[tomtom]

Thanks guys, she's got wireless at home and I'd set it up for her. I'll have a look at project guttenberg for freebies.

I'd have a look at some tech news sites, as they'll have more on the Kindle prices, but they will drop soon - plus there will be a raft of 2nd hand ones on the market when the new one comes on etc..

(most of the Guttenberg books are also free via the Kindle store..)

[andy popp]

For some unknown reason my parents have bought me a Kindle, which I'm looking forward to picking up next week.

I tend to read a lot of classics and so am looking forward to lots of free books - but have a slight concern re: the quality of texts. If I buy, say, a Penguin Classic I'm confident I'm getting a good, clean 'authorised' text - and if its a foreign language book, a careful considered translation (being your typical anal academic I also like the normal stuff of intro, notes, further reading etc.). Are people happy with the quality of free texts? Are my concerns misplaced? Is Guttenburg the most reliable source of free books?

[Falling Down]

Good question Andy.  My (albeit limited) experience of the free texts available is not great.  Several are poorly formatted, badly translated and nowhere near as good as the Penguin Classic versions which also have notes, forewords etc. 

That said, I love my Kindle but I do pay for most of the books I read on it.

TomTom's point above about font size is one of the features that surprised me.  I hadn't realised how small some typesetting is getting in some modern paperbacks and I realised I've not finished some books simply because it was too exhausting on my ageing eyes and befuddled brain.

[galpinos]

TomTom's point above about font size is one of the features that surprised me.  I hadn't realised how small some typesetting is getting in some modern paperbacks and I realised I've not finished some books simply because it was too exhausting on my ageing eyes and befuddled brain.

Christ alive FD, I know you're getting on a bit but you're not that old!

[Falling Down]

 . I'm serious though, don't know whether it's because I'm short sighted and wear lenses or what.  Its not that I can't read tiny text or get eyestrain but just seem to lose concentration more often and I can only put it down to the extra effort involved.  I tried a mates reading goggles last year and it made a difference with a paperback so being able to change the font size on the Kindle is great.  (Where's that old man with a cane ?)

[tomtom]

Yes, I prefer reading larger text and whizzing through the pages. In fact this is much to MrsT's ire, where my 15-20 secs between clicks to turn pages earns me a dig in the ribs about reading too quickly

[bobkatebob]

Hey Andy there is one thing on the kindle that I don't use that I would have if I was in academia and that is being able to add notes. Then I think you can read the original text with or without your extra notes.
 I could never bring myself to deface a book when at uni, but to have all my set books on a kindle with my notes aligned to the text, that would have been worth every penny.

Also would have lightened my bag considerably.

Do remember you can get kindle for the PC which can be set to the same account as the kindle so you can see the books that way too, you can also put PDF files onto the kindle. I don't know if these features would benefit your academic work.

[remus]

Normal PDFs (i.e. ones formatted to be printed on A4) are quite hard work on a kindle. They dont scale very well to the screen, so you either have to have them in portrait, where any text is tiny, or landscape where it chops the page in half (usable though you have to scroll through the page, feels very cumbersome compared to a properly formatted book.) Think a 'kindle dx' exists that has a larger screen and is meant to be a lot better for PDFs, though ive got a feeling its only available in the US.

if you could find .mobi/.azw versions of textbooks i imagine that could work very well, though. would certainly save a lot of bulk and as bob suggested adding your own inline notes could also be pretty handy.

[tomtom]

The iPad is the bees knees for PDF working... There's a couple of annottation apps that allow you to doodle, add comments boxes etc.. To pdf's.
I've used this for editing papers and proposals a few times.. It's getting close (but not quite close enough) to editing a paper version...

[Mike Tyson]

Hello all.

I was very keen to get one of these for my GF (And pretty keen to treat myself as well), I was wondering if any owners on here could give any feedback/recomendations for the £89 jobby, or the £149 beast with a keyboard and wifi etc.

Many thanks in advance.

[Bubba]

I'm hanging on for the E-Ink Colour Touch Kindle. That will be...the one...

[Mike Tyson]

Wowsers, does indeed look nice! I am well and truly out of the loop, having no internet connection at home for 6 months+ really does that to you. Any word on a release date, I forgot to mention I am looking to purchase as a Christmas present.

[Bubba]

Well, the Kindle Touch isn't available in the UK as yet...and the Kindle Fire has a touch colour screen but isn't E-Ink....

