Ode to my Kindle
 

Well, it's really not an ode, maybe a paean, a panegyric, an encomium, a song of praise. I am an inveterate reader, and I'm kind of cheap, so that in the past, books were always a problem when I traveled.

I would load up on used books and then discard them as I read them. Loading up made my suitcase heavy, and discarding books---not trading them in--burned my cheap soul. Then I got my Kindle. I load looooong books ("The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," "Inferno" by Max Hastings---NOT Dan Brown--and whatever I can get for free on Book Bub, as well as things I have read before but will read again, such as Dorothy Sayres and Ngaio Marsh.

I'm set for books, even for a really long trip, and I don't have to haul around a heavy suitcase.

Did you perhaps mean to post this on that 'other' forum?

Me too. It used to be, my bag was always searched by security, presumably because of all those rectangloid shapes in the x-ray. Now that I carry all my books on my Kindle, no problem with the bag.

I agree, Peg. Plus the advantage of being able to buy "the next one in the series" without having to make a trip to the store is a fabulous benefit. I no longer buy dead tree books.

janis: Of course I use my Kindle at home, but my main praise is for the Kindle on trips. Instead of 10 paperbacks, I carry one Kindle.

So I meant to post on this forum.

I'm singing with you :)

I too love to read... And while I agree the kindle is very practical for travel, I will never love it. What i love is the feel of the book in my hands, the whiff of smoke when I open my used bookstore copy of Colette, reading the christmas inscriptions on the inside front cover (and wondering the route which delivered that book into my hands).

So while I may agree with the premise, Peg, i will never sing your song of praise.

My kindle is always in my purse and I am never without a distraction if I need it. I have over 100 books on it; about 45 I haven't read yet. I did read Dan Brown's Inferno (it's on my kindle) and liked it a lot.

I'm with you, Peg! Now, if only someone can improve guidebooks for use on a Kindle!

I can be reading a book on my Kindle, continue from where I left off on my iPhone sitting in the dentist's waiting room, then pick up my tablet to check email back home and pick up on the book again on the tablet. Handy and amazing!

Peg - I'm glad you posted here.

I've put off getting an ereader because I don't want to buy books; it's one of the things I've cut back on to save money. I do buy books from the library book sale at .50 each. That supports the library and gives the books a good home.

I've been listening to audio books that I either download from the library or I rip the CDs. I have quite a stockpile of books to listen to.

I may have to rethink the Kindle thing. You're saying there are good books for free from Book Bub? Any other free sites? I can borrow a Fire from the library but I may not want to spend that much money. And I'd like to try before I buy.

Which Kindle do you have and can you read in low light situations?

There are all kinds of sources of free books... the Guttenburg Project is one, bitTorrent is another.

I have a 2nd generation Kindle that needs ambient light the same as a book. My tablet is a 7 inch Samsung Galaxy that would be readable in the mines of Moria.

The books on Bookbub aren't the best, though I do find books that I like. There are cheap books on Amazon, too--classics and the like or just inexpensive books.

I go to the used book store and load up on cheap books to read at home. I don't want to buy too many expensive books to read at home on my Kindle, but I have no objection to buying books for trips.

"Inferno" was about 600 pages, and cost $13.99. I had a paperback copy, but no way was I going to bring that on my trip. It kept me busy for a long time. Ditto for "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich."

I don't know much about free sites for ebooks. In my town, my city library doesn't have them available, but I've heard the country library does.

My Kindle is a cheap basic model. NO bells or whistles. I can read only books--not magazines, as far as I know. I can't read mine without an external light, but I think there are models that are lighted.

You can also download books to kindle from your library for free. My library lets me get 4 at a time, good for 2 weeks. And if you have an internet connection - you can get books when you are traveling.

I have the Kindle app on my iPad and really like the ability to use have lots of books on hand.

I bought DH the least expensive Kindle - the one with ads - at it works for him.

