Thanks.

Since November I have not purchased any physical books other than horticulture and knitting books that are not available on Kindle and I wouldn't want them there anyway because they are more like reference books.

The only drawback to my plan for saving money with the Kindle is that I like reading on it so much that I've been getting the Kindle edition for books I already own.

I would never have expected this to happen but between the Kindle and audiobooks I'm "reading" more books than ever without actually touching the real thing, and I don't miss it. This is from a bookaholic who used to sit on her books as a kid to keep a little sister from touching them.

One day, "global" companies like Amazon will actually behave in a global way, and realize there are markets outside the US.

I have a couple of web sites which are affiliated to ABE books, so that I earn a small percentage if people purchase books via my site - helps with the hosting fees. ABE have just changed their affiliation company. I used to be paid by direct bank transfer into my UK account - immediate payment and minimal fees. I now get sent dollar cheques, as the new company cannot transfer into non-US banks - long postal delays and significant fees. How hard can it be to make an electronic payment into a UK bank? I'm so impressed by this, you can't believe....

OK, rant over.

I wish I could afford a Kindle, but until they lower their price, it's just too much for me. (Seeing Frances' note.) $359 is the reduced price?! Jeez. The idea is becoming more appealing though, as I try to find room for yet more bookcases.

Rosefolly

There is an architecture of books as surely as there is one of buildings. When you read a book, you enter by its cover, but you live within the spatial environment that its pages throw up around you. You inhabit its margins, whether commodious or cramped; you ambulate among the serifed glyphs of the typography; you respond to the climate of the page, pure white or mottled beige, and even negotiate the textured terrain of the paper itself, whether it be the alabastrine smoothness of bible stock or the porosity of wood pulp.
James Gardner.

I too will probably end up with a Kindle or its ilk someday, and with the adjustable font I can see the benefit it would serve for my aging eyes....but I love the feel and smell and being of books.

Carol

-high cost
-limited sources of downloads
-limited reader file types

Some unknowns that would interest me:
-battery life between charges
-cost comparison between the Kindle and a laptop
-possiblities of expanding the file types supported
-"handieness" compared to a laptop ie. hard to hold?

Regards,
Bob

The battery life depends on how much you read, I believe, but I can easily go a week between charges, sometimes more.

The Kindle costs much less than most laptops but the laptop is much better at doing more than the Kindle. You hold a Kindle more like a book while the laptop is generally sitting on something (a table, desk, or lap). However, you can also prop the Kindle up in front of you without having to hold the pages open, a great advantage for me.

I don't consider the Kindle and the laptop to be the same. I don't want to read a book on a laptop and I don't want to use the Kindle for Internet access, although it does provide that capability to some extent.

I admit to often being an early adopter of technology, probably because my career has been in the computer field and I'm comfortable with technology. But I have to say that I've enjoyed the Kindle much more than I even expected to enjoy it.

It is not lit from behind and is very easy to read in sunlight or under an overhead light. I just tried mine out in the sun with my sunglasses and it was still easy to read. You cannot read it in the dark without a light on the screen, just like a book.

Mine does not make any noise.

By any chance are there newspaper or magazine subscriptions you can buy? I'm thinking of my parents and inlaws, who do not read a great number of books, but do read other media, using a magnifying glass or an enlarging machine, and are having vision issues. The adjustable print might be a great feature. Although my father-in-law doesn't have a computer or internet-but I could bring the thing home and download every few days, I guess. They only live 5 miles away.

If you have a few spare moments, could you post a link or two to the Kindle user groups, so that I could do a bit more research?

Thank you,
Bob

I'll let you know what I think once I've spent some quality time with the machine.