"Are Books Dead?"

[mjp]

They are all things of beauty. Someone has to be in the back of the bus.

 

[Black Swan]

My son lives in Asia and as a result has to keep hauling specialized books to Asia with each visit.
I'd like to buy him an ebook reader as a B-day gift.
Can you get anything you like as an e book? Are lists of books available limited to a certain type of literature?
In an attempt to save time and errors, could someone tell me what is the best ebook reader?
What is the difference between a tablet and kindle? Do all tablets have an e-book reader built-in?
What is the best one to buy?

 

[roni]

all interesting questions, Black. I too don't know shit about ebook-readers and would appreciate a short briefing about the key-knowledge one should have. So, thanks for asking.

 

[Bruno Dante]

My son lives in Asia and as a result has to keep hauling specialized books to Asia with each visit.
I'd like to buy him an ebook reader as a B-day gift.
Can you get anything you like as an e book? Are lists of books available limited to a certain type of literature?
In an attempt to save time and errors, could someone tell me what is the best ebook reader?
What is the difference between a tablet and kindle? Do all tablets have an e-book reader built-in?
What is the best one to buy?

I know that Skygazer off here has a reader and she likes it so you could ask her advice. I think a main issue with them is that some of the versions of books available are a bit shit. I.e. the formatting is poor or they contain errors in the text etc.

 

[mjp]

What is the difference between a tablet and kindle? Do all tablets have an e-book reader built-in?

I don't know about all tablets, but you can download the Kindle app for an Android tablet. Using the app is just like using a Kindle reader.

The difference between a reader like Kindle and an tablet is kind of night and day. A Kindle is like an old cell phone. You can make a call and maybe take a blurry little picture. It's made to do one thing (they do other things, but they don't do them very well). A tablet is more like a new smart phone (do they still call them "smart phones," or are they just phones?). You can make a call, take a picture, make a movie, write a novel, download a million apps, read bukowskiforum.com...almost anything you can do on a computer.

A reader is going to cost less than a tablet, but the prices are getting closer every day.

As for which is better, it depends on how gadgety someone is. If you just want to read, the Kindle is pretty cool. I'll say though, we have a Kindle and a Nexus tablet, and since we got the tablet I haven't even turned the Kindle on.

 

[jordan]

I have a Kindle Fire that I haven't used since I upgraded to a "real" smart phone (HTC One). Justine has the Kindle Paperwhite, and she likes it a lot. It still uses the "e-ink" screen, which is supposed to look more natural than a tablet display. You can also see the screen in bright sunlight (great for reading in the park), and there's much less eye strain than with a tablet display, even the fancy retina displays on an iPad. As MJP said, the Paperwhite isn't meant to be a tablet, since you can't run apps, browse the internet, etc on them. As dedicated reading devices, however, they're the best option IMO.

 

[justine]

yah i would rep for the paper-white kindle.

i have an ipod, laptop, android AND a paper-white. i know the current obsession is to have one thing that does everything, but that's not really how i roll. i buy all my e-books from amazon, and since i'm reading a lot of trash lately i have a subscription to 'kindle unlimited' which is $10 a month.

i definitely think the paper-white is best if you do a lot of reading - i was concerned about the original kindle fire i had, since i already spend a lot of time looking at my computer screen.

 

[Black Swan]

thank you guys for the info.
My son has a phone and a computer and other gadgets. I'll most likely get the paper-white kindle like Justine's. He really needs a reader.