So, would my 75 year old mum like a Kindle for Christmas, or not?

[MerylStrop]

She's an avid reader
She's ok with text messaging and internet usage
She's always wanting to get rid of things, so this would kerb the massive influx of paperbacks from charity shops
She travels by train a lot and a kindle's lighter than a hefty book, yeah?

OR
Will it ruin her charity shop book-buying hobby
Will she end up having to spend loads of money on ebooks or is there lots inexpensively available?

Have you asked her? My Mum's 73 and my sister and I bought her one for her birthday this year, at her request. She loves it. (And she can't text).

I think she will love it. There's plenty available cheaply, I seldom pay more than a couple of pounds on a book, and even when I do, it is cheaper than new paperbacks.

Buy one . Lots of free and cheap ebooks available. My dm similar age and would n't be without hers.

The only reservation I have, based on what you've said about your Mum, is That I'm wondering how she chooses her books ie. does she enjoy browsing the shelves of books in the charity shops, maybe choosing a book based on its interesting cover or because a name or title catches her eye etc.

If so, would she miss this with a kindle?

If I ask her she'll say oh don't spend any money on me etc etc
I've bought her the modest things she wanted. Next year we will be skint. This year I'd like to manage something nice for her.

I bought my mum (younger, but sounds just like yours - lots of travel, reasonably tech savvy) a Kindle. She goes away a lot and hates carrying big bags, so used to go without a book to save space .

She uses hers a lot, but really only when she goes away. She still buys books from the charity shop and uses the library, but she loves it for travelling. I think, to date, she hasn't actually paid more than £1 for a book - she's working her way through the huge number of free classics available. As she said, there's enough Dickens, Trollope, Austen and Bronte to keep her going for several years!

She does read some terrible stuff though. This would prevent her having a houseful of dreadful books.

Another vote for yes here - my Dad is a huge fan of his (70 in April) and mostly downloads free books from the many many sites set up for this, try: www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Free_Kindle_Books

My dh is 76 and I am 68 we both love our Kindles.I'd go for the paperwhite version :)

I'd say yes. A family friend who is a complete technophobe loved her kindle. Also when her eyesight was bad she could just increase the text size!