Kindle or book

JackyB Books! Unhygenic? Good grief! How many people have ever caught some nasty bug off a book?

Granne72 You have the very solution! I need an audio book. I prefer a book in paper form but I have not read much lately as I have been too busy knitting in my spare time.
Right now my hand joints are complaining and I might have to resort to a just a book for a while.

Dotsman beware once you get the knitting and being read to bug , enjoy!

I might still be in the honeymoon phase, but I am entirely in the Kindle camp. Books are unhygenic, dust-collectors, expensive and require so much storage space. Not to mention impossible to read in bed when you're lying down. And don't talk to me about paper cuts!

When I'm reading a paper book I often find myself putting my finger on a word to call up the dictionary to look it up, or wanting to search for where I'd read a name before. Silly me! How did we ever manage without those functions?

I have a dozen books on my bedside table waiting to be read, but I keep downloading things on to my Kindle. OK - some of them are not great, but mainly they are from the Deals and cost less than a Euro. If I was going into a bookshop to buy books, I wouldn't risk the money on an author or a genre I hadn't heard of before, or wouldn't normally be attracted by.

And if I get fed up of the cheap modern novels, I have the complete works of Dickens, Thomas Hardy, the Brontes, Jane Austen, D H Lawrence etc etc at my fingertips for some more substantial, yet cheap reading matter.

Cookery books would be great on a tablet or laptop. I have loads of them and only really look at them. If I need a recipe, I use the internet.

My only gripe about the Kindle is that the spelling is usually American, and that occasionally there are typographical errors or, funnily enough, names get muddled up.

I don't use cookery books much any more - though I do continue to use my file of favourite recipes. Bu now, you can usually find any recipe, and some fantastic variations, online, so I use my mini iPad propped up (well away from splashes etc!) and bookmark the recipe.

It's a good thing to do isn't it Grannyknot? I admire your speed with the Meera Syal book, I have yet to start my copy. Three cheers for GN Book club!

Oh granne72 what a brilliant idea. Books and knitting at the same time. My kindle fire has an audio book app thingmy. Guess what I am doing tomorrow?

Cookery books and knitting patterns have just got to be in paper form. I thought I would really miss the whole bookieness of books when my girls gave me my kindle 3 years ago and although I was grateful for the gift I secretly though I would give it a go then just pop it into my "glory hole" (see language thread!) . How wrong was I. I am a total convert. I love my kindle and it comes everywhere with me.

I download free books and audio books from our library to my tablet . I love to listen to audio books whilst knitting. This is a great service but i also take physical books out of the library as i really want it to stay open.

purple me too! (re books). I'm about to pass my copy of The House of Hidden Mothers on.

I could never see the attraction of kindle. Books every time.

I love my Kindle. The only real books I read now are the ones I win on GN or some reference books.

I downloaded a phrase book for my holiday and found it awkward to use on Kindle. We were in a no signal area and so my translation app was useless. I really needed a real book then!

i bought DH a Kindle for the Text to speech possibilities as he lost his literacy after a stroke. Although better than nothing, it does sound rather robotic and not all books are available to use it.
I bought a Kobo when there was a really cheap offer on. You can download library books and even reserve them which is handy.
That said, I do enjoy the look and feel of a real book, but now always pass them on to friends and family in an attempt to keep down the amount of stuff we have and to share the joy too

I love my Kindle for fiction and biographies, I have arthritis and the paperwhite is so much lighter and easier to hold. But for reference books such a nature or cookery books it has to be a physical book.

One of the joys of the Kindle is being able to download books at any time, you do not have to travel miles to a shop or wait for them opening, a bonus for me as I live miles and miles from a bookshop.

Book, but paperback mostly. I haven't used my Kindle for ages now. I love the feel and smell of a book. Now, back to Lee Mack in the bathroom for our tete-a-tete!

Kindle all the way for me - I do have a paper novel on the go as well (re-reading a Pratchett) but it's nowhere near as convenient as the tablet. I now have two Kindles - a while ago I thought I had broken my first one, as it wouldn't communicate, so I hurriedly bought a Paperwhite version. Then idly fiddling with the original one I got it going again! So I'm feetle "two Kindles" baum...

The convenience of having a library in my pocket is wonderful.

I love the Kindle for 'story' books - novels or biographies, and don't think I'll go back to print books. I know what other posters mean, though - I do miss browsing in bookshops and coming home with a bag of books to read, all shiny and new, clean and soooo tactile. Oh and that smell! And I agree that I was probably much more selective in the old days, choosing my books carefully and rarely buying something I ultimately discarded. With the Kindle, however, I buy at the drop of a hat and have bought some real rubbish, which then gets abandoned 2 or 3 chapters in. But I have also found some absolute gems, that I possibly wouldn't have found in a bookshop, chiefly because of the 'Kindle Daily Deal' which brings quite a variety of books to one's attention. And given that these selections are cheaper than the average magazine, I don't mind risking them.
Reference books, however, must be in print form!

There is room for both. I love my Kindle, but still borrow books from the library regularly.

sheena I so understand and am exactly the same. I have a kindle which is so good but I miss books - the smell, the feel and the look. Now I have the problem of knowing that kindle books are generally cheaper unless you can find them in a charity shop, so always feel guilty about buying a book as apposed to a kindle book.

I have a kindle ...but still love to buy books as well, i can hand on a good book to my daughter and she then passes them round her friends the kindle is good but books still hold the magic feel , some are so good i get them back and reread them not quite the same with the kindle .

Love my Kindle. I do miss the feel and smell of a "real" book, but in the end it is what I read that matters, not the format. I was recently given a hardback book which I am looking forward to reading as it is a new and highly acclaimed one. But I am NOT looking forward to carrying it with me in trains, park etc.!

I usually buy a Sunday newspaper on the Kindle, it is cheaper and I don't have to walk to the shop! But pictures and some parts are missing, and it is by far inferior to a real paper.

I love my Kindle, which I've had for several years now. I still own too many 'real' books, which were threatening to take over the whole house at one point. I do still buy the occasional book, but operate on a 'one in, one out' principle. I am planning to downsize in a year or so and it's good to think that thanks to the Kindle, I can still have my library even in a small flat.

I love my Kindle! I remember remarking, last time this subject came up here, on how many of my friends had eventually converted, after the whole "I'd rather have a real book" thing. But, really, both books and Kindles have their place, so it doesn't matter, does it?

I thought I would miss handling books but since I was given my Kindle I am totally converted. I only tend to read free books and have reread a lot of the old classics, seeing them from a totally different point of view. I've just finished 'To Kill a Mockingbird' last read in my teens.
I love the fact that the print can be enlarged for my failing eyes and the last page I was reading pops up immediately. I have read loads more as it is so easy to pop into my bag and time spent in Hospital and Doctors' waiting rooms is not longer wasted. I was quite annoyed at my last blood test that I was seen very quickly!

I use an iPad mini with the Kindle app and the Audible app, both Amazon, hundreds and hundreds of books and not a single tree used.
The Kindle and Kindle apps work very well but the Audible app is a nightmare. It's just spat over 100 audio books out and after I has downloaded them again spat them out for the second time.