Kindle

[cloweman]

I am facinated by the digital reader by Amazon and I think I'm going to get one for xmas. Does anyone have any experience with the Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FI73MA/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=2192951021&ref=pd_sl_20wgx685w_e) or any other digital reader? My wife found a coupon for $50 off and an unused gift card for Amazon for another $50 she got from work last year. I'm thinking it will be worth it for $100 off. If for no other reason than all the clutter I'll save between newspapers and book shelf space. Plus, the convenience of being able to take it anywhere is also appealing.

[North Country Dad]

My MIL has one and loves it. She says it's easy to read and saves a lot of clutter. She's a big reader. I haven't talked to her lately, but if I do, I'll ask her the pros and cons now that she's had it for a while.

[Bjorn74]

I've had a Sony Reader for two years. I bought one for my wife's birthday and then the next month got one for myself. I do like it quite a bit for particular situations. When we're traveling and I'm not sure what I want to read, I can load up several options and choose when I feel like it. It was priceless at the gym where I could set it on the elliptical machine, plug in an earpiece and listen to music, read a book and get through 40 minutes of monotony. It has also been nice to have at night. It works with a nightlight better than any paper book since the light always stays focused on the current page.

The general down side is that the books aren't really significantly cheaper. I read someone's slashdot comment that a textbook's list price was $199 on Amazon and $120 with the Kindle, but then he saw that Amazon's price for the book was only $12 more. It's much more a play for convenience than savings in my experience.

What I don't like about the Kindle is the wireless access built in. I can tell you for sure that the reason I read books is to stay offline. Give me a chance to be online and I'll ignore everything else around me. I know many other people with this same problem. There are just too many things to get lost in. I want my eBook to be just a book. It should do that well and give me things that go along with books, music being a good option. The Picture Slideshow on the Reader is another thing I like that doesn't get in my way. A keyboard and web browser is just too much.

All that said, I haven't bought a book for the Reader in months. Things are tight right now and our weekly trips to the library make it obvious that getting the same books at the library just makes a lot more sense. At least until I start going back to the gym.