A friend has been in and out of hospitals and assisted care facilities for several months. It really sucks. Today, she mentioned that she wished she had a laptop or an ebook reader. I’ve been looking at Kindles and my question is will she need a computer to be able to download free books or library books.
When I get home, I can lend her my laptop. I don’t think she will be able to sit up long enough to do anything with it, though. Her finances are in very poor shape and if she can only get books from Amazon, a Kindle will be pretty useless for her.
Suggestions please.
And thank you all for being the first place I come for answers.
Does she have wifi? You can set up permissions so that multiple people can email books to a kindle. You’d be able to download the books you think she’d like or whatever she asks for to your computer and then email them to her kindle for her. All she’d have to do is turn on the wifi for her kindle and the books would magically load.
There are also many of the out of copyright books available on the Amazon site for free, so she would at least be able to read those.
Many of the e-readers have a hundred or so public domain books pre-loaded. I don’t have any experience with Kindle (I’ve got a generic e-reader).
There are a lot of websites to find free ebooks (usually PDFs though), although if she can’t sit at a computer for very long that may not be a very big help. Project Gutenberg is the big one, and the one that many of the sites get their books from, but there are some sites where the authors are giving away books.
If you do get her an e-reader, and it can handle epubs (which I think all of them can), send me an PM and I can email you some of the books I’ve gotten.
With a 3G Kindle (Kindle Touch 3G and Kindle Keyboard 3G), you can buy books using the Kindle itself, from almost anywhere in the world (well, “over 100 countries” is the claim) where mobile data is available. No other computer or service is necessary. Although browsing the Amazon web site and buying books through there is a bit easier than doing it through the Kindle - any books you buy through the web site will still be sent to the Kindle wirelessly.
With a WiFi-only Kindle (i.e. the ones without “3G” in the name), you need access to wifi to do these things. (I don’t know if hospitals typically provide WiFi?)
If you don’t have access to a wifi network and you’re outside mobile data coverage (e.g. rural areas), you’d need to download ebooks onto a computer and transfer it to the Kindle through a USB cable.
Kindle doesn’t come preloaded, but Amazon has many free public domain books available.
Project Gutenberg has ebooks in formats for all the different eReaders, not just pdfs.
Mobi is the Kindle format, unfortunately it can’t use epub. There is software available to convert formats (calibre) but that’s a bit beyond the scope of the OP’s needs.
Confesses to ignorance about the wifi. She’s in a pretty new hospital now, so I assume that she does. I didn’t know that Amazon had free books available, the Kindle is looking more attractive now.
It was the being able to sit up and use a laptop that was concerning me. I did look around and found a lot of free books (Amazon didn’t come up in my search, but I probably wasn’t doing good searches). I was just concerned that she wouldn’t be able to access them.
Thank you so much for offering the books. I’m a big fan of baen.com, but I’m into horror/sci fi. My friend has much different tastes in reading material.
I meant the ones besides Project Gutenberg mostly have PDFs, although you can usually find epubs. If Kindle can’t read them, that still doesn’t help (damn proprietary formats.)
According to wikipedia, some of the kindles can read PDFs, and all of them can read txt files. (Amazon Kindle - Wikipedia) That helps at least - she should be able to read everything on Project Gutenberg (I know mobi files are available for some of the books)
scr4 and Implicit, you snuck in while I was typing. Thank you for your advice.
I’m pretty sure she has wifi access. Before I left, I visited her at an older hospital and it had wifi. She is now in a newer campus, so I can’t imagine that she doesn’t have wifi.
Implicit, you are correct that I don’t want to get my friend anything that she will need to “bother” with. I want to get her something that is easy to use. She is kinda old (61) and not very techie. I’m not saying that old people can’t be all geekie and such, its just that my friend isn’t.
I have a Sony reader and its always with me, but I think that her level of geekiness would cause her to shut it down before she finished reading the instructions. This is why I was looking at Kindles. I want to get her an ebook reader that is easy and cheap for her to use.
If anyone has other suggestions about other readers, I would enjoy hearing about them. What I want is something easy to use, that can download free books without sitting up and plugging into a computer, that changes font sizes easily (not my sony reader, its a pain to do that) and has a touch screen.
My friend is not doing well. She is usually so drugged that even if she could sit up long enough to open a laptop, she would probably forget her password. I want to do something to make her waking hours less boring.
