I know we have lots of avid readers on the board, and we recently had a thread about a member's new book, and many of you mentioned having a Kindle. My husband and I both enjoy reading. He actually reads a lot more than I do, since he is retired, and winters are long and cold were we live!

He's been looking at the Kindles. I know there are several different styles and sizes available. We wanted to actually see them, so we went to Best Buy to look. Personally, I was quite surprised by how small they are. The Paperwhite is what we were interested in because it seemed like it would have the most book-like appearance (and it does), but the screen size is smaller than your average mass-market paperback. I know you can change the font to a larger size, but it seems you then have only a few sentences to a page and you'd be constantly changing pages.

The only larger one they make is the Kindle DX, but it's lower resolution and does not come in the Paperwhite model. We haven't been able to actually see one of those around here.

For those of you who have them, what do you think? What size do you have? Do you have the Paperwhite or the regular? Any pros and cons, your personal experiences with them, etc. that you would like to share would be appreciated.

I read on my IPad.

Actually, I like a real book much better. I like the smell and feel of a book.

The things I do like are the convenience. You can download a book in just a few seconds, can read several chapters "free sample" before you are committed. Can take several books or hundreds on vacation. The screen is back lit so I can read at night if my husband is sleeping.

THese days they let you read on the plane even during take off and landing.


I was going to get a Kindle but got the IPad for my birthday. It seems just as good, and since it's a computer, I can check email, read leerburg, take photos in addition to reading. I really like it.

Thanks, Betty. You reminded me that I didn't mean to limit the discussion to Kindles, only. I'd like to hear about any electronic type of reading you guys may do.

My husband only recently started reading a few e-books on his laptop, which is what got him thinking about an e-reader. The laptop gets hot and uncomfortable after a while.

Neither one of us has a tablet (an iPad falls into that catetory, I think?) or even a smart phone.

I agree with you, Betty, in that I really, really like the feel, smell, look, and even the sounds you get from a book when you open the cover, flip the pages, etc. I can see some advantages to having books in electronic form, though. Going on vacation and being able to take multiple books along would be a big plus. Also, I see they have the ability to instantly look up words, so no dragging out the dictionary.

My husband is more of a tech-oriented kind of guy, so I think an e-reader would be right up his alley.

I have a Kindle Fire...one of the original ones from about 2 years ago. I thought I would like it, but didn't realize that I would LOVE it.

I also love real books, but nothing beats my kindle on the ability to have tons of books. I have probably 500 books on it and could never fit those in my house LOL. I'm already maxed out on my bookshelves. Also, there are so many free books available or for under $2 or so.

I love my Kindle. I have the paperwhite one with the backlit.

I can read in bed without a light on, slip it in my purse and read outside.

I will never get rid of by bookcases but................

My Kindle is the best thing ever for traveling. I can take several books with me in the space of one slim volume.

My bookshelves at home are still filled with real books. But the Kindle is my travel buddy.

The Kindle is also great for my elderly father who reads a lot, but lives in a rural area where there is no library nearby. Every gift-giving occasion, I can remotely "fill up" his Kindle with a dozen new novels to keep him busy.

I'd go to a store that has the actual devices that you can hold, see and read from. My mom and brother both have kindles that they love. I think if you usually read in a wide variety of places (home, traveling, on vacation) then the screen on the regular kindle is condusive to a wide variety of locations. If you want a device for multi-tasking then either the kindle fire or ipad is a better choice - the Fire is great for all purpose, the iPad is more powerful, has a larger screen and can pretty much be used as a computer. Kindles tend to be cheaper buy (at one time Amazon was selling them for a slight loss because of the long term profitability).

Mara makes a good point about actually trying them out. I have an iPad for work and find it too big to hold comfortably, but I have a few students who love to read on it.

When we went to Best Buy the other day, we did have a chance to see a few different models, but at the time, we didn't look too closely at the Kindle Fire, as we were thinking only in terms of an e-reader and not a tablet-style device. The Fire is a little on the expensive side if all you're going to do is read. If you want something more along the lines of a full-service computer, though, they looked pretty nice.

I think my husband is torn between going for the tablet style or just getting the e-reader model for now. And then I think I'll wait to see what he gets and how he likes it before I decide if I want one for myself.

As I mentioned, I still love real books -- as all of you have mentioned, too -- but like many of you, I'm kind of running out of bookshelf space!

If you have Amazon Prime (I think it's $80/year), With the Kindle Fire you can borrow a decent selection of books from the Amazon Lending Library for free. And you can stream (or in some cases download for later playback) their Prime eligible instant video for free (providing you have a wifi connection)