D (my wife) and I are voracious in-bed readers, so if we got only one then one of us would have to read a book the normal way.
So our economic situation dictates we wait until we can buy 2 (but not at $139.00 apiece!:))
Q
But you have to pay for a monthly plan. I didn’t get the wifi one, so the initial outlay is all I pay…I just use my regular Internet and download the books onto my computer (I want a backup, anyway).
Phones aren’t remotely comparable to anything else.
I got one about 6 months ago, used it daily for 2 months then tapered off and now have not touched it in about 6 weeks. It doesn’t make sense, because I have a bunch of books on it waiting for me, stuff I want to read too. I’m not sure yet if it was a waste of money, I might get back into it at any time, but having it hasn’t been life-changing for me. YMMV.
Moved from IMHO to Cafe Society
Start with the free kindle app for a pc. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000426311&tag=mh0b-20&hvadid=174967234&ref=pd_sl_2d1j0kr5yn_e
Once you’ve made the decision to get an ebook reader, consider the Barnes & Noble Nook Color over the Kindle. It can be easily rooted into a full Android tablet, onto which you can then install the Amazon Kindle app, giving you the best of both worlds (plus you can play Angry Birds on it when you’re not reading).
I was a hardcore Kindle user (having bought one of each generation) until I got my Nook Color a few weeks ago. The Nook Color completely won me over.
I bought a Kindle about 5 months ago and I love love love it.
Just the other day I figured out how to configure public library books to use on my Kindle, so now I love it even more.
It took me a long while to buy a Kindle, because I wasn’t about to pay $300-400 for one, but then they lowered the price quite a bit at the same time they came out with the 3rd generation, and I immediately bought one. I check the top 100 free Kindle books every day and I’ve gotten a lot of good books that way (and a lot of not-so-good books too, but who cares, because they were free).
I was one who didn’t see a huge point to using an ereader, but as it turns out, I love the built-in dictionary, the ability to buy or borrow books anytime/anywhere (I’m the kind of person who will suddenly decide at 2am that I really NEED to read about Subject X), the free samples available for all Amazon Kindle books, and being able to easily carry a bunch of books around. And I didn’t think I’d care about that last one, because I’d always been one to read just one book at a time, but now I find myself switching between different books much more often, but I read a whole lot more too.
Thanks to all for the very informative posts.
The information on gutenburg and baen was very useful. Looking through them has convinced me to get one!
Will be ordering it today! 
Not sure that the Nook is available/has full functionality in the UK.
What did you figure out? I thought library books were in the ePub or Mobi format with DRM, so they couldn’t be read on a Kindle. Does your library lend books without DRM, or are you stripping it?
Whoa - wait. Give. Details, we need details, man!
The husband bought me one for my birthday, and I love love love it. It’s really awesome. He sprung for the 3G version, and it’s been more useful than I originally anticipated. (And there’s no extra charges for the 3G version, either - the purchase price is all you pay; there’s no subscription after. Amazon’s eating that charge, apparently).
I was concerned about my new gadget getting expensive, because it’s so easy to buy books. One thing I’ve discovered is that Amazon sells gift cards pretty much everywhere, or you can buy one from their site. Now, I’ll treat myself to a gift card every once and a while (my Mom’s also bought me a couple, which is crazy awesome) and worry less about racking up a big bill - Amazon automatically deducts from the card balance first. And I’m always checking out free deals or picking up more classics.
I think I’m going to wait until actual Android tablets are fully ready for prime time and then install the relevant e-reader apps.
My city’s library books are in ePub format, but I downloaded Calibre (a free program), which you can use to easily convert a file to a different format.
Yes, I’m stripping the DRM (you need to also download a separate plugin for Calibre to strip the DRM, but let me know if you need help with that) but I just figure, if it’s meant to be able to be read on nook, why not Kindle? I’m not hurting anything by reading it that way. It took me a while to figure out how to do it, but now that I know, converting an ePub book takes just seconds.
Download Calibre and you have a much larger selection of newspapers to read than the ones available from Amazon, and they’re free. I have three Australian and one New Zealand newspaper downloaded automatically by Calibre each morning and they cost me nothing. Connect your Kindle to the PC and Calibre will automatically load the newspapers for you.
I’ll be your friend…
Could you elaborate on how that works. I have a Kindle and have downloaded Calibre on my PC. How do I get free newspapers? Thanks.
I got a Kindle 3G using gift cards I got for Christmas, and I love it. I definitely find myself reading more. The one thing I don’t like is that there aren’t page numbers on Kindle books. I belong to a couple book clubs, so a lot of the reading I do is for that and it’s hard to discuss a book with a group when you don’t have access to the page numbers. Not a huge problem, but a small con.
I like being able to sample the first chapter(s) and buy it (often for less than the book would cost) if I like the author’s style.
I like when I speak to someone and they say “you should really read XXX” I can download a sample right then before I forget the name of the book/author.
I like that I can be “stuck” somewhere (most recently the blood bank) with a boring book and have eleventy billion choices of what I can read instead.
I’m sure there is more, but those are the ones that jump to mind.
That’s what I do. I have a “Samples” folder where I keep the samples of any book I hear or think of that I might want to read. Right now I have 122 samples in it. Anytime I want to find something new to read, I have all kinds of options.
I just bought a Kindle for waiting in line at Sundance. I’ll just reiterate what every one else said.
The battery life is awesome. I hesitated at an Android tablet because my damn Android phone does not even last a day, which is a crock of shit. The eInk is pretty awesome but sucks in low light and mixed light (multiple point narrow beams) environments. I’m planning on using it while camping where power consumption is an overwhelming consideration. The browser is worse than useless. The 3g book download is awesome. So far, all I’ve downloaded are classics from Gutenberg, but I will buy a few books from Amazon. The lack of a touchscreen sucks as does the user interface.
Nevertheless, I’m going to buy an Android tablet once I hit the price performance ratio I desire. The Nook looks intriguing because it’s eInk for low power and is based on Android and is supposedly rerootable.