Kindle Help Needed

Now that Kindles are pretty inexpensive, I am thinking of buying one. There is one for $114 (without global access) for $114, if you don't mind the special offers appearing on the screen saver and possibly elsewhere (but not when actively reading). I am totally clueless about Kindles, since up until now I have thought "why bother?" Here are my very basic questions:

Our next cruise is to China. Do I need to buy the global Kindle to be able to read in a hotel and on Viking, or can I buy books in the U.S. and download them before I go?

Does anyone know if the Kindle's global access will work on the ship, especially in China? When we last cruised on Viking (on the Rhine) the internet on my laptop was pretty good, especially when I sat up top on the ship (less so, but still good, in the cabin).

Will the Kindle work on an airplane, assuming you've already downloaded a book?

Can you use that wireless to do anything other than connect to Amazon to download books?

If you scan things to pdf, you can download them to Kindle, right? What about Word documents?

Is the selection of books on Amazon for Kindle pretty good when it comes to travel books? I browsed the China book section a little, and it seemed good but not great.

Are the "free offers" really annoying, or unobtrusive? I think the Kindle without the free offers is only $25 more, so I would probably get that, but just curious....

Thanks!

Hi,

I don't have a Kindle, but I do have a Nook, and some of the answers are the same. You'll be able to read anything you've downloaded before you left home. I know I can't download to my Nook when out of the country, not sure about the Kindle. Yes, you can read on the plane...if you've already downloaded a book. Anything you download is available at any time. On the Nook, there is a special "airplane mode"...probably for the Kindle too...remember how they always announce "Shut off all electronics?" As long as you are in airplane mode, you'll all set.

If you haven't yet bought your Kindle, you might also want to look into the new Nook (I have the previous 3G model). Most public libraries in the US have downloadable books, and at this point, you cannot download those free library books to a Kindle. Amazon has announced that this will change later this year, though.

I always thought "no way" as to e-readers, but taking at least 1 book per day for every day I'm on vacation got ridiculous...and I do love my Nook.

Good luck with your decision!

Well, five minutes ago I went on Amazon and ordered the basic (but latest) Kindle for $114. I liked the idea of downloading books from the library onto a Nook, but found the variety pretty limited, at least in our library system. In the end, I just decided to go with the cheaper option (Kindle) and be done with it, as we just spent a big hunk of money on a cruise, and I should probably be watching my spending a bit!

I don't do a lot of book reading, but since we travel often, I figured it would be a great thing to take along instead of taking library books (which are a pain since you have to bring them back home) or buying paperbacks to read and leave if you're trying to reduce you luggage weight. It's disappointing, though, that Amazon doesn't seem to have that many travel books in e-book form. I'm also a little surprised that the price for e-books seems to be kind of high, considering that no printing is involved. However, admittedly, I'm a little spoiled, as I currently get most of what I read from the library, which is free!

Anyway, thanks for the info! We're traveling to China in the fall, and I know I'll especially love the Kindle on those long flights...or maybe on the deck of the Viking Emerald as it sails through the Three Gorges!

I too have a nook and bought it so I could download library books.

I took the nook loaded with library books on my last cruise and I was happy as can be.

My only suggestion is once you download a book, either library or purchased, open it on the e-reader and page a one or two pages. Then the nook really knows the book is on your reader. Not sure why I had a problem but 1 book I "purchased" via Free Book Friday offered by Barnes & Noble before I left I couldn't open until I got WiFi access again.

Also on planes even though I've put the nook on "airplane mode" I was still told to turn it completely off which I do. Once at 10,000 feet I turn it on.

There is a new nook coming out with no bells and whistles (which you really don't need). You might want to check that out too.

Enjoy what ever you get. I'm hooked on my nook.

I think you'll be thrilled with your Kindle! I certainly relate to your comment about purchasing vs. library books. It is sooo tempting to just download any book I want instead of waiting for the library's...and I'm a librarian! And I find the cost of most e books just so ridiculous when there is no printing involved. Even though most e books are about 1/2 price of a hard covered book they are still too high.

I LOVE my kindle!! I got it for Christmas from my kids and I wasn't sure I would like it--I like books. But, the kindle is so handy and light. I downloaded several books before we went on our trip, and so I was able to read during the long flight (especially home as the France airport security took my knitting needles!!). I will warn you to turn off the wifi connection when you are reading as that really drains the battery. When I arrived, my kindle was so dead I was worried, but it did recharge in the hotel in France with my converter. I think I will look into the upgraded converter next time as our electronics all did not hold much of a charge, but the kindle worked all the way home.

