reviews_and_ramblings

I would get the middle range Kindle, that's this one with free 3G and wifi
link (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002FQJT3Q/ref=s9_simh_gw_p349_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1DX8YM0DTKMFAFJN5AX9&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846)

Nothing else really compares for e-readers, and unless you're going to totally go for broke and get an iPad, the Kindle is the best bet. It's less glitchy than the Nook and the free internet access (for acquiring books anyway) is a sweet thing.

The Kindle reads pdfs and for there are converters out there to turn nearly any file into a pdf or some other readable format.

ETA: better linkage

Edited 2010-12-30 20:01 (UTC)

Thank you Kirby. No, I don't want an Ipad (not yet anyway) and so I'm opting for a "simple" e-reader. I will probably get the one you linked.

Kirby Crow's advice sounds good to me, Elisa. I don't have a Kindle yet, but I'm going to get one as soon as I can.

I have a Sony reader which I can't stand because of its screen, which is a flat reflective dull gray. Its side lights are insufficient.

I vastly prefer a backlit screen like a monitor and I'd rather read Kindle documents on my iPod. I don't even care about the tiny screen. Anyway, I'm jealous about your Kindle gift certificate, ha, ha! Definitely get one and tell us what you think.

it will be my first experience, I have also used a laptop, that is fine most of the time, but not when I'm travelling. Will let you know how it works.

I got a Kindle for Christmas -- It's my firs eReader, and I absolutely love it -- it's very very easy to use.

That is a plus for me Cassie, I hate to read instructions ;-)

I have the kindle - wifi but no 3G - and it is absolutely brilliant. I love how easy it is to use - downloading pdfs is very very simple, and buying books from Amazon is a one-click affair. One charge lasts a very long time, especially if you turn the wifi off, and it is very light and slim.

The only thing I have against it is the lack of ability to sort my books generally. You can set up collections, but if you don't use those it can be tiresome to scroll through 13 or 14 pages to get to an old story you've read.

Highly recommended and it was a real struggle for me to commit to buying one as I adore the look and feel of physical books!

I have a lot of print books, but nowadays I buy them only if I really want to have them signed or if I cannot find them in ebooks. Have really no space for more books and hate the idea of selling the ones I have.

Elisa,

If you have enough money on a gift card to get a Kindle then get the Kindle honey. Just think of it as a FREE Kindle and get it.

I personally do not think it is so great with displaying PDFs in particular but you can probably figure some way with some program to change those PDFs into a Kindle compatible format.

So all I am saying is I personally would so not worry about all that and just get yourself a FREE Kindle.

LOL that is a good suggestion. Truth be told I can also buy the equivalent in print books and continuing using my laptop to read, but I would also like a shiny gadget ;-) So probably I will get my free Kindle. Thank you!

Oh and another thing Elisa you so deserve a Free Kindle.

Due to all the Kindle links? ;-) I know I'm sending them people, but it's so nice to be able to access the statistics, my Economics degree really kick off with numbers...

Go with the Kindle. I have a Kindle and a Sony e-reader, and for the joy of being at an airport and thinking "I want this book" and HAVING it a minute later, it's worth it.

I use it a lot to annotate my manuscripts nowadays. Saves me a huge amount of printer cartridges.

Good to have an opinion from whom has both. Thank you.

I was thinking when I saw this that you also deserved a free kindle. Enjoy it and let us know what it's like because I've been mulling over getting one.

Will let you know ;-)

What I'm going to say might surprise you since I have a nook (Classic version, wifi only) : get the kindle.

For the record, I loooove my nook. In truth, I was this close to getting a Kindle. When you look at both ereaders, they've got similar features. That said, I liked the nook's aesthetics over the Kindle's. Seriously, it was a shallow thought what made up my mind and I've yet to regret plunking down hard-earned $$$ for it.

YOUR CASE is totally different as this would be a FREE Kindle. IIRC, Kindle uses MOBI rather than PDF or epub (like the nook). Download Calibre--which is, imho, the best ebook conversion program/ebook library out there.

About the only downsides to most ebooks is that you can't quite organize your ebooks (which is where Calibre comes in. Trust me.)

It might feel a little strange to read in your ereader at first, but I *know* you will LOVE it. :)

I have Calibre, never used it but maybe I will start now, thank you

How exciting, Elisa. Despite all the bad press Amazon gets - Go for the Kindle. You are going to love it. I recently closed my eyes and purchased the Kindle with the WiFi but no 3G (the step down from what you are looking at).

