To Kindle or not…that is the question

[Stephen M]

Hi Sumi,

If you contact Amazon they will give you a new one a discount if you send in your faulty one.

P.s Ann Arbor rocks :-)

[Ben F]

Hey Stephen, tell me more! I've got a dead kindle too.

[Carter Young]

I read my Kindle on the chairlift while skiing–put it in a plastic sandwich bag and you're good, except with thick gloves it is difficult to push the "on" button, especially when the Kindle is in the bag. In a blizzard, it's hard to read a conventional book because the snow gets down in the crack between pages.

I've never had any problem with this daytime activity even when the temps were down to 5F, but out camping has been another matter. If the Kindle is left in sleep mode and the temps are below freezing, by the morning it will either say that the battery is low, or it will be completely locked-up. I've tried warming it over a stove, but to no avail. But when I charge the frozen Kindle, it recharges quickly, leading me to believe that it is not the battery that was drained, but rather something in the operating system that reacts poorly to cold weather and shuts down to protect the device. The solution is, of course, to sleep with the Kindle in your sleeping bag.

There are some things I miss about paperbacks: you can use them to start fires, swat mosquitos, and give/lend them to others. Also, with a Kindle you can't write snarky comments for the next reader to see, such as: "He escaped through the back door of the Pinto"–Pintos never had back doors.

[Cayenne Redmonk]

I love my kindle, its the only non-paper presentation of text I can read and retain well.

I read mostly technical literature, and being able to upgrade forever for an additional $5 is nice.

The battery life is incredible compared to other technologies.

I collect literature that i want, but 80% of my purchases this year have been digital. The paper has been mostly out of print books that capture a brief era that I got to experience that I just want to have. Mostly illustrated texts.

I'm already sure to be an early adopter of what ever for Amazon uses their recent purchase of color e-paper screens.

Kindle or Nook is the way to go. With the new Nook having the built in lighting on the unit, it might be the way to go if One hasn't invested in either set up.

I think the Nook might display pdf content better, the kindle works, but I haven't been overly impressed with the display options.

[Thomas Fischer]

I cycled the States and I craced my cindle after the bag felt on a rock.

I bought then an Nook and I did really love them. The UI was much bether and with the memory card slot All my ebooks went on the device.

But… I craced my nook as well (luckily still in the states so I could get another one).

So Yes Take one of these, but protect the display. Now i put a small hardplastic sheet on top of the screen and put it in the nook neoprene cover.

[Miguel Arboleda]

I love reading on my Kindle, and have read nearly all my books for the last two years on it, but one very big drawback with digital reading devices is that it is very difficult to read books like guides or manuals. When you need to go back and forth easily between pages, for comparisons and re-reading certain passages and skimming, while it is possible, it is clunky and takes far too long. Linear books like novels and travel accounts work great, but I hate reading educational material with the Kindle.

[John S.]

Miguel, it seems like those issues could be resolved easily with software by adding features like split screens and better page navigation.

[Miguel Arboleda]

John, certainly. But that is not what the publishers have done. What has mainly been done is the cheapest possible transfer of the text, with minimum formatting, in many cases not even splitting up the chapters, and very often not even doing a good job with proofreading. The publishers are making big money off these simplified texts where they don't need to spend a lot of money on graphic designers and typographers and printers, but still charging nearly the same prices as hard copy books. It's quite a sham.

[Stephen M]

I agree with you on that Miguel.

[Nick Gatel]

I generally agree with Craig. I prefer paper books, and hard covers to be more specific. Most hard cover books are now going for up to $50 a piece. So most of my purchases the past few years have been Kindle. If it is a great book I then buy the paper version, because IMO a great book should be read several times.

Since I travel a lot, I use a 3G Kindle and on business trips and I may read several books (or parts of books) in a week. What is nice about the Kindle is that you can sync the Kindle with the application on a Smart Phone and a PC, so you know exactly where you left off. Also you can make notes, and even copy and paste passages from the books and your notes. You can PDF stuff and send it to your Kindle.

And I agree that the formatting is often horrible. Clelland's last book and Skukra's book were AWFUL in the Kindle version, especially Andrew's.

I don't take books or the Kindle backpacking.

[Gregory Stein]

Here is another +1 for Audio Books. With a tiny UL mp3 player you can't be wrong. After all it's an UL backpacking we do. So it saves you on light (take the photon instead of heavy petzl or so) and also on the ebook reader itself. The drawback is if you fallen asleep, you drain your battery. Not an issue for me.

[Richard Scruggs]

Edited to delete duplicate post. See below.

[Richard Scruggs]

+1 for Audible books on MP3 player.

Especially an MP3 player that's powered by an AA or AAA battery since there's no outlets in the woods to recharge an internal battery device.

One MP3 line that's AA-powered is iRiver, if they still sell them.

Weight of an MP3 device (not counting battery) plus ear buds would be two ounces or so, versus six ounces for a Kindle.

Disadvantages of Kindle compared to MP3 player with Audible books: significant weight difference; internal battery of Kindle requiring electical outlet to recharge rather than replaceable AAA or AA battery for MP3 player; plus requirement of a battery-powered light to read the Kindle in the dark.

Even so, I'd take a Kindle when its weight (and battery usage for light) isn't a factor because reading rather than listening is enjoyable.

Of course, a paperback would be even better — pages read make a good firestarter, and the weight gets reduced as you read.

[Frank T]

I think I'd be more inclined to take an e-reader if I had significant down time planned for reading. I have a Nook Simple Touch which has great battery life. I rooted it so it is a rudimentary Android tablet, including a Kindle App and a few other capabilities to make it more versatile as a reader. It also has web browsing and e-mail access if I'm connected to WiFi; that would be unnecessary if I carried a phone, though.

That said, my next hike is a 150-miler on the PCT with mostly 20-25 mile days, so not a lot of time for reading (I'm usually passed out an hour after dinner). I'm thinking the best option is my trusty Sansa Clip MP3 player with music and some audio books, a few photocopied pages from a guide book, and possibly the Halfmile PCT App on a cheap Android phone.

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