You can also check out newer E-books from public libraries, although the selection and wait times vary widely from library to library. I think you do also need a computer to browse and check out books, but the trick Implicit mentioned may work here too.
Another good source for free books is http://www.manybooks.net/. They have many of the same public domain titles as Project Gutenberg, and some more recent stuff as well, and I’ve never found anything there that wasn’t available in a Kindle-compatible format.
Just to echo what others have said: Yes, you can “buy” free books directly from Amazon.com via the Kindle (if you have an account there); and anyone who’s authorized to can e-mail books or other documents directly to a Kindle (if you have one of the 3G models, there are ways of doing so either via 3G, which costs money, or WiFi, which doesn’t).
One other issue: even though the battery life on a Kindle is pretty good, they still need to be charged every once in a while, and for that you need either a computer (that you can connect it to via USB cord) or a wall charger (which Amazon sells separately; there’s a thread in GQ about whether other chargers can be used with a Kindle). (Some Kindle models have been sold with the charger included, but the Touch, which is the one it sounds like you’re thinking of, isn’t.)
Seems like you have your question answered, I just wanted to let you know that there are also many newspapers and magazines she can subscribe to free on the Kindle, using Calibre software, which may suit her better then committing to a novel. That would take initial set up from a computer, though.
I think a Kindle is an excellent idea for someone in your friend’s position, so much easier then trying to get comfortable in a bed with a book. If you/she can stretch to a lighted cover as well, that greatly enhances the experience (for me, anyway). But they are pricey.
And you’d need a current library card. I don’t currently have a Kindle, but I asked for one for Christmas. My library card has expired and since i work during normal library hours, I’m waiting for them to open this morning so I can go down and renew it in anticipation of my new Kindle.
If you want an alternative to the Kindle, Pocketbooks are easy to use, read several ebook formats, and are relatively inexpensive. I can’t entirely recommend the model I have (the 302), because its wifi access is a pain, but apparently the newer ones are better. You load books either onto the reader or onto a SD card. Touchscreen, and the buttons can be reconfigured to any function. More info here: MobileRead Wiki - PocketBook
Thank you all for your help. Going by the extra info I got here, I ordered a Kindle.
Blackberry your post was very helpful, because my friend does indeed like romances and Christian novels. She doesn’t tear through books like I do, during normal times, she reads 1 book a week so it seems as though the free Amazon books will be what she needs.
Hanna your post made me laugh a little at myself. I go to the library at least once a week, so it of course I just assume that everyone has a library card. If my friend doesn’t have one, I will be able to assist her get one. I’m sure her presence won’t be needed, just her signature on the paperwork. (One of the job perks I have is that I can contact the library director’s assistant and ask her to help. She will because I have the magic handtruck that takes her boxes out of her office. Why bother with the boss when I can talk to the person in charge?)
Silver Tyger thank you so much for being so kind to a sick lady that you don’t know. I looked at your link after I ordered the Kindle and if/when I kill my sony, I will definatly be looking at Pocketbooks.
I do have one more question. I’m having the Kindle shipped to my home and plan on asking a mutual friend take it to her. My concern now is the setup, I’m hoping that she will be able to do it all with the Kindle. Am I right? I’d hate for her to get all excited and then learn that she can’t use it until I bring her my laptop.
(I am planning on having my friend open the box, not only to check to see that the contents are intact, but also to check the color. If it’s pink, I will keep it for myself and order her a different one )
Thanks again for all of your help. I wanted to get my friend something she would enjoy and you have helped me to do so.
I have a wi-fi Kindle that I load up with stuff at home and can bring with me and not worry about security issues. Ideally, I would have a 7" iPad with all the access and the Kindle app, but they don’t make it yet (for which my wallet breathes a sigh of relief). I think the Kindle is terrific.
You don’t normally need a computer to set it up, but the only thing is that the Kindle needs to be linked with an Amazon account. They automatically link it with the purchaser’s account unless you told them it was a gift, then I don’t think they do. Mine was linked to my account when I got it, so I’m not sure how the process works.
when i got my kindle all i needed to do was turn it on, and start reading. the instructions were very easy and spelled out on the screen.
you can load books for her so they are ready to go when she gets it. it will need to be charged, mine just plugged into the wall socket. no need for a computer at all.
if you want to talk to an amazon human about it, we can give you the secret amazon phone number.
I meant the ones besides Project Gutenberg mostly have PDFs, although you can usually find epubs. If Kindle can’t read them, that still doesn’t help (damn proprietary formats.)
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