They need to release a Kindle "touch + e-ink + wifi +uk +competitive price" version for it to really kick ass and take hole imho. Otherwise people will just buy normal Kindles or iPads.

[Mike Tyson]

To be fair, I doubt my lass would really use all the fancy jazz associated with the new Kindle. She is just someone who likes to read Jill Mansell novels so I may opt for the basic one, but wait to see if the price comes down soon.

[chris j]

Normal PDFs (i.e. ones formatted to be printed on A4) are quite hard work on a kindle....

...if you could find .mobi/.azw versions of textbooks i imagine that could work very well, though. would certainly save a lot of bulk and as bob suggested adding your own inline notes could also be pretty handy.

I've been using calibre to manage the ebooks for my Sony. It can convert between most formats so should be able to turn your pdfs into kindle format. And it's free 

http://calibre-ebook.com/about

[magpie]

Calibre is awesome.

I am buying my folks one of the basic ones for Christmas, I got them the all singing all dancing one last year with 3G and keyboard and they fight over it all the time, hence the need for a second one.

From my research if you just want to read on it then the basic one is fine, it has a smaller memory but it's still plenty big for hundreds of books and the screen is exactly the same.  The keyboard version does more and having 3G means you can get free Internet abroad but it's very basic and a pain to use.  I would probably still consider 3G and a keyboard for me as I would use it out and about occasionally but for someone who's going to use it as a reader and a reader only then the cheaper new version should be totally fine.

[magpie]

Also, if you're thinking of Christmas there is no way the price will come down much before then, the £89 is pretty new out and I don't think the prices will drop much until well into the new year or when the newer versions start to come out.

[Bubba]

F*ck, misread your post Paul...  dick...

I got one of these... a little (not much) too big but fine.. only £4 sheets. I have one of the leather amazon proper ones (that clips into the side) but I dont rate it - as its  about as heavy as the kindle itself !
TT


Number 4...

Having just become a Kindle-weilder (and fucking loving it, what a great invention e-ink is!), I'm just dragging this back up - Tom, I've Tweeted you regarding this but just in case you missed it - are you still using an Alpkit Padded Cell 4? Decent? Does it fit the Kindle Keyboard?

I'm waiting to see if I can get a Timbuk2 Kindle Envelope in the UK but thinking an Alpkit would be a good stopgap for a fiver.

[Paul B]

the one we ended up getting for Nats mum had a press stud to close it, interestingly the plastic underneath this has cracked on two models i.e. avoid!

[Bubba]

Cheers Paul, I'll avoid that then, seemed to cheap to be true...

So what cases/covers do people recommend? Need something fairly protective as it's going to be stuffed into a work bag, but don't want to spend £50 like some of the Amazon offerings cost.

[tomtom]

Didn't get your tweet Bubba. Yes it works great. A bit long and slightly too large but not badly so. See pic.

[Bubba]

Ah-ha! Still back on then. For a five-spot it'll do 'til I get a sexy case... thx Tom and a very happy NY

[bobkatebob]

I have been using http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cover-Up-Amazon-Keyboard-Wireless-Leather/dp/B00404TFS0 for about a year now and still looking like new. I usually carry it in my handbag which is massive and I chose red so it is easier to find in my handbag (yep it's that big :-S).

 I don't like putting it straight into my climbing rucksac even in it's cover, don't think chalk would be good for it, so have recently got a small bag that can hold the kindle in it's case, mobile phones and other necessity items together zipped up in my rucksac. Also means if going to Pub etc after climbing I can take the smaller bag with me rather than the rucksac. Though you being a bloke, depends if you like the french manbag look or not 

The only thing that has been a -ve so far is I had the charging cables or all my stuff in a small zip bag, it was black and I think I left it on a train. Next time I am thinking of dayglo.

Just as a heads up for all Kindle owners, if you havn't noticed they are doing 12 days of Kindle, loads of books heavily reduced, loads at 99p.

[Bubba]

Cheers - I'm going to go for an envelope / pouch style thingy as the kindle will spend a lot of time in my work bag and I don't think those sort of cases would be up to the job, nice though they are.

Has anyone bothered with a clip on light? Look a bit ridiculous but can see it being handy and less of an encumbrance than a headtorch.

[robertostallioni]

 I'm going to go for an envelope / pouch style thingy as the kindle will spend a lot of time in my work bag