I did not try to download anything in France. It probably would have been in French, and that would not help me. Just download what you want here before you go. The kindle holds LOTS of books!!

I have been very happy with the variety of info available from Amazon, and so far, I have not paid the bookstore price for a book I have purchased.

Have fun with it!!

My wife and I have owned our Kindles for over a year. Prior to the Kindle we were always packing books for our trips...no more. As long as you download your books prior to leaving the States you will have no problems. We have read our books on airplanes, on a ship to China, in China, and all over Europe without any problems. Just make sure the books you intend to read are on your 'active' list, not in your archives...I'm not sure you can active an archived book when you are overseas. Happy Reading!

We were on a cruise for over 3 months and wanted to have newspaper delivery. Using Amazon, we got a subscription to NY Times (one of many offered) which had 2 months free. I cancelled at the end of our trip, so it was not costly. In addition, I paid $4.99 a week for international access. This still was a lower cost than our home delivery subscription.

As I have the Kindle with 3G, whenever we passed the smallest island, I was able to get an easy download via satellite automatically by turning on the wireless function. When at sea, I simply logged in to the ship's internet and used a total of 3 minutes to download.

I do not recommend travel guides on the Kindle. That is the one type of book that you are constantly leafing through during a touring day, and that's just too impractical on the Kindle.

If you happen to own 2 kindles (his and hers), I hope you are using one account on Amazon for both. Download the books you want to read to Both kindles, because if one of yours breaks down, you can still borrow the other spouse's kindle and have the books you like. On a trip to Europe last year, my Kindle broke down and at the time my husband didn't have one--didn't have the guide book I had downloaded and had to borrow books to read during the trip.

And finally, I agree with other posters that it's important to download books prior to leaving the U.S It's just less expensive.

Thank you for the tips. My husband loves to read the paper every day (Washington Post) so maybe he'd like to read the paper on my Kindle every day, if the Post is available.

I have a feeling I'm not going to download travel books for now, as the selection seems a little limited (at least in terms of the issue year, and I like books that are updated frequently), plus the flipping back and forth consideration that you mentioned. But if nothing else, I will have several fiction books to read, which will reduce my luggage weight a little bit! I'm also planning to send some travel documents I've scanned to my Kindle account so I can access them.

Mabe get the larger one for your husband

I love my Kindle and with the 100 top free book listing on Amazon have found and read many authors that I hadn't heard of before. Try the free books, you never know what you might find and enjoy.

Remember that if you have an iphone you can access everything from your kindle on your iphone. There is a free Kindle app for the iphone. Both devices are in sync so you can switch back and forth and each device knows where you left off. I am finding that I am reading a lot on my iphone.

Also, if you have a kindle and your husband has an iPad, you can put the kindle app on the iPad and both of you can read the books.

I love my Kindles! My DH bought me the 3G/WiFi version for my birthday last year and this year he started downloading and using it everyday while I was at work. When the $114 one came out I purchased it so I could separate our ebooks and get a chance to use it.

We will be taking them on our "Castles on the Rhine and Danube" cruise this fall along with the guide books I purchased BK (before Kindle). I do find regular guide books are easier to use than the electronic version. I am currently reading "Rick Steves- Postcards from Europe" on my Kindle.

Not using the Kindle for tour guides is a good idea. A hint from Rick Steves that I found helpful is to cut out the pages for the country/city you are interested in and just pack those. I will admit that it seemed odd, but worked just fine. This works well if there are many destinations in one book. Obviously, if you are in Rome and the tour book is solely about Rome, then pack the book! <g> Often the cruise ships have travel books in their library as well.

Now that Kindles are pretty inexpensive, I am thinking of buying one. There is one for $114 (without global access) for $114, if you don't mind the special offers appearing on the screen saver and possibly elsewhere (but not when actively reading). I am totally clueless about Kindles, since up until now I have thought "why bother?" Here are my very basic questions:

 

Our next cruise is to China. Do I need to buy the global Kindle to be able to read in a hotel and on Viking, or can I buy books in the U.S. and download them before I go?

 

Does anyone know if the Kindle's global access will work on the ship, especially in China? When we last cruised on Viking (on the Rhine) the internet on my laptop was pretty good, especially when I sat up top on the ship (less so, but still good, in the cabin).

 

Will the Kindle work on an airplane, assuming you've already downloaded a book?

 

Can you use that wireless to do anything other than connect to Amazon to download books?

 

If you scan things to pdf, you can download them to Kindle, right? What about Word documents?

 

Is the selection of books on Amazon for Kindle pretty good when it comes to travel books? I browsed the China book section a little, and it seemed good but not great.

