E-Readers

HA! I am right there with you! I was like: E-readers, no way! But I wanted to read a certain book one day and I saw that I could download and have it in my hand instantly on Amazon (not advertising, lol) if I downloaded a free kindle app on my iphone. AND it was much cheaper than a "real" book. That started a reading frenzy I've been on for months. I have my phone with me everywhere, so I have all my books with me instantly. I've gone through all of the Vampire Chronicles, back through Harry Potter, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, lots of recent Stephen King (which weren't that good, sadly) and just finished the Hunger Games trilogy (which was absolutely AWESOME), plus some random stuff I would have never read normally. I'm about to start rereading King's Gunslinger series. I LOVE this thing!!!

OMG, this is like blasphemy Reamsie! You turned to the darkside!

My sister has one now though. Also said, never going to get one. But then decided to get one anyway, since it was only €25. Meh, don't really know what to think of it the first day. However, she's been converted to the darkside as well. Loves it and if it possible, that little thing goes with her

I can see the advantages of an e-reader but there are a few disadvantages as well:
-you don't own the book, just the rights to read it
-the only way to buy it is new at full price
-you can't pass it on or trade it or share it
those things do make ebooks far more expensive as I never pay full price for a book, but closer to 10-25% retail. For these reasons, I will stick to books.

Oh, and what if your ereader breaks or becomes obsolete? Not a problem with real books.

Hello everyone,

Am new here. Was browsing through and the subject caught my eye. I, too, vowed 'never' to have an e-reader -- relented only because storage has become an issue. Still have a love-hate relationship with my Kindle though, because despite it's ability to hold gazillion books, I still very much prefer to hold and flip pages on a real book, and if new, to breathe in the intoxicating smell!

First, for anyone with an eReader, the following freeware is a "must have":

http://calibre-ebook.com/about

I only downloaded this software a day or two ago, and am still learning how to use it properly. For the time being, I'm only using it to download a few news sites at a time, and then reading them within the calibre software itself. AFAIK, this software actually has the ability to automatically download news sites and then email them to a Kindle device, but you are apparently charged a fee per megabyte emailed by Amazon. So it's probably just as easy to "tether" you device to your computer with the USB cable.

In fact, one blog I read recommended leaving your computer in "hibernation" and using "wake-up" freeware each day to download your news sites and have them emailed to your Kindle. But he only recommended doing this while you were on vacation, etc. Otherwise, he recommended sticking with the USB cable.

Personally, I'm still in the research phase on e-book readers. Ironically enough, I'm on the waiting list for the e-book version of AARP eReaders for Dummies at a local library. I have the free Amazon Kindle application for the Windows notebook and a library "e-media" card. I'm currently able to check out eBooks in Kindle and several other formats, along with audiobooks, CDs of music and videos. The only downside is quite a number of the technical e-books available for loan were published in 2008 or 2009, which is ancient for tech books!