Kindle drawbacks?

feetlebaum Could you expand on your post, please? Can I infer that the Oldie has had a forum before, and this is a second shot? You sound like an Oldie member rather than a Gransnet one.

The only drawback with my Kindle, as far as I can see,is that I can no longer swap books with my friends. Perhaps they will come up with something to resolve this problem.

I find it impossible to read a book I havent read before on my Kindle. Its like not being able to see the wood for the trees. I tend to read books in great sweeps, initially quite quickly with flips to further on in the book and skimming over parts and then go back and read it again in more detail. I do this with all books, fact and fiction. Although the Kindle can take you round a book it is much more time consuming and deliberate, you cannot just fan in seconds through and stop and read on a Kindle that you can with a book.

Having said that the Kindle is unbeatable when you come to the reading the text in detail stage. I have just completed an evening class on Jane Austen's novels and although I have read all her books time without number for over 50 years, reading them page by page, line by line on my Kindle I have found phrases and comments and detail I have never noticed before.

One thing that is wrong with a Kindle is that I can't use it to read the Oldie.
Another is that it can't be used to read library books in the form that they are downloaded.

There is an application that can translate other formats into Kindle-ese. I forget what it is called, but someone else may remember.

I was given a sub for The Oldie long before I was old. Some of the articles were quite jolly and the standard of writing is good, but when asked if I'd like it for a second year I politely declined. There is too much reading matter in our house as it is.

As for my Kindle. Well! It was a birthday present from DOC in November and I simply can't be parted from it now. Have re-read lots of classics as well as new books and probably spent rather a lot on Amazon, but life is short so a little bit of self-indulgence can't possibly go amiss in one's silver(?)/golden(?) years.

What I really love about Kindle is never running out of books. You can buy a new one at 3am (please take note insomniac grans) and it is in your hot little hand in less than 60 seconds. You don't even have to get out of bed to make the purchase. Brilliant!

Several years ago there was an enthusiastically supported Proboards forum run by The Oldie. The Oldie people took exception to the tone of some more argumentative posts - in particular one belligerent poster went well over the top - and one day it just wasn't there to log into. Wiped. Gone. Never called me Mother... Webster would remember, I'm sure.
(The troublemaker now confines himself to one part of another Proboards forum where he conducts trench warfare with certain other big-mouths.)

Someone started a new forum: thenewoldie.proboards.com/ and The Oldie's people asked him to change the name, which was a reasonable request in the circumstances. It became Mature Cheese. Sadly, it is very quiet there since the person who set it up suffered some debilitating illness... but it still lives!

Thank you for the inside information, feetlebaum The powers-that-be at the Oldie are clearly not very well clued up on running a forum.

Thank goodness for GNHQ. They mostly let us get on with it, but when anyone is reported to them they take a good look and delete their post if it is advertising, trolling or going over the top. It does not stifle debate, but it does keep everyone reasonably polite (most of the time).

The forum is largely self-policing. The Dawn Patrol pounces on spam merchants and trollers pretty effectively., and the online virgins among us are getting better at spotting a wind-up.

Kindle drawbacks:
- I can't lend books to my friends, which is what I like to do when I have found something worth passing on.
- I can't easily flip back to remind myself of something
- it doesn't have the tactile appeal of holding a book
- still have to take a couple of books on holiday just in case the kindle expires
- DH and I share The Times on the kindle when on holiday, which means I have to find something else to do while he is reading it (haven't ever investigated whether we could have the paper delivered to two kindles for one sub, but have assumed not)
- far too easy to impulse buy and at the moment I have too many unread books lined up on the kindle.

All these drawbacks have their alternative plus points, and I would certainly not want to part with my kindle, even though it will never totally replace my book habit.

I've a feeling you could download the sub from the amazon "manage your Kindle" page to more than one device. Certainly I can download books to two Kindles - but both are registered to me, although DH owns one.

It is worth a try.

Thanks elegran I'll look into that. If it works, that's DH's next birthday present sorted, he can have his own kindle!

I still try to turn pages by hand when I'm engrossed and I would love to get the hang of sharing-my daughter says it's possible. I am a cheapskate-I download samples galore then if I like them order them from the library online. If the library doesn't have one I put it on my wish list and order when I'm feeling rich.

MrsJamJam it's certainly possible to download two copies of the Telegraph. One to my own Android Tablet and one to DH's tablet, we do it every day, so I'm sure that you could do it to a Kindle

Love my Kindle - but not the price of latest publications of authors I follow. I ran up quite a hefty Amazon account when I first got it (Christmas 2010) so now I use it for older titles of authors I follow - but even they are usually £4.99. Luckily I now get Amazon vouchers for birthdays/MD etc so I can still splurge on the latest books sometimes.

I could get paperback copies of the latest books cheaper in Tesco, but now I reserve them at the library so I get them as soon as they come out (since Amazon so kindly spam me with the latest offerings of the authors I follow - complete with all necessary details).

But I prefer reading on my Kindle - I can enlarge the text and even with its cover + light (great for when you wake up in the night and don't want to disturb someone next to you) it is not as heavy as most hardbacks (or fat paperbacks come to that) and I really appreciate the 'look-up' facility for unfamiliar words.

I share the archive with my DH who reads them on his iPad (with the appropriate app) and when my DD gets a Kindle I can share my books with her too (I think it's 5 family members you can share with?) Also great for getting something to read when you're away in the camper in the middle of nowhere.

Surely the worst drawback is the fading of second hand bookshops.

How come? Secondhand bookshops mostly stock things that are not, and probably never will be available as ebooks.

It could be a blow to Oxfam secondhand bookshops. Which is sad.

It'll be a blow to all second hand bookshops if, eventually, there are no second hand books to pass on!

Real books will become antiques and increase in value. Maybe we should start stockpiling for our greatgrandchildren. "Antiques of the future".

Remember farthings? I once read a short story where someone had hoarded farthings from childhood. When she died biscuit tins full were found, sneered at, and eventually sold for a fortune.

Obviously, feetlebaum, you are a stranger to the delights of secondhand bookshops.

I shall treat that remark with the contempt I deserve... or... something...

I have always been very anti kindle - I love my shelves of books too much - but have been forced to admit that for travelling - especially on budget airlines where weight restrictions are so stringent - they are very handy. My gripe is that one click ordering is just soooo easy to do though! I may be bankrupt very soon

I love my kindle for holidays and reading the paper on holiday, but have started going to my local library again because of the cost of some of the latest books on kindle.

"Obviously, feetlebaum, you are a stranger to the delights of secondhand bookshops."

These days, yes - but then they are all available to me on-line (via abebooks.co.uk for example) so I am not immune to their blandishments. I'm not entirely sure what blandishments are, but I like the sound of them.

The problem I have is that I have no more space for books - they are piled on the stairs, the bathroom as at least sixty books in it, every shelf is stuffed tight - sometimes with books behind other books - and the Kindle is a wonderful solution to the problem.

Project Gutenberg offers over 30,000 books for download free. They are books that are now out of copyright so are mainly classics, but they have thousands of authors. You can download in a variety of formats including Kindle. I have found several books on it that are really difficult to locate in print form because they have been out of print for so long.