Banner Sponsors
For artists and collectors sponsored by Intercal...your mohair supplier and Johnna's Mohair Store
Fulrfun BearsI am looking at an Amazon Kindle and wonder if anyone out there in bear land has one that could let me know what they are like. Any advice good or bad would be appreciated.
YES! I have 2 and I love them!!! I don't have a Kindle - I have an Ebookwise 1150 and I also bought a Dell Axim X30 Pocket PC to use as an ebook reader. I went this route because they were much less expensive than either the Kindle or the Sony reader.
I set up a blog for what I use: http://ebookwise.blogspot.com/
I learned a TON from the Mobile Read forum - be prepared.. there is a TON of information there. Not only are there a bunch of different ebook readers, there are a bunch of different ebook formats - and so ebook programs to read those different formats. (I have a post on my blog listed above on how to easily convert most ebook formats to read on the ebook readers that I use.
Here's the Mobileread forum: http://www.mobileread.com/
I forgot to mention.. I don't think the Kindle is available in Australia! Be sure to check out the forum I mentioned.
Hi Clare
I and my other half both have Sony e-readers. We love them. We often spend weekends away and it means not having to take bulky/heavy books with us. Also, you can alter the size of the text, so if your eyesight isn't what it used to be, you can make the text larger (a big plus, in my case)! It is easy to download books and there are loads of free ones (out of copyright) around as well. They aren't cheap, but I had given up trying to read in bed because of the strain on my eyes. Probably the best gadget I've bought in years.
Regards
Sue
Bubble Up Bears!I have 2 Kindles. One for me and one for my daughter. Can't live without them!!!
I literally ran out of room for my hardcover books. My library has over 1000 hardcover books so I though a Kindle would be a good idea. I have had mine for 2 years and have over 400 books down loaded and have read many of them. I also get the LA times newspaper daily and have several magazines on the Kindle too. I have never had a single problem with it functioning. It works perfectly and has from the moment I took it out of the box!! 
I absolutely love my Kindle.
I'm thinking about getting the new generation Kindle.
Bubble Up Bears!As of October 19th 2009 the Kindle 2 is suppose to be available to Aussies!
That's great news about the Kindle being available in Australia! Amazon does have great prices on their ebooks.
Bubble Up Bears!Laura my daughter is learning disabled and has never really been able to read very good but when I bought her a Kindle 2 years ago it was like a "light" went off! She is constantly asking me to down load a book for her. Her latest book is Precious. It's a movie too but she is reading the book first.
Puts a smile on this mothers face!!
I tell you it has been a blessing in my home to own the Kindles. :pray:
And Amazon makes it so easy to read. Order a book and with in 10 seconds it's on your Kindle ready to read.
Love it!! Love it!! 
That is simply wonderful!!!!!!!!!! Wow, what a whole new world has been opened up for her I do agree, the Kindle is the easiest ebook reader to load with books. I think it's great that they are finally selling it outside of the US, & lowering the price too!
Bubble Up Bears!I have never really checked out any other e books but Sony and it was nice too but the fact that Amazon made it easy to read within moments is what made me go for it. I buy a lot of stuff on Amazon and have been very happy with them. I'm glad the price has come down too but I still had a problem with paying $300 hundred for it 2 years ago but then my husband said something. He said "if you can pay $300 or more for a teddy bear what's the fuss paying $300 for an e book!?" He did have a point. 
Fulrfun Bears:crackup: Love it! my Christmas wish list has been lodged with a Kindle at the top of the list I guess I could call it a Kris Kindle <groan>
Chaska, MinnesotaQuestion about the kindle...once you buy a book to read, can you keep it? I have heard of them before and am curious about them too...
Most definitely! I do have some books I like to re-read 
Bubble Up Bears!Oh yes! They are yours to keep.
I have read The Red Tent 3 times on the Kindle.
Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)What is the situation for bumping and (horrors!) the eventuality of dropping one of the ebook readers, whether out-of-your-hand or while it's in a tote bag or in a purse?
That's one of the things that's holding me back and staying with uploading from our Library book collection on MP3 / CDs and Aubible.com.
Bubble Up Bears!Amazon had a video clip showing the Kindle being dropped. I don't know about other readers but I have dropped mine and my daughter has stepped on hers!!(I told her not to put it on the floor!!!) and everything was a OK. However I wouldn't recommend stepping on it as I was sure it was ruined but to my surprise it did OK.
I have all of my ebooks backed up onto my computer just in case. One of my ereaders is very tough though
Bubble Up Bears!I do too Laura and I think it's a good idea because you never know. Besides too if it's stolen you'll have them on the computer to read until you can hopefully get yours back. My daughter left hers on the bus and I was sick over it. But a nice lady found it and turned it over to the driver and she got it back.
Kids!!!!!!!! 
OMG!! Boy was she lucky :dance:
Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)Well that's good to know that they're pretty tough.
And that the books are backed up just like having everything in your main Library in iTunes.
Hmmmm.... I still like the idea of being 'read to' however, i.e., having put everything on the iPod has it on a much smaller machine which goes into my pocket or clips onto my waist, because I am then hands-free.
I use it when working, when working-out, when driving, when falling asleep (with the timer).
It's basically on me 24/7 unless I'm in the shower or it's recharging.
I still read 'real' books, in fact have several going at once, so an ebook would help out this situation, but that's still more costly than my self-set price of purchasing at Amazon Used (paperback) books..
Don't mind me while I sit over here musing to myself, weighing the options.
Like everything else—the first hand calculators over $125 and VHS machines for $1200—both of them now priced at less than 50¢ and $75 to start, with time - this technology too will come waaaay down in price.
But I'll probably be too feeble by then to hold it steady enough to read from one, though!!!
(and my iPod 'takes a licking and keeps on ticking'....)
