On 1/13/2016 9:51 PM, Unquestionably Confused wrote:
On 1/13/2016 2:02 PM, Frank wrote:
On 1/13/2016 2:17 PM, Don Y wrote:
SWMBO is complaining that the library is turning more and more to
ebooks (do away with the brick&mortar facilities and let amazon
act as the "library" -- some sort of contract they've hammered out).


[snip]


[These are all issues that my "solution" avoided...]

I've got the cheapest Kindle and even though the screen is only 7 inches
it is very readable because you put books in their format.

I'm sure their Kindle Fire is better as there is a touch screen and
color.

Amazon will let you download the reader to any machine as they want to
sell books but there is plenty of free stuff from them or others, e.g.
the Gutenburg project - http://www.gutenberg.org/

Then there is free software where you can inter-convert formats for the
reader programs - http://calibre-ebook.com/

+1 on Calibre, Don. It's a FANTASTIC program. Also, if you have access
to the usenet (doh!) there are a number of binary groups there that post
books in the epub and mobi format. Regardless of what reader SWMBO
winds up with, Calibre will catalog them, convert them to the needed
format and load them to your device.

She's like paper books? Help her with the transition and recommend that
no matter what reader she buys, that she buys a "cover" for it. I went
with Barnes and Noble's Nook reader and was quite happy with it. Then I
bought an iPad 3 and have abandoned the Nooks in favor of the iPad. Love
it and works fine for me. With the cover you can hold the Nook or iPad
as if you were holding a book. Makes getting used to the eReader very
simple.



I would avoid trying to download a free copy of somebody's swiped copy
of a book normally for sale. Too much potential for a malicious virus.