E-Book readers forum: E-book choices, oh my!

It's a good question, but there's no one right answer. It's a matter of what kind of books your grandmother reads. If they are basically just text with no pictures, then any of the standard e-book readers (Kindle, Nook, Sony, etc) will do the trick. They are all easy to use, have variable sized fonts (very important for older eyes), long battery life and are as close to reading on paper as you can get.

By the way, don't let anyone persuade you that an e-book reader is exactly like reading a book on paper. It's not, because flipping forwards or backwards or referring to footnotes or endnotes or references is never as easy with an e-book reader. For most people this is not an issue, particularly if you want to read novels, but it's another point to take into account. I have a Kindle, but I also read books. What is great about an e-book reader is that you never have to be without a book, particularly if you buy the 3G option giving you access to the store from wherever you are.

If the books she reads have a lot of colour illustrations or photos, then a tablet of some sort would probably be the best option, but they're harder on the eyes to read and battery life is very low compared with e-ink readers (and they're much more expensive). If price is an issue, perhaps wait and see what the Kindle Fire looks like.

There's just one more thing that you need to take into account and that is whether your grandmother's preferred reading is available for the device you are thinking of buying. Most popular books will be available for most devices, but if her tastes are not mainstream, you may find that the books she likes are only available for a limited number of devices. Take a look at the books she's read recently and check their availability for the device you are interested in - that may be a deciding factor ultimately. Unfortunately, e-books purchased from well-known stores often have DRM (digital rights management), which prevents them from being viewed on competitors' machines. A really useful piece of free software to check this is Calibre - it's a bit like iTunes for e-books. If you enter the title of a book you're interested in, Calibre will check all the main e-book websites for availability and price and it will tell you if the file has DRM. Calibre will convert files to the format of your particular device, but it cannot do that for files with DRM.

Hope that helps - sorry not to have given a clear-cut answer.

I love my Kindle and IPad

To combat the concerns people have re the theft of the kindle and potential abuse of their Kindle Account use I use an O2 Money card which is a pre pay visa card and transfer money to it when I want to make a purchase. Ditto for ITunes

Kindle best for long reading sessions and travel excellent battery life and light weight,
I pad for entertaining myself at home short reading sessions mixed with some browsing and game play

I recently purchased a color nook about a month ago and absolutely love it!!! Both user guides are loaded on the device so the info is there and you can even bookmark info for future reference. It was fairly easy to set up the Barnes/Noble account on the device yourself and if need be, you can call a rep and have him/her stay on the line and walk you through the process. I researched all readers for several days and also went to several stores (Staples, etc.) to physically play with the various devices prior to purchase to get a sense of device, how it felt in my hands, etc. I had also thought of a tablet but many have phone plans and I refuse to go down that road.

I have enjoyed the color e-reader tremedously, do not regret the purchase, download and read free books, for now, play chess constantly, listen to Pandora radio, search the web, check e-mails, etc. Haven't loaded files or pixs yet but those things are not why I got it. Device fits comfortably in my hands when using it no matter where I am (subway, park, at home, etc.) and if you buy a certain style carrying case, you can set the device in an easle style and balance it on your legs/lap while reading.

Remember, any new electronic device will require a learning curve - computer, digital camera, cell phone, etc. and be smart about safeguarding device when using in public like you would with any other device. My suggestions: a) once you determine what your needs are for the device, find a product that fits your needs based upon your criteria and price point; b) if you are concerned about security, set up a password and lock it.

Hope this helps.

She wont even know what the Hell anything is that starts with an "E"! ;\

Kindle uses e-ink and does not have a light (unless you buy one separately)

I just bought a Kindle for my husband, and I have a Nook Color. We are both in our 60s. I wanted the color feature so that I could play games; read magazines; and upload kid's books in color for our grand-kids. I love my back-lit Nook, and find it does not strain my eyes at all. Most of our kids and grand-kids have Kindles that they all seem to love. My husband finds the Kindle keyboard easy to navigate, and that was one of the deciding factors in choosing it for him.

I'm 68 and have been spending anywhere from 8-16 hours/day reading and writing on CRTs and back-lit LCDs for the past 20 years. I've never had headaches or eyestrain. When I read a book on an ebook reader, however, I want it to be on my Kindle 3 with free 3G (I live in Taiwan and free wireless is limited, and when it's available, it's often because someone has an unsecured wireless router operating in the neighborhood. I don't want to steal their wifi connection). E-ink is so much better than a back-lit screen, and the Kindle is terrific! I would probably prefer the Kindle Touch because of the not terribly easy-to-use keyboard on the Kindle 3, but I rarely use the keyboard. The Kindle 3 great for reading books, but not for using the Internet. Maybe the next version of the Kindle Fire (if it has free 3G) will be the perfect combination of semi-tablet and ebook reader with color and Internet usability. I can't use the Nook because B&N doesn't support downloads of any kind to people in Taiwan, but the Kindle can download books almost instantly in more than 100 countries -- all without connection charges. If your grandparents have a PC at home, they can download Calibre, a free program, that will allow them to recompile ebooks in most (if not all) other ebook formats into Mobi format for the Kindle, and then transfer the Mobi ebook from the PC to the Kindle. And whatever I buy from Amazon, I can read on any version of Kindle ebook reader and can have it on all of my PCs (desktop, notebook, and netbook) and Kindle at the same time. I can't say that the Kindle is better than another ebook reader that I've tried, because this is the only one I've tried. It's the only one that's worth having in Taiwan. Because most people don't like to read for more than 10 minutes on on a back-lit screen (that's what all my friends here tell me), an ebook reader without e-ink isn't a choice for them. The one thing I dislike about reading white pages with black print on my PC screen is the glare from the white page, so I always format the background as light green. It eases eyestrain. But that's not a problem with e-ink, so the white pages on the Kindle (and other ebook readers with e-ink) are almost no different from reading a paper book. Finally, it comes down to what your grandparents prefer, as is the case with most things. Some choices are made because of price, some because of politics, and some for other pragmatic reasons. It's really all about what works for the user. There isn't any "best ebook reader", just the one that I like best because I'm the one who uses mine every day.

