There have been some recent threads at the Computer Help Forum, that might help you with some first hand info of some ins and outs on them.

hth.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Search results on ebook at Computer Help

Thanks Sue, going now to check out the link.

Kindle owner

Love it.

Has internet access - no extra charges or account.

Has real push-key keyboard, instead of needing a steady finger - useable for those with arthritis in hands.

Yes, books cost the same as in store. if the book is available in paperback- paperback price.

Amazon keeps an archive of what books you have bought - so if you delete by mistake, you can download at no extra cost.

You can share books/magazines with up to 6 other Kindles or PC's.
PC app is included.

Yes, only from Amazon - but they have a huge inventory.

There are some "free" books, I downloaded the "Biography of Ben Franklin", for example.

Back-lit for easy reading, even in direct sunlight -- only reader with this feature.

When you see a book you like, you can download a free sample - about 2-3 chapters at no cost.

I love my kindle so much that I came out of lurking and reregistered so I could respond. I have had mine for 2 years and agree with everything Monica says. I get all my books from Amazon, but I believe you can do other sites with some extra computer knowledge I don't have. The price is down quite a bit. I recommend you check the Amazon site under Kindle books to see the range of prices and browse book titles. I love the free samples. I will never give up the library, but the Kindle is great: traveling, any time of day or night, ease of use.

I bought my life-long friend one last Christmas. At the time she wasn't even using her computer much, but I just knew with the right incentive...

She absolutly loves it. She LOVES it. She has about 400 books in her eLibrary; a lot of them were free. She downloads newspapers, too.

I thought the eBook prices were cheaper than the regularly-priced books. You'll have to check Amazon to see.

She loves how easy it is to bookmark her books (she usually reads three at a time) to easily pick up where she left off. Also, you can sort them by author, title, type, etc.

I have a kindle and have enjoyed it, but I sometimes read "real" books since our local bookstore has some bargains in hardbacks and paperbacks. Kindle is nice because it is compact. Sometimes I wish I had the bigger one. There are books available for free from Amazon (mostly religious or romantic). If you get a kindle, when you shop on Amazon look for the Kindle "bestsellers" because the free or cheap books are often "bestsellers"--along with the real bestsellers--and you can look through them.

Most books run $9.99 to $12.99 from Amazon. But some are less.

You can get a skin and cover to personalize your kindle. The Sony's look nice too, but I haven't looked into them too much.

If you want to read or ask more, go to kindleboards.com. Bunch of real kindle-lovers over there for sure! I think there is a forum there for e-readers other than kindle.

Let us know what you do and how you like it.

Thanks very much for your input. I am trying to decided between a kindle and a nook. I guess with the nook you can download e-books from our library network. I like that fact. But there are more features that I like on the kindle. I'm going to head over to the kindleboards now and see what I can find out there.
Thanks again!!
Tammy

I read with an ebook reader program on my cell phone. I find lots of books for free either at the library or at Project Gutenberg.

Here is a link that might be useful: Project Gutenberg

I have had my kindle for a little over a month now. I love it! There are a lot of free books on Amazon. A lot of the kindle books are cheaper than the hardback or paperback by the same title. I took mine with me on vacation this past 10 days and ordered some books before I left and some while we were in ND. The Nook and Sony do not have the capability to read the book to you. Which I enjoy while riding in a car as I can not read while riding (I get a headache and sick to my stomach if I try to read while swaying in a car. My kindle books have cost me from $4.96 to $9.99. I still have a lot of regular books so I will be reading both.

Although DH and I are constant readers, we seldom buy a book. We use our library a LOT (for books and DVD's). What's the scoop on an ebook that doesn't require you to buy books?

I'm thinking that libraries will soon begin re-purposing a lot of shelf space.

Many libraries now allow you to "borrow" ebooks for a period of time. You need a valid card but you save on gas and time by downloading them at home.

WilliamsburgJane: The Kindle will READ the book to you? I never knew that! (Of course, I've never done a lot of research into it because it's not a gizmo I really need). So it's like having the book-on-tape version. Do you get the recorded-voice version along with the readable version, or do you have to specify which one you want?

Mickey: Click on a few titles in Amazon and each one will give you the prices of the different formats (hardcover, paperback, used, kindle...).

Pammyfay, actually what you do is order the kindle book (it states in the listing whether its audible or not, some are not, depending on the author or publisher I believe.) hook up your earphones to your kindle and your book is read to you. Most of the books let you choose whether you want a female voice or male voice. So it actually depends on the book, but the kindle has the capability to read it to you. Hope I am making sense.

I have an Ipad with the nook,kindle and apple reader, love it. It is also backlit so I can read in bed without bothering anyone. I love all the free books available. I like that with the Ipad I have Internet, my pictures, tv, movies, games, everything but a phone and camera. Can you tell I love it?

Another iPad addict here!

Hubs and I each have a Kindle, and we both love them! We are both avid readers, so our Kindles get a lot of use. When we travel, we always take books with us, and the books that Hubs reads are generally hard-bound, so bringing three or four of his books along makes for a heavy and bulky carry-on bag. But our Kindles will hold at least 1,500 books (each) in a nifty device that weighs about 8 ounces.