For me this was the best choice as to be honest, I only use it as a jump drive/storage device I can read off of. I have not yet even turned on the WiFi as I'm never near a hotspot, and this helps extend the battery life. So far I'm only converting my already existing eBook collection - not surfing Amazon for new.

Actually, the new Kindle doesn't even need the pdf's converted. They can be downloaded and read as is. But some of my older ones have ended up with some odd formatting on the screen. (Note: I've yet to try this with anything that's DRM secured).

A fun toy for your eBook collection is the free software program Calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com/). It has a pdf converter built in that's very fast and easy to use, the ability to sort, tag and make notes on all your eBooks at whim, and since you already have an extensive collection and you won't have the majority of your older books purchased at Amazon and "saved" by them, the ability to simply download your entire library into another eReader or Kindle down the road without having to reconvert or tag anything.

Another fun bit of free software is MobiPocketCreatorPro (http://www.mobipocket.com/en/downloadsoft/productdetailscreator.asp). This is another conversion tool, which has a lot of bells and whistles you don't need to worry about. Just know you can easily convert Word docs, HTML docs, Txt docs, and PDF's as well to read on your new Kindle.

I actually convert using MobiPocketCreator, import the books into Calibre and sort and tag to my heart's content and then download to the Kindle.

Take the plunge and enjoy yourself. It's so much fun to go back to reading on the couch or when traveling *without* a laptop.

I went with a Nook three weeks ago (yeah, mine was free, too), and am taking notes on advice offered here, such as Calibre. I own a ton of PDF books, and find that reading them is difficult on my Nook because of formatting issues, such as two-party dialog being blended into one paragraph, and you can't tell who's talking. Also, sentences may be broken in half, with second half appearing two lines below, or worse, sentences scrambled out of order. I only knew this because it was a well-loved, much loved file I was reading at the time. If I'd been seeing it for the first time, I'd have been totally lost.

Congrats and enjoy your "free" Kindle. Be sure to let us know how you like it.

I downloaded Calibre some weeks ago don't remember exactly why. It seems quite an easy software to use

What do you convert the PDFs to to get them to look 'normal' for the Nook? I have been using ePub, but I still have the odd splits in dialogue/paragraphs.

To Elisa: Enjoy your free Kindle :D

Yes, that is what I'd like, to be able to read ebook, whenever and wherever I'm, and not having to worry for charging the laptop...

I'm gonna be the different one. *^_^*

Personally, I prefer the Sony eReaders over the Kindles. I don't like Amazon's business practices, so the less tied to them, the better, IMO.

I'd recommend the Sony PRS-650 (which you can buy through Amazon.) It's got a touchscreen, but no wireless capability. You need to hook it to a computer to put books on it-- cuts down on the impulse buying though! It works with Calibre too, so that's a great tool to sort and organize your books. And you're not tied to the Amazon store for purchasing books, which is always a plus for me. I think no matter what you get, you'll love it. I have yet to see a single person regret getting their ebook reader.

Edited 2010-12-30 23:43 (UTC)

I was wondering, that is a bit over the gift card I have and if I buy it in Italy it's even worse, and I have also to consider the shipping cost. Will ponder for a day or two. Thank you

I do think you'll enjoy whatever ereader you get.

If you haven't checked it out, there's a forum just for ebook lovers at mobileread.com/forums. They've VERY helpful and nice and they even have a thread solely on choosing the right ereader. It's a great place to learn more and ask questions.

Thank you again, I will check it.

I also have a 650. I love it so much! :)

I don't have any of the e-readers, so I can't give advice. I would like to through something out there though - a netbook. I know it's not an e-reader and it's a bit bigger, but I think I've moved passed wanting an e-reader in favour of a netbook (when money is available). Some of the netbooks have 8 hour batteries (probably a bit less than that). You can also, obviously, do other things besides reading.

Maybe I'm way off base, but I've thrown a netbook into my considerations.

Tossing in my two cents about netbooks (or at least the one I have). I wanted something that I could take to bed and read/play on, but the thing gets so hot on the bottom because there is no fan that I am afraid of it overheating. I might just be overly paranoid, though ;)

That happen also with my laptop ;-) I have a special cuscion for it, but I don't use it often.

I don't blame you for worrying. Maybe you should ask someone about that.

My niece keeps her laptop elevated, propped up on two pieces of wood to allow air between the base of her laptop and the TV tray she sits it on.

