eBook systems

[Redhead65]

I have thought about getting a kindle, but something is holding me back. eBooks are not cheap, and I guess it will be hard to resell them. And technology changes so fast.  How does this work when you have a kindle and you buy an ebook? Do you need to remember any password? Or is there a way to ensure that you always get access to the file (book), even when you are a bit chaotic by nature?

Space is not so much a problem for me. In the past four weeks I sold a lot of books to Amazon, and my bookshelf is more organized than ever (I wish my household was that organized  ), but somehow I am worried that I pay for something that I afterwards cannot use as well as a book.
Regarding some books I read on Amazon that the ebook version is not as good (well-adjusted to the screen) as the real book.

Maybe for me the time is not ripe yet to buy a kindle, but I was wondering how you arrived at the decision to buy one.

[Redhead65]

I have another question to those of you who buy ebooks: is there not a risk that you make a premature purchase decision because it is so easy to get access to a book?
Please do not get my wrong. I do not want to bring the discussion to the point that books in paper form are better. I just want to went my concerns regarding my own purchasing behaviour.  Since the ebook market is growing, it unboubtedly has a lot of advantages. As far as I am concerned, however, I have sometimes bought things and afterwards wished I had not bought them. And I am trying to shape up in that matter.

[Barbara from New Jersey]

Hi Redhead,


I find that I read much faster with a paper book rather than an electronic one.  Maybe it is my personal problem, but my eyes get tired, dry and sometimes even feel like they are burning if I read on Kindle or even my laptop too long.  I use eyedrops to soothe them.  I also don't care for the cookbooks on line because there is usually lighting glare in the kitchen which interferes with the visibility and I tend wind up having to move it or adjust the pages in some manner, necessitating washing my hands or washing the kindle or i-pad.  Also, I find it much easier to flip back and forth with a regular book rather than an e book if you want to re-read something.

[Lynda (Fl)]

Redhead, this is just my perspective on e-readers: 1) everything Barbara said is true!  2) however, there are many reasons to love them.  E-readers are easily portable, carry multiple books at once, the font is adjustable, you can order a 'sample' from places like Amazon and read the first two chapters free, you don't have to find space for the book after reading it, you can order a book anywhere, some of them connect to your computer and allow you to create papers and notes, can have back-lighting or not and your entire library is available everywhere the network is available.  The simple Kindle e-reader is terrible at displaying charts, pictures and sidebars. These are benefits of Amazon and Barnes and Noble and I don't know if you have the same options in Germany. If you lived in the US, I would recommend one and then just buy your favorites to keep in hardbound.  Be sure to research all the various options before you buy.

[Redhead65]

But when you buy an ebook and for example your laptop crashes and is gone forever or you store the book on your kindle and you loose your kindle - how do you get your commodity back? Do you have to remember any passwords?
What happens if the technology changes and you cannot read the files anymore that you had purchased?

We have different readers available here, but I am not sure whether the time is ripe for me yet.

[Lynda (Fl)]

Kindle and Nook store your books for you, in the Ethernet, or something like that; here in the US.  You can retrieve it from them any time. With my Kindle and my son's Nook, we can contact the site, access our account and retrieve our books.  We don't have them linked to our computer, at this time.  You can charge them that way, if you want, or transfer books from another site to your devise through the computer.  If we break our reader, we need a new one but can download everything to the new one.  I checked the net for customer descriptions and complaints of the two devices before I bought one.  I learned a lot of useful tricks that way.

[deanna in AR]

I love my iPad. I downloaded a Kindle app on it.

[Redhead65]

One day I will probably get an e-reader, but not right now. Your feedback is helpful because now I at least know that if a device is broken I can still retrieve my books.

[Lynda (Fl)]

Glad to be of help.  Deanna's correct; if you have a tablet or phone, you can use a Kindle app on them.  Computer, too.

[Barbara from New Jersey]

Will the Kindle eat up too much memory?

[deanna in AR]

Barbara, I put in the question: Do Kindle books take up space on iPad?

and this is one place it took me:



http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&cdThread=Tx2BYSFT6MG7CTH

It's a Q&A answered by individuals, and this is one answer:

"Nobody can answer that question. It depends on too many factors. The iPad has three different hard drive sizes 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. And it also depends on how many movies, music, or apps you have on your iPad. So if you use the iPad just for ebooks, you will never run out of space on your iPad. Also, you can keep ebooks in your archives on the app. Which means the ebook isn't actually on your iPad and is not taking up any space."

This is kind of what I thought too. I thought it downloaded the book only when you were ready to read it and that there was a way to take the content off when you were done. I remember coming across someplace on Amazon where you can delete books. I think you can also take them off your iPad there, but they're still on Amazon.

Here's an Apple support community with more info:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2697158

[BarbinNC]

I love, love, love my Kindle Fire!  Had the Kindle reader first, and now the Fire … gave the kindle to my daughter, you can share your books, and you can also read them on your iPad or laptop etc.  If you have an amazon account, and you have to have one to purchase ebooks for kindle I guess, then they are stored there too.  Daughter has her iPad on a stand in the kitchen, and keeps her recipes on it, listens to music on it via speakers, and reads books of course.  For traveling, its wonderful to have it to read books, without schlepping them around.  When I'm at my Mom's (she has no internet) I take it along and read.  We love technology. 


But yes, sometimes it's nice to have a paper book, I have bookshelves full of them, and love books.  But in the future, I think the ebooks will take over!