Request E-Book reader suggestions

[Steve]

Am thinking of looking into an ebook reader for my mum as her local library is closing in a few months but need to hear of suggestions of good/bad ones

Also, where best place is to get free/cheap ebooks to download for the reader (seems new books are just as expensive as buying a hard back copy (I remember some time back hearing that e-books should be cheaper than hard back books). If they are not cheap then may as well buy the hard back version and not bother with e-reader.

Any info from anyone with e-reader would be helpful as do not want to purchase one for her and then find out it is rubbish or new e-books are going to cost as much as a hard cover version.

 

[charlie senator]

I use my ipad with Kindle on it so i'm not too clued up on ebook readers but we have an ebook section here

http://www.digitalworldz.co.uk/ebooks.html

 

[HappyH]

Kindle for me. Books can usually be found for free if you know where to look. Check out the ebook section here on DW to see a sample of what's available.
HH.

 

[oneman]

e-ink readers do have an advantage over tables in that they are generally easier on the eyes, battery lasts longer and they can be used in sunshine.

As for books, as happyh mentioned plenty of free ones and even libraries are now offering ebook download service.

 

[Steve]

Thanks for everyones thoughts on the matter.

Seems am going to have to think of something else as books my mum would likely read are going to work out almost as much as buying hard/paper back version.

 

[Rumpelstiltskin.]

Theres not many ebooks you cant get for free if you look in the right places.

 

[Steve]

Theres not many ebooks you cant get for free if you look in the right places.

Have seen some on torrent sites but do not have access to those (no idea how all of that works)

 

[Rumpelstiltskin.]

Give us a clue what books she reads etc. Author and title please.

 

[Steve]

To give a few authors .. titles couldn't tell you which ones she has not read as she has a long list of titles she has read.

Some authors she reads:

Mary Higgins Clark
James Patterson
James Pattinson
Lee Childs
Quentin Jardine
Danielle Steel
Josephine Cox
M.C. Beaton
P.D. James
Jeffery Deaver
Katie Flynn
Simon Brett

There are more but that might give you something to work on ?

 

[hatab]

some Jeffery Deaver books to get you started there are loads about, if you need help with getting more then just shout, there are many who can help you setup.

 

[Rumpelstiltskin.]

You can get them for free def.

 

[oneman]

To give a few authors .. titles couldn't tell you which ones she has not read as she has a long list of titles she has read.

Some authors she reads:

Mary Higgins Clark
James Patterson
James Pattinson
Lee Childs
Quentin Jardine
Danielle Steel
Josephine Cox
M.C. Beaton
P.D. James
Jeffery Deaver
Katie Flynn
Simon Brett

There are more but that might give you something to work on ?

If you have access to usenet / newsgroups then I have books by all of them on my indexing server.

Someone like astraweb costs $10 for 25GB of downloads which as you can imagine would cover millions of books.

 

[Captin]

If you need some ebooks for free, just give us a PM m8 and I'll give a log in to my FTPas I have around 120,000 ebooks now in MOBI (kindle) and EPUB (nearly every other reader) formats.

 

[edogg]

Am thinking of looking into an ebook reader for my mum as her local library is closing in a few months but need to hear of suggestions of good/bad ones

Also, where best place is to get free/cheap ebooks to download for the reader (seems new books are just as expensive as buying a hard back copy (I remember some time back hearing that e-books should be cheaper than hard back books). If they are not cheap then may as well buy the hard back version and not bother with e-reader.

Any info from anyone with e-reader would be helpful as do not want to purchase one for her and then find out it is rubbish or new e-books are going to cost as much as a hard cover version.

there are loads of free ebooks available from the Guggenheim project point the kindle browser at this address PG Mobile
http://m.gutenberg.org/

 

[Steve]

ok, appreciate everone's replies but the more I look into this the more am going off Kindle.

Anyone have any thoughts on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 tablet - 10.1 inch screen (I know more expensive) but might be a bit more suitable as mother isn't able to see all that clear and so larger screen may be better as appears can get an app or something to read ebooks ... or am I wrong there ?

Can the Galaxy Tab 2 tablet be used to make phone calls as well (am seeing places that say it can and others that say it can't) ... any thoughts on that as well ?

 

[oneman]

There are draw backs to using a tablet a e-reader.
- Difficult to use outside
- Some people find the screen tiring
- Battery life
- More complex to use

You can get kindle app (and others readers) for android and apple tablets.

And the Tab2 cannot be used a normal phone, AFAIK there is no sim slot. However you can use it for skype and make phone calls that way.

 

[Captin]

I have the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 inch and much prefer reading books on my kindle. The Tab 2 is about 3 or 4 times the weight of the kindle, and because of the size makes it really hard to hold comfortably for reading.

The font size on the kindle can be changed from really small to really large.

I can only use skype or similar to make calls on the tab 2 as it is wifi only.

 

[Steve]

Thank you oneman and Captin .. both helped there and rep'd you

ahh .. yes .. the weight factor .. forgot the most obvious.

trouble with kindle is that I believe can only read one book format whereas tablet can read multi formats ??

 

[HappyH]

Thank you oneman and Captin .. both helped there and rep'd you

ahh .. yes .. the weight factor .. forgot the most obvious.

trouble with kindle is that I believe can only read one book format whereas tablet can read multi formats ??

Stick Calibre (free) on the computer you transfer the ebooks from & it'll convert them from whichever format they're in to a suitable format for your reader. Most of the authors you listed are readily available.
I'm a big believer in using a dedicated ebook reader for reading books, I used to use an Archos tablet but found my eyes getting strained. Use a kindle now & no problem.
HH.

 

[hatab]

trouble with kindle is that I believe can only read one book format whereas tablet can read multi formats ??

other formats are not a problem, many dont use app to put data on kindle but for ease of use i use Calibre it will convert virtually all formats into what ever format your kindle will read. the kindle will natively support
.AZW (Kindle-specific) .txt .mobi and .prc


calibre supports the conversion of many input formats to many output formats. It can convert every input format in the following list, to every output format.

Input Formats: CBZ, CBR, CBC, CHM, DJVU, EPUB, FB2, HTML, HTMLZ, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, SNB, TCR, TXT, TXTZ

Output Formats: AZW3, EPUB, FB2, OEB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, HTMLZ, PDB, PML, RB, PDF, RTF, SNB, TCR, TXT, TXTZ

It does this on the fly as it uploads from your pc to the device.

we have two kindles a keyboard V3 i think and Mrs has a fire HD (tablet) tbh for reading books i love the keyboard version battery lasts about a month its lite and i can read it anywhere.