Re: Kindle recommendations wanted
Hi Lindy
I agree with you, a tablet is a completely different beast and too heavy to cart around in a handbag etc.
When they first came out, Kindles were excellent but those early generations mostly packed up and died forcing everyone to buy new ones.
From the reviews I have read the latest Kindles are horribly unreliable and not well made. There are numerous tales of them dying after 1 year and up to 2 years. Not good.
Since, like you, I needed to get a new device, I instead opted for the KOBO reader. Much better imo. Lighting is built in and brightness adjustable so perfect for reading in bed without upsetting partner.
Your main concern will be the book formats.
Amazon of course sell books in their own format which keeps changing.
Nevertheless, there is a great piece of software you can download to a PC/laptop called CALIBRE. This allows you to manage ALL your eBooks no matter where you bought them from.
It can then take Amazon Kindle format books and convert them into a variety of other formats which the KOBO happily reads. I use the ePUB format.
So to be clear.
I still buy my books from Amazon and they are in Amazon format
I download those books from Amazon onto my PC/laptop
I whizz them through CALIBRE application on my laptop
CALIBRE strips away the nasty "digital rights management" wrapper and converts the books into ePUB format which any reader can then use
I put the ePUB version onto my KOBO reader and off I go
What this means is you no longer have to be tied to Amazon. You can if you choose buy your books from the KOBO store instead.
It also means you strip away the DRM wrapper making all your books "open" and "free" just as a real book would be.
That means if your partner also has an eReader (say another KOBO), you can copy your books onto his reader, or indeed anyone elses and they will work just fine.
With Kindles you can not do this because of that DRM wrapper.
So your choice.
Why be a slave to Amazon?
Why buy "books" that you can't let anyone else read even though you paid for them?
KOBOs all the way for me personally from this point on.
https://www.kobo.com