e books

Has anyone ever taken a e book on board and how did they find it compaired to a normal book?

My husband takes his, actually he takes it everywhere, just in case. Onboard the only complaint I have heard is re the sunshine blinding the screen, and him having to either move position or place some type of shade over it. Much the same as the glare on a mobile phone or digital camera.

Jen

I used mine on our recent South American cruise. I have an Ipad and download the books from the Kindle store. It is great to use other than as Jen has said, when the light hits the screen. Much better than carting books with you.;) You can also get some good free books on Kindle.

Drelix, Liz,

We use freebookspot as well for free downloads, up to date and reliable.

Jen

Has anyone ever taken a e book on board and how did they find it compaired to a normal book?

I take my Kindle with me everywhere! I've had it with me on two cruises now and I find it's an excellent way to read, specially if you're like me and tend to be reading a few different books at the same time. If I wanted a new book I could buy one almost everywhere we went. Books used to take up a lot of space in my luggage; not any more :)

The Kindle's screen is designed to be very much like paper so you generally don't get the problems with glare that you do on a laptop or smartphone screen - I can read the Kindle in places where my smartphone is useless because of glare.

As far as physical reading is concerned, I was a bit horrified when I first picked up my Kindle because there's so much less text on the page than on most paper books. I'm a very fast reader and I thought I'd be spending all my time waiting for pages to turn. Not so, the pages turn really quickly and it doesn't interrupt my reading at all. Some people say they miss the physical feeling of holding a book but this hasn't been a problem for me.

There are a few possible downsides to consider:

• if you read the sorts of books where you need to be able to see colour to make sense of them, the Kindle isn't going to be much use - there's no colour
  
• same for books with large illustrations - the amount of zoom it can do is limited
  
• Amazon won't sell Kindle books to an Australian unless the book is licensed to be sold here. I presume the other companies who sell eBooks are the same. And, although I've always been able to find good books to read, there's also a frustrating number of books that I'm simply not allowed to buy for the Kindle - even though Amazon would no doubt ship the paper book to me without question!!. There are slightly dodgy ways around this, but if you'd prefer not to do that sort of thing it might be best to look at the stores selling eBooks to make sure you're going to be able to get the sorts of books you want.
  

Hope this helps!

Owning both an iPad and a kindle in the same household I would recommend the kindle over the iPad for reading books.

As sandysu was saying the creen is much more friendly as it is not backlit, actually uses a thing called eInk so the battery is only used to display the ink and you get about five weeks of battery life. However if you read at night I would strongly recommend an iPad or at least get the light and cover for the kindle.

It's a bit of a muchness really, the iPad is a device that will allow u to do multiple things, I.e import pictures from ur camera as a backup at the end of each day, books, games, Internet etc. Whereas the kindle does books. If u were just after something for reading go with the wifi kindle and u will not look back. If u want something fun, get the iPad ( I am actually sitting in bed nice and warm making this post)

Thank you for all the thoughts on them.

Thank you itachi for the idea about the Ipad.

I will look into it I just wanted peoples opinion.

Luvs my Kindle :D Rarely get to read it when I'm away as I'm usually too busy :p But it sure beats dragging paperbacks with you when you don't read them either ;)

My DH and I love our Kindles. We have the 3G Wifi model which has internet capabilities. It is in the experimental stage at the moment but it works, I checked my gmail in the airports when I was bored.

I take my Kindle with me on a cruise - the last one was Sydney to Beijing - and it worked just fine. I was able to download a couple more books during the voyage using the Amazon 'one click' system. Downside? The screen isn't backlit so you might need extra illumination in the dark although I think the larger Kindle 2 (?) does have a backlight. Otherwise, remember to turn your WiFi OFF when not in use because it chews up battery power. Oh and don't forget to take your charger! There is also the frustration for Aussies not being able to download all the books at the online Kindle Store. I think it's a copyright thing?

If you've never used a Kindle (or any other kind of eBook) it does take a while to get used to as it's a different way of reading with no actual pages to turn; you click a button instead. But the benefit of being able to take literally dozens of books without the weight more than compensates. I don't think I could ever go over to 100% Kindle but for travelling it's an absolute 'must' if you enjoy reading.

I looooove my ebook reader and wouldn't be without it on a cruise. I spent months deciding between a Kindle and the Sony Touch, and after careful consideration I finally chose the Sony. (Although I am sure I would have been just as happy with a Kindle).

The Sony also uses eInk, but it also has a touch screen, so you can turn pages and make menu selections by touching/swiping the screen. It also has the benefit that you can buy/download ebooks from just about anywhere and the sony will read them. (It reads a wider range of file types than the Kindle).

The only drawback is that it doesn't have internet connectivity - although I personally have never really found it a draw back. You download books to your computer and then sync your library to the reader. I have soooo many (free) ebooks on it that I doubt I will read them all and today I just downloaded another couple of Agatha Christie novels from Project Gutenburg (10,000's of free ebooks on that site).

I bought a cover with a reading light for reading in dim light. It is also an mp3 player and has an SD Card slot so you can keep your library/music on an SD card.

I found it took a while to get used to reading using an ereader, but now I am used to it I love it. I also love that I can buy a book from the comfort of my couch and begin reading within minutes of downloading it!

Incidentally, I also have an iPad, and I wouldn't really consider using it as an ebook reader unless I need to see sharp pictures/graphics in colour.

Cheers,

Carina