Newer ones like the Fire are backlit like a tablet. Older models like mine and Peg's need light. I have a cool little bendy LED light for mine.

If you were to Google for 'free ebooks' you'd find a lot of sources.

Copyright expired books on Amazon cost as little as 99 cents. Yes, more than 50 cents from the library but worth it for the convenience.

This is very interesting. I didn't realize Kindles have ads. That would drive me nuts.

My library does have a limited number of ebooks as the licenses are expensive. The tough part is waiting for the ebooks as about 50 libraries are involved in buying licenses.

I don't mind paying .99 for a book. It's the $15 for paperbacks or ebooks that adds up. When I travel on my own I always run out of reading material and have to buy 1 or 2 books during my trip.

The ads are just shown on the screen when you aren't reading, they don't inturupt you.

The Kindle Paperwhite is e-ink (so it looks like paper and can be read in bright sunlight) but also backlit so that it can be read in the dark. The best of both worlds

The ad is only when you first sign on. It is very un-bothersome [is that a word??].

I just looked online and it doesn't mention ads, maybe they got rid of them. For $69 it's a deal.

If the ads are like a screen saver then that would be fine.

I'm not traveling at the moment so I have time to think about this. If I can get books from my library and free books and occasionally pay for books that would be good. Perhaps I'll ask for this for a Christmas present.

I love my Kindle Fire, but on our last trip I ended up having to buy a paperback because the battery died after long usage and I wasn't able to charge it right away. Now I'll carry a cheap small PB in my suitcase just in case.

The regular kindles (not fire) last for many weeks, even longer if you leave the wifi off. I've used mine extensively over a 3 week long trip and it wasn't even close to dead.

$69 is for the base Kindle - if you want to be able to read in low light without having a case with an incorporated light go with the paper white. It's $119.

DebitNM - where do I find a paperwhite for $69. They're $119 on Amazon.

she was talking about the basic kindle - which is $69 - you can't get a paperwhite for that price.

Thanks, Hez. I was posting so didn't see your update. I didn't realize there was another Kindle. I think I'd want the paperwhite.

I know you're all crazy about your basic Kindles, but Barnes & Noble is currently offering their Nook HD (touch-screen tablet) for $129 (free shipping). The Kindle equivalent is at least $70 more.

The Nook HD has a couple of features that I'm not sure the Kindle equivalent offers, like 'scrapbooking' that allows you to pull/save things like recipes or entire articles out of magazines. While inside a B&N store, you can read any book they sell for free.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/nook...fire/379003173

I now take my Nook HD on trips instead of a simple reader plus a laptop.

I borrowed a Nook from the library and can't get Adobe to give me an account number so I can download books. It keeps giving me what looks like a license key. I loaded the software 3 times and was on the phone with a librarian for a half hour trying to get it to work. She said that she got rid of her Nook because it was such a pain. After that Nook experience I know I don't want one.

You could not get library book on nook when I bought one. I returned it.

My niece has a nook and loves it. I just can't read a shiny screen for more than about 15 minutes before it starts to strain my eyes. Also, they are really difficult to see in daylight.

I have a tablet as well, and was just saying yesterday that without question I would give up my tablet before giving up my kindle.

That being said I just bought a back lit laptop so that I can use it outside - so being able to use devices outside might be more important to me than others.

Hi Peg, glad you are enjoying your Kindle while traveling. Loved THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH by William Shirer when I read it in the mid 60s. Of course, Shirer had been a correspondent in Berlin for years before the WWII so he knew the rise of Nazi Germany well. It still provides an excellent overview for those trying to figure out how Hitler came to power.


Have you read IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larson? The narrative centers around the Ambassadorship of William Dodd, along with his colorful family, who represented the US just before the war in Berlin– a terrific read, a eyewitness account of Nazi power from the early stages.

I bought my Kindle JUST to go to Europe. After many years of
shlepping a large bag I was convinced to do carry-on which meant no room for 4 or more paperbacks...