LOL, I went on a presentation saying that the netbook is a middle way between an e-reader and a laptop and covers most of the function of both. Good choice if you don't have a laptop. But I have it, so buying a netbook would not be a good choice for me. But thank you for the suggestion.

I have Sony Reader - LOVE IT!!! I hear the new Kindles (with the wifi) are pretty cool. I like that i can read my Amazon books on my Droid too. I can't read them on my Sony but that's okay, it's great for PDF files. Good luck and congratulations on the Kindle!

I haven't still bought it, but I think I will. Thank you for the enthusiasm it will help me on deciding

I love my new Kindle, Elisa. And I'm not really a tech savvy person, but I'm having a whole bunch of fun.

I, too have most of my books in PDF format and it's been wonderful (and easy!) to convert them to the Kindle. The best thing is that I can title them whatever I want (helps a lot with series books) and then transfer them.

Highly recommended.

Good to know that it's easy to use.

Premetto che non posseggo un Kindle ma un Sony Reader da un bel po' di tempo -ancora un vecchio PRS 505 - e posso dire che è uno dei migliori acquisti che ho fatto, quindi posso parlare di un ereader in generale. La tecnologia E-ink permette di leggere come su carta e a differenza del mio laptop, posso leggere per ore senza avere problemi agli occhi.
Avere un free 3G sarebbe veramente comodo ma non so quanto sia utile in realtà qui in Italia.
Le dimensioni mi permettono di averlo sempre in borsa per cui ogni volta che c'è un po' di tempo - il treno in ritardo o aspettando i bus o non so che altro - apro la borsa e accendo.
Quasi tutti i lettori di questo tipo hanno una buona batteria - ecco, forse il 3G la farà durare meno.
Il Kindle è un dispositivo che mi attira molto - al tempo del mio acquisto però era disponibile solo in america - e ha un buon potenziale. A te potrebbe tornare utile il poter fare annotazioni.

Grazie Lisa, a questo punto visto che viene praticamente gratis, penso che lo prenderò

My first reader was a Sony 505, which I had for a few years. When the new Kindle 3 was announced, I pre-ordered it. I had it for about a month before I sold it in order to get another Sony, this time the new 650 Touch. The main reason I switched to a more expensive device was organisation. I am terribly OCD about organising my ebooks, both on my laptop and on my reader. It's not unheard of for me to carry around a few hundred to a few thousand ebooks and other files at a time (I read a lot of fanfiction on my reader as well).

With the Kindle, you can sort your books into collections, but unless you use an outside program, such as Kindle Collection Manager - which can be a bit cumbersome - you have to sort your books one book at a time directly on the device. This isn't a big problem if you don't carry around a ton of books like I do. Since I do carry so many, I went with the Sony because you can organise your books into collections from Calibre via USB. It's as simple as clicking "Send to Device" and all your books are neatly tagged and sorted. I love it that way.

Like I said, this kind of thing probably isn't a big deal to your average user. If this type of uber-organisation isn't something you're concerned about, I do recommend the Kindle 3. It's light, lovely, and probably the most user-friendly of the devices I've played with. You can instant-buy from the device, which is also very nice if you're one of those readers who sees something new and Must Have It NOW! lol

For myself, I don't regret changing from Kindle to Sony. I'm very happy with my 650 Touch. Since I don't use Windows, I can't buy from the Sony store, so even if the 650 did have WiFi or 3G (which it doesn't), I wouldn't be able to instant buy anything while on the go.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy your new reader!

I was looking to the Sony Ereader before receiving the gift card, but now I think the "free" factor will weight a lot on my decision ;-)

Yes, free is awesome! :)

I got me the 6" display WiFi kindle back in September and I've loved every minute of it. I don't even use the wifi. Just as a reader and mostly I buy pdf's.
It's small, light to carry and easy to read screen.
I carry it with me everywhere. Bus daily commute, reading in bed. By this point it is necessary to me now.
Plus I love the fact that I never need to turn it off (has a screensaver after about 15 mins idle) and it needs a recharge about every two weeks!!!

One more thing. My advise is get it from the .co.uk store site. I made the mistake of buying it from amazon.com and then had to pay customs (about as much as it cost in addition) for it to enter the eu.

thank you, those are all positive tips for me

I have the Sony and I think it's much better with the kindle you can only use amazon,and need them to convert other formats. With the Sony you can buy from anywhere.

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Kindle