E Ink Kindles are great as are the smaller, E Ink (non-color) Nooks. I like them both better than the Sony or Kobo. Also, does she have Wi Fi at home? If not, is she computer proficient enough to download books to her computer and transfer via cable (Kindle)? Does she live near a Barnes & Noble store (Nook), or a WI FI hot spot (both)?

All the color devices are back lit and that becomes hard on the eyes, especially older eyes. I love the iPad (though I find it cumbersome as a reader because of size) and the Color Nook, and will probably love the new Kindle Fire when I finally get to see it, but I don't love the color devices for serious book reading. The back-lighting gives me eyestrain after a while just as a computer does. E Ink technology is much easier for long periods of reading.

Now that Kindle has made books available to libraries the format argument isn't as important. I'm sure you want to surprise her but I think it would be better to find out from her if she'd be more comfortable with a touch screen or a physical keyboard. With Kindles you will have your choice of either. With Nook you have to go with touch screen as of this writing. Even if you have to spill the beans I'd let her choose. How are her hands? If she has arthritis it might make a difference as to ease of use. I just wouldn't go with the new lowest priced Kindle because it won't play audiobooks and doesn't have either a keyboard or a touch screen.

Being 71 doesn't automatically make you a techno-challenged geezer! What it does do is make it harder to see. E Ink is the way to go.

Kaitlyn: I have three Kindle readers and am planning on buying two more. That way everyone in the family can have one and access the same library. Amazon has really thought this one out and not just for their benefit. The Devices are very well built. The e- ink is almost perfect. (better than any books printing) The ease of use is proven by the fact that you don't even notice that you instinctively know how to use it. (You just pick it up and go) The downloads are seamless and fast, the choices are phenomenal. I have over 150 books in my family archive 50 of my own and probably paid 30.00. Of course I don't read best sellers, mostly older stuff. For anyone advancing in years with years like me the font change is simple and you can get letters big enough for those that are almost blind. All in all the quality of the product, the ingenious delivery system, the choice of books and the easy ability to read is unequaled. Now after all this good to say you can ask me about their customers service. Well it is unequaled by any online, offline or walk in business I have encountered. They are always there, always polite and they solve the issue. Dont even consider another e-book.

That's the key question in choosing an e-book reader.

For me, the increasing proliferation of devices is unacceptable. What good does it do to have a nice e-book reader if it isn't with you when you want it?

A lot of phones, like i-phone, like Android versions such as Droid X or Sensation, have sizeable screens. They read ebooks just fine. The Kindle for Android app is terrific. There is no need to actually buy a Kindle. Plus, you wind up with a nice phone that does a lot of other things too.

If you don't want a new and updated phone, with all they can do, I'd say the next closest convergence device would be an ipad or similar tablet. It does other things to some extent, and in fact in many respects it is just like some of the newer smart phones, just bigger.

The one thing I would say that you should NOT do....is wind up getting something that just reads ebooks, or primarily does that well. Ebook reading is very simple. It is not all that complicated. You don't need a dedicated device for it.

http://www.booksindex.eu
Free online books

.....I have had the second and now have the third generation Kindle - and as an avid reader, who wants nothing more than to read where I choose - it is perfect! I carry it everywhere and am not really worried about the access others have worried about because as soon as it is missing, I can go online and shut down my account with Amazon. (Their customer service is phenomenal too.)

I have something like 200 plus books stored on it so whatever I am in the mood for, I
can pick up. I don't use the internet access and wouldn't consider it "user friendly" - fingers crossed the one they just released is better. She can have newspapers and/or magazines delivered to it daily, it has read aloud option, fonts can be easily adjusted and there are even free versions of the Bible she can have. I do all my shopping on my laptop and have it sent to my Kindle - especially love the "sample" option. There are TONS of free books available also. Several websites are available that send an e-mail daily of the new free releases for Kindle and the Nook. I have my Kindle linked to our home computer network because some corners of the house does not receive a strong signal from Amazon (I believe it is Sprint) The battery is super long life - especially if you turn off the wireless feature. The cover with a light in it is worth the $45.00 for reading at night.

Kindle has frequently been rated as the best e-reader, in terms of speed and readability. It had one major flaw - it would not deal with the E-Pub format used for most Public Library e-books. That flaw has now been fixed, as Amazon recently introduced a way that Kindle can, in fact, deal with Public Library books.

The newest Kindle, due out in early November, can be had in a touch screen version, which costs $99 with advertising (Amazon calls it "Special Features") or $139 without advertising. It does have a speaker, so it is possible to listen to music as you read. Or you can use the text-to-speech feature (called "Read To Me") and have it read the book to you.

There is also a $79 new Kindle version (also with advertising), but it has no touch screen and no speaker.

I love my Kindle!

Hi Dermotw ~

I don't know about other readers but Kindle has a list of "100 best free" and they ARE free. Many of them would fall in to the genre you speak about. Go to amazon.com/kindle and check it out and I believe you will be surprised at the selection.

There is no way that I know of around the takeoff & landing situation but perhaps at that point you could read the magazine provided by the airline (or look at the items they have for sale).

Hope this information helps you decide. grammyannie