Now I can get 5 library books downloaded for 2 wks & all set for any trip. So much easier.

One shout out and hint on the kindle... If you read in a much weaker second language (I read in French a bit)... You can set your kindle default dictionary to this language... Much easier to quickly look up words.

But the downside, I like to read books by local authors (reading a lot of Imre kertesz since moving to Budapest)... The selections of these type of books in English language bookstores is fantastic. Great browsing in foreign bookstores.

I love the dictionary feature and mostly use my Kindle for reading in French for this reason. Touch a word and the definition pops up. I can't tell you how much this has helped my French reading speed and comprehension.

You don't have to set French as the default dictionary, it knows when you're reading something in French and chooses the French dictionary automatically. When you are reading in English, the English dictionary pops up.

The downside is that I can't get just any French book. I can only get what is available on the US Amazon site, not the French Amazon site. On the US site I can get lots of books on which the copyright has already expired, and these are usually available for free. What I can't get is recent French literature.

I find however that when I am traveling I read much less than I read at home. I spend my reading time going over the trip, researching stuff to do, choosing restaurants, plotting routes, reading the materials I've picked up during the day.

ah, good to know Nicki.... On my old kindle, I can only have one set dictionary, and I have to cursor to the word... perhaps it is time for an upgrade...

latedaytraveler: Yes, I read "In the Garden of Beasts." I am still only about halfway through "Rise and Fall," this time though. I read it in the 60's also.

I had been reading "Inferno" by Max Hastings, so I stopped reading "Rise and Fall" for a while in order to finish "Inferno." Now I'm finishing "Rise," and I'm also reading "Hitler's Savage Canary," which is about the Danish resistance in WWII. It's very interesting, too.

My mother, who was the daughter of Danish immigrants told me a little about the resistance, and I became interested in it.

We had meant to go to the Danish Resistance museum when we were in Copenhagen, but it was closed on the only day we could have visited it.

You can down load newspapers on the kindle without Internet connection. I got the Sunday nytimes on a beach in a small village in Calabria for less than the print version. I love the kindle for travel.

Peg..wanna immerse yourself into a 600-pager? This is NOT advertising per se'...much too late for that...one of my older novels (The Wayfarers, Lighthouse Press, 2003) has become recently available on Amazon Kindle. It's been in circulation for over 10 years. I thought you might find it interesting, educational and fun...historical novel (1881-1904, group of 60 walking through dangerously xenophobic Romania, throughout Eastern and Central Europe and to Bremerhaven on the North Sea).

I believe Adrienne has read it and I know that several other Fodorites have read the earlier print version (Zwho, Iris1745, Aduchamp, Basingstoke, wordsmith, pfallek, the late and lovely LoveItaly, Shanghainese, thebookchick, Kenav). New one (fifth book)coming out this summer which is not quite a sequel, though there is minor overlap in no way affecting the reader of either.

Stuart Tower (google, if you wish)

I'm buying the Kindle version of The Wayfarers for my niece.

Peg - if you do buy the book be aware that there's more than one book with that title. This is the one you want:

http://tinyurl.com/nenyjo8

I'm moving into the 21st century - I borrowed a Fire from the library yesterday. I haven't had a chance to use it yet but it's a way to try it for free. It's heavy!

Amazon offers lots of free books. Just go to the kindle store, then enter "free kindle books" into the search box. Many pages of free kindle books will come up. When you borrow books from the library, 2 weeks is the default setting. You can change it to 3 weeks. I have a Kindle Fire, and finally found the camera, after having owned it for months. Amazon has a Kindle information blog, you can find out anything you may want to know about your unit.

<< When you borrow books from the library, 2 weeks is the default setting. You can change it to 3 weeks. >>

Every library is different. My library only allows ebooks to be borrowed for 2 weeks. There is no way to change it to 3 weeks.