 

Are the "free offers" really annoying, or unobtrusive? I think the Kindle without the free offers is only $25 more, so I would probably get that, but just curious....

 

Thanks!

The only reason to use a Kindle rather than other ebook readers is to download books, magazines on the go; otherwise, just load up a few from internet before you go; on-board connections are notoriously slow; chances are you won't have as much time to read as you think. Downloading a tourguide book is an excellent idea - they include contacts, prices for events, restaurant recommendations, etc. All your reading needs fit into one. I have a sony touch e-reader and love it, especially the ease of turning pages. It is solid and has excellent capacity, sharpness, and long battery life. It will also play music or audio books, podcasts. Best of all the books from a variety of sources are 1/3 the price of list prices in stores. I've downloaded 42 books since Christmas, some of them for free.

.....

If you happen to own 2 kindles (his and hers), I hope you are using one account on Amazon for both. Download the books you want to read to Both kindles, because if one of yours breaks down, you can still borrow the other spouse's kindle and have the books you like.

Just wondering if you have to pay for the book twice in order to have it on both kindles, or is one purchase good for the two?

My daughter and I love to share books, but I don't want to lend her my kindle. I need it! :D

Thanks!

Jacquie

Just wondering if you have to pay for the book twice in order to have it on both kindles, or is one purchase good for the two?

My daughter and I love to share books, but I don't want to lend her my kindle. I need it! :D

Thanks!

Jacquie

 

Every Kindle account covers up to 3 Kindles. My husband and I share many books.:)

Orchestrapal, Can you explain how to put two Kindles on one account? I have a Kindle and DH has the Kindle app for the iPad. I would like to cancel my account and put my Kindle on his account so we can share books but I can't figure out how to do this. Thanks for your help.

Does anyone know about how it works to place audio books onto the kindle? DH wants to buy me one but this is a big question we have. I have many audio books that I have yet to open. I really enjoy having books "read" to me, so to speak. I have been using a a cd player but would love to get a kindle if we could place them onto it easily.

Thank you for any info you can provide.

Orchestrapal, Can you explain how to put two Kindles on one account? I have a Kindle and DH has the Kindle app for the iPad. I would like to cancel my account and put my Kindle on his account so we can share books but I can't figure out how to do this. Thanks for your help.

Open your "Manage My Kindle" page and sign in then click on "Register a Kindle" on the left hand side of the page.

You can then register your husband's to your account and share all books.:)

If you have purchased the books through amazon.com or audible.com, they will show up in "Your Kindle Library" under "Your Account: Manage your Kindle". Find the book on the list of purchased books, then click "Actions" on the right hand column. The pulldown menu should show all your registered kindles and iphone. Simply click and later sinc your iphone or kindle and it will appear

If you have purchased the books through amazon.com or audible.com, they will show up in "Your Kindle Library" under "Your Account: Manage your Kindle". Find the book on the list of purchased books, then click "Actions" on the right hand column. The pulldown menu should show all your registered kindles and iphone. Simply click and later sinc your iphone or kindle and it will appear

Actually these are books I already own but have yet to "read". They have been purchased at walk-in bookstores or Costco. DH wants to buy me a kindle but I keep saying no because of the cost. I am not very good with things like this although I do have an iphone and enjoy listening to audio books from it when traveling so that I do not have to drag my cd player along. He is trying to find out if it is possible to load the audio books I already own (that are not on the computer) onto a kindle and if so how hard it is to do that. Found it is not possbile to load them onto the iphone, only books purchased via Itunes can be loaded onto the phone. Any help will be really appreciated as it will play into our decision making process. I know I am making this sound complicated but as I said for me it is, he is the smart guy in the house.

Actually these are books I already own but have yet to "read". They have been purchased at walk-in bookstores or Costco. DH wants to buy me a kindle but I keep saying no because of the cost. I am not very good with things like this although I do have an iphone and enjoy listening to audio books from it when traveling so that I do not have to drag my cd player along. He is trying to find out if it is possible to load the audio books I already own (that are not on the computer) onto a kindle and if so how hard it is to do that. Found it is not possbile to load them onto the iphone, only books purchased via Itunes can be loaded onto the phone. Any help will be really appreciated as it will play into our decision making process. I know I am making this sound complicated but as I said for me it is, he is the smart guy in the house.

Why not call Amazon and ask them????:confused:

Why not call Amazon and ask them????:confused:

I was hoping to get input from folks who have a kindle and might have direct knowledge. Amazon.com typically reads from a standard response list if you can actually get someone on the telephone.