It's so easy and convenient to have the Kindle with you at all times. If you have to wait at the doctor's office, you aren't stuck reading really old magazines that aren't of any interest to you (sorry, but Field and Stream isn't on my "must read" list); if you're stuck waiting for the bridge (in Sacramento, we have the Tower Bridge, which goes up/down, and the I Street Bridge, which turns) to allow river boats to pass, you've got something with you to read to pass the time (waiting for the I Street Bridge is at least a 15-minute wait), etc.

When you're reading a book, and you turn off the Kindle, when you turn it back on again, you're right where you left off. If you leave that book and go to another, when you return to the first book, you're right where you left off. You can add your own notes/annotations.

You can subscribe to magazines and/or newspapers, and they'll be automatically downloaded to your Kindle. You get a free 14-day subscription to the newspapers and magazines, to see if you want to continue with a paid subscription. (You can even get international newspapers!)

Now, I'd like to respond to a few things that were written above:

"Yes, books cost the same as in store. if the book is available in paperback- paperback price."" Not exactly correct. To tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, the cost of Kindle books can vary widely. Some books actually do cost a little more in the Kindle edition than they do in a print version. But that's relatively rare. Most books are significantly less expensive in the Kindle version, and most of those are less expensive in the Kindle version than in the paperback version. There are a huge number of Kindle books that are $9.99, there are a lot that are more than that - depending on the cost of the print edition; and there are a whole lot that are less than that. Some Kindle books are free (all of the old classics are, but many new ones are, too); some are $1 or $2, some are in the $4 to $7 range, etc. I recently purchased the following:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - $6.77
The Girl who Played with Fire - $7.59
The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - $9.99

By the way, those prices are the same for the Barnes & Noble Nook.

"You can share books/magazines with up to 6 other Kindles or PC's. PC app is included." Yes, you can "share" books/magazines with up to 6 other Kindles or computers, but only if those other Kindles are registered to the same account. My husband and I each have a Kindle, but mine is registered to my Amazon account and my husband's is registered to his Amazon account. We cannot share books/magazines between our Kindles. The PC app isn't exactly "included" when you get a Kindle. You can download - for free - the Kindle application for your computer/laptop, BlackBerry, MAC, Android, iPad/iPhone; but, again, your content will only show up in your account so you can't transfer it to a Kindle registered to another account. But, I can take our laptop and read anything of my husband's just by going to his stuff on it. :-)

If you read a few pages of any book on, say, your BlackBerry, then you go to the Kindle, the Kindle will be automatically set to where you left off reading on the BlackBerry.

"Back-lit for easy reading, even in direct sunlight -- only reader with this feature." Yes, the Kindle can very easily be read in direct sunlight. Absolutely not correct that it is backlit. If you want to read your Kindle in the dark, you will need an accessory light for it.

Regarding text-to-speech on the Kindle -- it is not available on all Kindle books. But, when you look at the description for any of Kindle books, it will tell you if the text-to-speech is enabled. So, if you have a book with the text-to-speech feature and you want to use it, you simply press the Aa key (this is the one you use when you want to change the font size). You will then get a window which, in addition to allowing you to change the font size as well as the screen orientation (portrait to landscape), allows you to turn the text-to-speech ON, and you can also select whether you want to use the default male voice, or the female voice. You can also accept the default speed, or make it faster or slower. There are little speakers built in (look at the bottom of the back of the Kindle), or you can plug headphones in (port is on the top). You can adjust the volume level by a toggle switch on the upper right side of the Kindle. When you are using the text-to-speech feature, the "pages" of the book are automatically turned.

You can also load MP3 songs on your Kindle and listen to them, but I haven't done that because if I want to listen to music, I'll use my MP3 player...

Ebay at one time had free books for ebooks that you could download. They were listed as 98 cents, but were free. I don't know if they still offer them. The Pandigital Novel that is talked about on the help forum thread is a lot more than just a reader. You can go on line, put music and photos on it. Any one interested needs to read the whole thread. I printed it out because I have been to busy of late to even turn mine on. I got mine BB&B with a price comparison from Walgreen's plus a $20 rebate and 20% off coupon from Bed, Bath and Beyond.

I would be a little wary about downloading books on CD's or files from eBay. Should copywriter material be found on them, you could be held accountable and fined. This has happened to those who downloaded machine embroidery files from eBay.

Thanks you again everyone for all your input. We've decided on getting a kindle for dh and I to share.
Thank you!!!

You will love it! But, starting saving your money, because sooner or later you're both going to want your own!

RU getting the new model? I understand it is quite an improvement. I can see one each in your future.

The "latest generation" Kindles were just released on August 27. As far as I know, that's the only generation you can purchase now. You have your choice of the 6" screen, or the larger DX model, and each model comes in either wireless or 3G wireless (global). If you get the wireless model, you have to be in a wireless hotspot in order to get onto the web or Kindle store. With the 3G wireless (global), you can be just about anywhere, including 100 different countries. The latest generation now comes in two colors -- the original white (really more of an off-white), and charcoal.

The latest generation 6" model holds 3,500 books, which is an improvement over the 2nd generation (which hubs and I have) that holds 1,500 books. But, really, neither of us has any need to have more than 1,500 books with us at any one time!