Does anyone have an Amazon Kindle?

[paranoidmother]

Dh gave me a Kindle for Christmas and I have managed to get a few books via Amazon.com although a few authors are not signed up for this yet.

Doe anyone have any hints or tips on using a kindle.

So far I love it and am thrilled to have one. It's meant I will be able to take loads of stories with me everywhere as I can get through a book an evening sometimes if there is nothing else to do.

Ty

Rosin that's what was wondering myself to will just load up at home or on holiday.Us there s lust of titles I can look at while I'm waiting so get done idea of what's available

I read anything other than mills and boon and horror anything else is fair game even back of ceral packets when desperate

Mine has the 3G. I probably wouldn't have thought to need it, but DH loves a gadget, and he bought it for me as an anniversary present.

If I were only using it at home, the 3G wouldn't really be necessary. As it is, I travel a lot for work and the 3G just makes everything a hell of a lot easier. Highlights - delivery of the Telegraph, Spectator and Economist when staying in a factory 'guest house' in the wilds of Indonesia (no wifi, but I could get a 3G signal!). And then, coming back from the USA as all this snow started, my flight was diverted to refuel when Amsterdam airport was shut down while they cleared the runways. Sitting on the tarmac at Dusseldorf airport, I was able to find and download the next volume of the fantasy series I was reading. We sat on the tarmac for 3 hours, and I eventually got home at midnight, so it really saved my sanity that day.

I find the paid-for books generally good, although picture quality is not wonderful (black and white, not terribly clear) so I wouldn't use it for a book where the pictures are important. Some of the free books are pretty poor - mostly because the indexing for chapters and so on is not done. The Economist has done a good job of producing a Kindle edition, but both the Spectator and the Telegraph seem to just do a text dump, with no pictures and the text interrupted by their captions. That said, the Economist is a lot more expensive.

One last point - the Kindle cover has been linked to some problems with random rebooting and crashing here. I have had some of these problems, although not as severe as some. This is apparently not an issue with the version which has a built in reading light.

Love mine already.

I bought a cover with a light from Ebay for £15, free postage - miles better than £50 on Amazon! Fits perfectly, light is clip on but I won't use it often so don't care. I'd rather be £35 better off! And it's purple leather, and Amazon don't do purple :)

I got a kindle this Christmas too, and think its fab!

I was worried about paying a lot for books as I usually get mine from Tesco (3 for a £10 for example) from charity shops or from my library.

However,I've found some chick it for less than £3 and one for 69p.

I'm also a fan of reading in the bath, so I don't know how I'll cope unless I start taking showers instead ( without the Kindle of course )

ok im convinced have ordered mine , i want it now ;( .

sensation i shall hae to buy books as i like to read in the bath to but not very often i get chance to

I also got a kindle for Christmas and I love it! The page turning doesn't bother me at all. The only negative thing about the kindle is the price of books - the newer ones aren't much cheaper than printed books and you can't shop around either.

I too got a Kindle for Christmas but was concerned about being tied to Amazon and the price of ebooks. Just wanted to say thanks to this thread for giving me a heads up about Calibre.

While researching, I have found this very useful article helps to explain about Calibre and converting files.

You can get legal free PDF ebooks (just Google "free PDF books") and convert them via various bits of freeware if you Google "convert PDF to Kindle". I would not of course advocate obtaining pirated PDF books here (ahem) .

I wonder if Mumsnet could do a Kindle users thread...? I do still love "real" books ... I come from a family of booksellers and it's in the blood.

Life Of Pi free on Kindle here www.freestuff.co.uk/go-lifeofpi

sorry, www.freestuff.co.uk/go-lifeofpi

It is very, very easy to find pirated ebooks online that can be converted into Kindle-compatible format (.mobi) using Calibre. This is not legal and I'm not recommending it. But there are sites where you'll find every book you ever want for free.

I am very concerned that I should accidentally view one of these pirate websites ....is there anyway someone could give me an idea of their names or what to google to get up to date fiction books (and not crappy pseudo science books)

Ebay

I wouldn't pay for someone else to download things that you can do for free. It doesn't make it any less illegal.

I haven't bought anything off Ebay for my Kindle as yet though I know plenty of people who have. I do feel a bit uneasy about it not being fair to living authors.

However - We have a bring and take library at work. We pass books around between friends. I buy books at the charity shop or second-hand shop. A "real" book is a concrete object that can be treated thus - but someone originally has bought it and the royalty paid. I would be more comfortable if I was able to share or obtain e-books by similar means.

I got one for XMAS LOVE it though never thought i would say that! I bought some e books from waterstones and have loaded them onto the putter but have trouble putting them onto my kindle!
grr pitty as they look darn good....

he link I added is free from Amazon

I'm not interested in reading pirate copies of books. If you want to read the latest things and can't afford to buy them, then go to a library.

If you want publishers and authors to continue to produce the fantastic quality they do in this country and others, don't expect to get it for free.

My kindle should be arriving today.

I am getting a tad impatient

I got one for christmas which was a real surprise. Loving it so far. Don't think it will replace 'proper' books especially as I like keeping most that I buy but definitely for things like holidays and quick reads it'll be great.

Only drawback is the lack of a light otherwise it would be perfect for reading in bed without dh nagging me to turn the light off. Will have to look for a case with a light now !!

I got one from DH for my 30th birthday - lovely suprise . I've only downloaded free stuff so far, mainly classics but some newer titles seem to be randomly available for free from time to time too.

I don't think it's going to replace paper books entirely (nothing beats browsing in a second-hand book shop) but it should certainly help stem the growing tide of books which had been taking over our house!

I find it really easy to use and after a while, you almost forget you're not reading paper. Definitely plan to download many more books this year.

Just a quick thanks so much to kitty1980 for the heads up on Life of Pi free ... I read and loved it.

So glad to read about the kindle cover issue..... my (christmas) kindle has been freezing and jamming since I got it, and I couldn't work out why. Will now take it out of its cover, see if that fixes its current freeze and return the cover....

So glad I found this thread, thanks so much!

I've got one and I love it.

Crashed a few times but I downloaded the latest software update and its been fine (and the pages turn faster) since.

I've downloaded loads of books I wouldn't have read otherwise, and filled in loads of gaps in my reading.

I still read paper books as well. It won't replace them, it's just a different way to read.

oh and I read it in the bath much to DPs horror.

Also, if you flick the switch and hold it in the on position for 20 secs until the green light flashes it reboots it, which seems to solve some of the crashing problems too.