eReaders

[Sowa]

Does anyone have one? What kind and what do you think about it? I'm thinking of getting one. One reason is my room has poor lighting and only one wall socket (so no room for more lights) I'd really need something that has a light. I've been trying to do some research but it seems tablets are the only ones with lights and people seem to give them bad reviews.

Any info?

[caseysmom]

I have a Kindle and I love it! The case has a light. Hubby recently had to go to the ER and then had a two day hospital stay, I had the foresight to grab my Kindle, they wanted to keep his room dark and I sat in read for hours and hours, would have been pretty bored without it.

You can go to amazon.com and there are tons of free books for the kindle.

[happylabs]

The Kindle is awesome. I love that I can always have something with me to read and if I am done with one I can get online with it and get another book. I take mine everywhere. I am not sure about the no light thing though.

[Sowa]

I have a Kindle and I love it! The case has a light. Hubby recently had to go to the ER and then had a two day hospital stay, I had the foresight to grab my Kindle, they wanted to keep his room dark and I sat in read for hours and hours, would have been pretty bored without it.

You can go to amazon.com and there are tons of free books for the kindle.

Which Kindle do you have? I think I read somewhere they don't come with cases or even the plug, you need to pay extra for them.

[caseysmom]

My daughter received it for a gift and never used it so she let me use it, one of the nurses in the hospital pointed out the light on the case to me, I didn't even know it had one, she said the case I have is pretty pricey.

I think the Kindle fire has a backlight, mine is a basic Kindle.

[pomtzu]

I have the Kindle Touch and I love it. It does not have a backlight, and I have not heard good comments from people with readers that do have one. It seems that the lights produce a very annoying glare on the screen. I simply bought a clip-on LED reading light for around $10, and that solves the issue when I want to read at night without leaving the bedroom light on. There are also many inexpensive covers you can buy for it which is a wise idea - I think mine was about $12. The Kindle comes with a USB cable, so all you do is plug that in to your computer to charge it - and a charge lasts a very long time. I got my Kindle for Christmas, and after the initial full charge which took a few hours, I have only charged it once again, and according to the charge meter reading, it still had a lot of time left on it. And I do quite a bit of reading, since I just finished my 9th book on it yesterday! You don't need to buy a plug for it unless you would want to charge it by plugging into an electrical outlet if you didn't have access to a computer, and it needed to be charged.

[Alysser]

My mom has the Kindle Fire that we bought her for Christmas. She loves it and hasn't complained about the backlight yet.

[Vette]

My brother got me a Kindle for my birthday. i freaking love it but i dont have the best lighting in my room an find myself tilting an turning my Kindle at certain angles to capture the light just right. my Kindle came with the plug an USB thingies with it.

gunna break down an get one of these soon: Mighty Bright (http://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Bright-XtraFlex2-Kindle-Version/dp/B002CMLDT6/ref=cm_cmu_pg__header)

[sallyandsnowx]

I recieved the Kindle Fire for Christmas and I LOVE it. There's a good backlight. If it's late at night, I'm able to use it in the dark and see perfectly. There are plenty of free books on amazon.com you can purchase for it. You can also tell your family and friends to buy gift cards for the kindle to buy books. They would probably make good Christmas/birthday gifts for you! ;) You can also use the internet and surf the web. And there's plenty of cool apps, ranging from games to the weather and local news, you can download as well. I love the kindle, I would recommend it. :)

[pomtzu]

gunna break down an get one of these soon: Mighty Bright (http://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Bright-XtraFlex2-Kindle-Version/dp/B002CMLDT6/ref=cm_cmu_pg__header)

This is the one that I have, and it works great. It's plenty bright enough with just using one of the lights, instead of both. Well worth the money IMO.

[caseysmom]

Thats what I was using before I realized my case had a light. The built in light in the case is way nicer, I had issues with the other one.

[Sowa]

How does buying books work? Do I need a subscription with Amazon? I was confused about a review I read. Said something about paying a certain amount to access certain books or something, and if you pay more you can get it add free. They were vague about it and I'm really confused what this means.

[pomtzu]

How does buying books work? Do I need a subscription with Amazon? I was confused about a review I read. Said something about paying a certain amount to access certain books or something, and if you pay more you can get it add free. They were vague about it and I'm really confused what this means.

All that you need to do is set up an account with Amazon, and if you get a Kindle, register it with the same account # so that they are in sync. There is no charge for this. Then you can "buy" or load free books into the Kindle. They have thousands of free books too, and most of the 30 books that I have loaded so far have been free ones, or 99 cent ones. There is no limit to the amount of free ones you can load, and sometimes I just go thru and see what interests me, and load them for future reading. The price of the books can change too. You might see them as free for a while, and then look a few weeks later, and the same book has a price on it, tho usually not very expensive - a few dollars at most. I love having a huge library at my fingers and accessible 24/7!

[caseysmom]

Link to free books.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/digital-text/ref=pd_zg_rss_tf_kinc_digital-text_c

[Sowa]

Ok, I just found out that I can't get the Kindle Fire in Canada. Well I suppose I can, but I won't have access to the online stuff I guess. Sucks, because I was thinking of getting that one.

Thanks for all the info. I'm still unsure which I want to get!

[Varga]

I have a nook color (which I happen to be using to type this reply). It's basically a tablet and I use it just as much for web surfing as book reading. It's good for both things and it's backlit so you can read comfortably in a pitch black room. Outside in the sun it can be a bit tricky to see the screen but I bought this foil or whatever that you stick on the screen and that makes reading outside bearable.
One of the very best things, in my opinion, about the nook is that I can watch movies on it. That has really come in handy when on a plane for hours and being too tired to read to fight the boredom.

If you just want a device for reading however, I don't think the nook would be the best. Battery life isn't the best... probably 4-5 hours internet surfing on brightest setting. Just reading books seems to take less energy, so it probably lasts about double that if you read only. From what I know about the kindle, it has significantly better battery life (dont know about kindle fire though).

How it works with downloading boks is very simple. You have a "shop" on the nook where you browse books and by clicking on the book you like, you download it directly to the nook. The money comes from the credit card info you type in at the Barnes&Noble website. Every book has a price listed, so that's what you pay. There are also plenty of free books and those you get the exact same way, except no money is taken off your card. Every book also has the option of downloading a free sample, so you can read a part of it before buying.
I don't know for sure, but I imagine Amazon does it in a similar way.

[carole]

my son's fiancee has a kindle as well,just loves it, would never go back to reading books.

[Sowa]

I went with the Kindle Touch :) I got a lighted case as well. I'll let you know how it works when I get it.