How do other people find reading them, the ergonomics of it? I tried reading a novel on a netbook (pdf potrait oriented)and it SUCKED and thats not a reactionary opinion, I wanted it to be good but other than saving space and paper whats the attraction? I don't get it, do serious readers and book collectors use these devices? I'd love to find some compressive technology that would reduce my piles of books but I don't think this is it, does it hurt anyone elses eyes to read on the screens for more than 20 minutes at a time?
If you drop a kindle in the bath can you dry it out? Expect not.
I've had my kindle
for three years and I adore it. The screen is easily readable, even in direct sunlight. It weighs nothing compared to a hard-backed book, so I can read in bed without straining my wrist.
One caveat--get the aftermarket rubberized "jacket" accessory so when you drop it off the side of the bed when you fall asleep, it won't break.
P.S. I was a tried-and-true "real" booklover for all my life, but then I moved to Lausanne where they had the audacity to speak and print their books in a language not my own, ahem, so the kindle kept/keeps me in English language books and kept/keeps me sane.
Yes, serious readers and book collectors use those devices.
It's important to distinguish between the devices with black-and-white "e-paper" screens (Kindle, Sony Reader, etc.) and the devices with color screens (iPad, Nook Color, Kindle Fire, etc.).
As Riki says, E-paper provides a reading experience that's very much like reading ink on paper. Color e-paper screens aren't available yet, so reading on anything with a color screen is still as bad as reading on a general-purpose computer's screen.
The Kindle app on a phone or tablet is not the same as a real Kindle. I occasionally use it to pass the time and it's ok for me, but I'm just a casual reader. The serious readers I know -- people in the publishing industry, collectors with many thousands of books, librarians -- all love their Kindles.
technology
An efficient compressive technnology to reduce a pile of books was invented eons ago. In those good ole days, it was used to cook cave bear steaks and woolly mamomoth flanks. Of course, modern applications of the techology as a book reduction method are quite rightfully frowned upon...by most of us.
Art books
People read quarto-size and larger documents (magazines and newspapers) on Kindles now, but that's not really what the thing is optimized for.
If art books are important to you, wait a few years for color e-paper. And even then, don't expect the experience to be as good as holding a real book.
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I've sort of changed my mind, I like the price of downloading them and what just occured to me is how good the text to speech function and the zoom function for the poor of hearing/sight, rather than publishing seperate audio books or large type. Does they have good quality audio?
But getting one is not a priority, great for students I imagine, but not for me.
Audio and Students
I know nothing about e-reader audio or text-to-speech capabilities, so can't help you there.
For students, something like the Kno app is probably better than a Kindle. Kno has a few problems -- their name sucks for at least three reasons, and their app only runs on heavy general-purpose computers and tablets rather than ultralight e-readers -- but they have the textbook content and a couple of years headstart on an interactive note-taking and text-annotating system that Kindle doesn't have.
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