Any Kindle owners

[Glorfindel7]

Border's is now going bankrupt... I blame this on the prolification of these online readers

But that said I'm probably going to get one, just would love it if I didn't have to pay so much for the books themselves.

[ejr]

Kathy--like you, I am a "book" person, but the convenience of the Kindle, especially for travel, can't be beat. And I use the dictionary feature a lot, but seldom, if ever go to an actual dictionary when reading a book.

And the cheaper version should be fine!

You were the one who actually sold me on it, after talking with you about it when you were here...and I remembered you telling me about using the dictionary.

[Brown Eyed Girl]

I don't think e-readers can be singled out to blame for Border's downfall. Their prices (and often their lack of stock) killed them. Why buy at Border's if I can get the same title at Target, WalMart, Costco, Amazon much cheaper? I supported Border's and B&N for several years, but I got tired of the lack of service, and the damaged merchandise from people using those stores as libraries or letting their kids run amok in the children's dept. If you're going to study, go to a library, don't sit around drinking coffee and eating pastries while grubbing up a book you have no intention of buying. I think the other issue is just a lack of reading and interest in books for many in the generations younger than me. Books are foreign objects to so many these days...that certainly can't be helping.

I love independent bookstores and I will pay full retail there, because of the service. My second most favorite bookstore closed several years ago due to competition from B&N and then Border's. It was tiny, but Tom could find me any book I wanted within a couple of days at the most. He set aside the Harry Potter books for his favorite customers and sold them to us a day before release. He was a kindred spirit and I miss him so. My most fave bookstore is SoCal's oldest independent bookstore here in Pasadena. I can't afford to buy everything there, but I do support them a lot...and have all my life. I still have books from my childhood with Vromans stickers in them. It's just a fun place to hang out. Ellen knows...she goes there when she visits SoCal.

As long as their are "real" books, I'll continue to buy them. A Kindle will be convenient for traveling, but it will never be something I can pass on to my niece and nephew, like the books that have been passed on to me.

[silvermoon]

Borders problems really come from their lack of foresight. When internet sales were taking off, they gave their internet sales division to Amazon (their competitor!). When e-readers proved they were here to stay, they failed to get on board until it was too late. B&N and Amazon came out with their own ereaders and platforms, each with its own pluses and minuses, but Borders failed to act until last year, coming out with the Kobo, a lackluster entry into the ereader world, and when B&N and Amazon were upgrading their ereaders and lowering their prices.

Borders also opened too many mega stores right before the economic melt down and just couldn't keep up with the overhead. Too much floorspace, and too few books -- they tried to be everything to everyone and ended up being not much of anything to anyone in particular. Too many gift items, toys, food, too much encouragement of free reading -- what other industry allows you to use all their merchandise for free while eating and drinking over it?? Mind boggling. These book megastores were a bad business model and I suspect we'll see B&N downsizing somewhat as well.

Plus folks don't read like they used to. Too much demand on our leisure time from other quarters.

[~Hippolyte~]

...Thanks for the clarification on how the books are sent, Hippolyte. So the wi-fi and/or 3G is just in case you want to surf the net and such (in limited amounts)? Or can you buy books from other sites and read them on Kindle? I also have a question about the PDF books you were referring to. Is there a site for those? Or are they a part of the Kindle store and then you can convert them from there? ...

BEG...I've used this site for pdf books: http://www.ioffer.com I would bet you can get them on ebay too. I've also found some sites where you can download them for free. But like most FREE things online, I try to be really careful what I download. If you use 'ebooks' in the search, along with the title or author you're looking for....or maybe just ebooks to see the options you can find.

Basically it's someone with a pdf copy that is selling it....with none of the money going to the authors....so yes, I'd bet this isn't exactly legal.... Some of the pdf's you can tell are honestly scans of the pages of the books, others are authorized pdf's being re-sold....and others are typed copies of the books.

The convert feature is directly through amazon/kindle. When you get your kindle you'll set up two e-mail addresses for it BEG@kindle.com & BEG@free.kindle.com. The free address needs wi-fi to deliver to your kindle. The non-free will charge an amount to your kindle account, based upon the size of the document.

for example: I sent the first magical book through the conversion...it's file size was 3.36MB...that cost $0.60 to convert and be delivered to my kindle. If I'd waited until I had a wi-fi connection it would have been free. (the fifth magical book --being the largest in the series-- was 7.62MB and cost $1.20 to convert)

If you've created a pdf for work and for some reason want it on your kindle you can convert it too. you send the file, attached to an e-mail to your kindle address...the subject line is convert if you want it converted...the subject is blank if you want it delivered as a pdf.

I don't think the kindle store has any pdf's....just ebooks at their ebook prices. I'm not trying to take money from the authors....but with some not available for kindle (for matters that I think are greed-related) I'm not too concerned about it. But I've always been more gray than black/white....maybe that's just me.

[ejr]

The store Kathy speaks of is one of my favorite places, and, to support them, I will pay more than I would pay elsewhere, because of their service, and their great selection, and recommendations.

Kathy-I buy a lot of books on my Kindle--cost and convenience, mainly. Things I know I want for professional reasons, or to pass on to others, or cookbooks still get bought in book form.

[tigzoe]

Revisiting this topic....

I am looking at pulling the plug on a nook from overstock. The price is RIGHT...really RIGHT! It would appear that the nook can do epub which I can download for free from the library.

Can someone offer insight on what the benefit of having the 3g brings to the table. I love the fact that I can put mp3's on it. Listening to music and reading is becoming my new brain break at work. Go find a quiet corner and block out the world. I can download books to my computer, but it is a pain taking the macbook to work everyday.