The Kindle - Online Books

Have any of the english book starved people here used the Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FI73MA/ref=amb_link_6369712_2?pf_...

I am thinking of buying one as 1) decent english book are hard to find in colombia and I travel a lot, and 2) the books are much cheaper than the paperback version (new releases are 10 usd).

If you have used it, how have you found it? I have some reservations about it ie being 'reading' friendly, but think the selection of books, mags etc you can get is great. Interested in any feedback.

thanks.

By bickerss on Mar 14, 2008, 01:36 in Friendly Talkzone.

Buongone says on Mar 14, 2008, 03:49:

I've bought used books from them before. All of them in good shape. Cheaper than buying new. You are just going to read it. Right?

el flaco says on Mar 14, 2008, 03:57:

Backpacker hostels have a book exchange, it might be worth a try. But should you be reading Spanish books?

At Santa Marta this January, I was amused to see the same titlers that I read/swopped in India 25 years ago. The eagle has landed etc.

bickerss says on Mar 14, 2008, 07:02:

Buogone - do you mean amazon? The device is from amazon but its an electronic reader that stores books, not the 'paper' books themselves.

Other main thing for me el flaco is I travel a lot and hate dragging round heavy books. The backpackers have some books but not a great range. The bookshop in Bogota has a great range but expensive and I still have to lug round books. Trying to see if anyone has used the Kiddle and what their thoughts are of it. The concept seems great, as you can download book, magazines, papers very cheaply; but reading them from an eletronic device may not be so great.

pariahdog says on Mar 16, 2008, 01:46:

I don't think it's supposed to 'work' as intended outside of the US. That is it doesn't allow you to order and automagically download books. Being an incorrigible pirate I tend to download most of my books nowadays on emule in pdf. I'm so evil. I do like real books very much but it is highly impractical for me to drag them to colombia. ebooks all the way. Especially now that I finally made the jump to LCD monitors. Much easier on the eyes for text than CRTs. There is no comparison. I now actually prefer reading an ebook on my computer to real paper. I am not that young and find that a bit unsettling. I wonder if we won't even have paper books in 10 years. Actually I generally do prefer real paper books, but I read a lot of 1000 page computer books and I find it almost impossible to study them comfortably due to their weight. I looked for some book holders, but the ones that actually seem to do the job are very big and expensive. I was tempted by the kindle but it is just too expensive and the fact that it doesn't do its automagic downloading outside of the US is a real turn off. The screen also seems kind of small compared to a laptop screen. Although I don't own a laptop, I could almost buy one for the price of the kindle.

GregYohn says on Mar 19, 2008, 09:06:

Hola!

Get an XO computer through Ebay. http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&dfsp=32&...

I have one and can use it to read the web as well as a bunch of other things!!

12VOIP.com gives free calls to Colombia.Greg