Is a Kindle or Nook worth the money?

I got the last gen Kindle and it's definitely worth it for me. And it cost more back then. $140 is cheap.

 

e ink is far superior to any other kind of screen...tft...lcd....etc. when it comes to reading.

I literally tried to take the picture off my kindle when it arrived. IT had some painting on the background, I thought it was print on a clear flim (plastic) protecting the screen. It was the actual e-ink (shipped to me on). I was damn surprised.

I turned it on and the painting went away.

As for the web surfing, it's very basic. It loads pages in the mobile versions. Good enough for email and newspaper sites etc.

 

I'm curious about this too - I want a e-reader, but I want it to be able to read .pdf files and other files that I get from the internet. I don't want to deal with drm protection on everything. Are there better options than the kindle for this sort of thing?

 

Check out this forum if you want to learn about every major e-reader under the sun and users' opinions of them :

http://www.mobileread.com/

 

apparently you can hack the nook and run android with it...i would go with the nook

 

I got the NookColor for X-mas. I really like it. The web browser ok and like the previous poster said, that you can hack to to a full android tablet. I haven't hacked mine yet but have really enjoyed reading books and magazines on the Nook. E-ink may be better for long periods of reading, but the Nook's screen is way better for magazines and web browsing. The update for the Nook to add more apps should be out in a few weeks, so I say the extra $100 is worth it.

 

Got my wife the Kindle for x-mas. She loves it. I would have liked to have gotten her the larger color screen version, but it is a lot more expensive.

 

What is free on those things? I was looking at my dad's kindle and everything had a subscription fee.

 

I will be getting a Kindle soon. I was hesitant for a long time. I like the feel of books. I like turning paper pages. It's part of the fun of reading for me.

But I realized that that with all the free books, it will be cheaper since I read mostly classics anyway. Also when I travel books weigh a lot in the baggage or backpack or whatever. With a kindle I could have a dozen travel books about where I'm going, some history books about where I'm going, and several literature books to pass the time as well, and it all weighs less than a pound.

I like the e-ink more than I would the larger lcd screens so I decided on the Kindle. Plus that's cheaper. The one cool thing about the LCD screen at least on the Nook is that you can read it in the dark without waking up anyone else in the room. So if your wife/girlfriend/boyfriend is already asleep it's no problem to still read. However it's harder to read in direct sunlight.

Anyway I opted for the Kindle because of price, selection, e-ink, and I like the way it highlights and allows me to look up something right away in the dictionary or wikipedia. I read a lot of historical fiction, and being able to reference real events or characters listed in those novels is very handy. I realize other e-readers can do this or something similar as well, but the Kindle interface seemed easiest to me.

Because of the ease and convenience of all of this, I finally decided it was worth it, and I'm looking forward to it. I think there are plenty of good e-readers out there. I'm also a little tempted by the Borders e-reader. Great price on that one.

 

I think the periodicals have subscription fees just like the real paper or magazine. Other books cost money. But the free ones are mostly ones that are in public domain.

 

FB, I can tell you that the whole 'feel of a real book' concern goes away very quickly. If you are an avid reader of any sort you will feel right at home very quickly. Personally I think that's the real advantage of the e-ink (as opposed to the eye strain debate) - how easy it makes the transition to an ereader.

Get Amazons lighted case, fold the cover back, sit back and relax, you'll feel right at home.

 

Good. Yeah, I got the kindle app on my phone, and even on that tiny screen I could tell it was better than reading books on a computer screen which I've done as well. That was what finally convinced me to save up for the Kindle.

 

Got a Nook for Christmas and soon found out I can check out ebooks from my local library over the Web. (I don't think Kindle supports that kind of thing.) Anyway, I don't see myself paying for a book again. I'll download the free classics that I like (How come there's no Faulkner yet?) and check the newer stuff out from the library.

When Mrs. rimrocker put her foot down and limited me to two bookcases in the house plus my nightstand, I was reluctantly forced into this, but now that I've done it, it's great.

 

The newest Kindles are able to read PDFs, all you have to do is drag the files over from your computer. Not sure what other files you are going to read but there is a 3rd party program that pretty much can convert any format into something that is compatible with a kindle. Also has a lot of other useful features.

 

I bought my girlfriend a Nook for her birthday. She loves it and uses it everyday. Books are much cheaper, and she even had a few textbooks for her classes on there from last semester. There's even a thing on it where you can download free reads. Definitely worth it.

 

I've finally been convinced that I could go with an e-reader, but the one I want (the larger Kindle) is a bit pricey in comparison to the smaller one. The other thing I noticed was that a new Kindle DX seems to be getting released every 6 months. If that holds, then they should be releasing a new DX sometime around... now. From what I've seen, most books that I'd buy seems to be cheaper on Amazon than on B&N, so I'd rather probably buy an Amazon reader. I'd like a reader that can do magazines and books with color (preferrably e-ink type), and the color readers are just now coming out.

 

I got a Kindle for Christmas and I LOVE it. It is an outstanding device to read on. Just outstanding.

However, there are a couple of things about the Kindle that are cool that you don't really realize until you get one. Besides the fact that the device itself is great to read on (I know I've already said that), the way you purchase books is great as well. It's just so easy... (too easy...).

Another thing that I think is great is that all your book are stored on Amazon's cloud (in addition to your Kindle). You can download a free Kindle app for your phone and read your books when you don't even have the Kindle with you (i.e. in the john at work). Because where you left off is also synced to the cloud, you can pick up where you left off no matter what device you read on.

There is also this free software called Calibre that will convert other documents to Kindle format and sync them to your device. Calibre will even mail the docs to your device if you want. It also has this news service where you can subscribe to news feeds and have them delivered to your Kindle. Most of them are free.

It's just a great device. I don't miss books at all.

The biggest negative is that it is not good for books where you might want to jump around (i.e. reference books). It is best for books where you read from beginning to end.

 

I love my kindle.

At this point I have like 1000 books on it and take it with me everywhere. Whenever I have a free five minutes I pull it out and continue with my current novel.

If you do get one I have the hook up for free books. I haven't paid for a single ebook since I got mine.

 

Hayesfan - I was thinking about getting a Kindle. Can you tell me how you were able to get free ebooks? Do you have a legit hookup with someone or is it like available on torrents, etc?