I am often surprised at how many of my friends don't have or use a Kindle. I sometimes ask if they have one because I could send them a gift ebook. I can and have sent ebooks and audiobooks (which are all electronic one way or another) to friends that haven't been using any computer or other device to read or listen. But it is easier and faster for the recipient if they already have an Amazon account, which includes of course, a logon and a password. Quite a few respond with the love of paper and ink:" I still love the feel of a [paper] book in my hands."
I have used such books all my life. There are still publishers today who fear ebooks, don't want to deal with Amazon or Barnes and Noble, are simply too swamped with work and plans to bother getting into an additional format and its complications.
You can read Amazon electronic books in any browser such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and the many others. I do understand that if the customary place and physical position for reading is a favorite arm chair, that looking at the text of a book at a computer station doesn't feel as good. That is just where a Kindle or an iPad or other tablet with a Kindle app on it comes in.
There are three main points, even though other things matter, too. The Amazon Kindle ebooks are cheaper, often 50% cheaper. That matters if you want to conserve funds. Secondly, the ebooks are ultra-compact. 1500 books all together weigh very close to zero weight. A Kindle weighs 10 ounces, regardless of the number of books in it or waiting in your archive. Thirdly, and most exciting to this white-haired still-a-child, the books come to the user THROUGH THE AIR! I have been getting ebooks since 2008 and I have many but it is still a thrill that a book I just heard of is in my possession, being read, one minute after I hear of it. I don't use a computer or wires. I hear or see that it exists, it sounds good, Bang! I am reading it. The least expensive Kindle costs $79. That is less that what you spend at the grocery store.
You don't need to spend that much to try Amazon ebooks. You can look at it on a computer, tablet or smartphone. But it is good to have one place where you have Amazon send your books the first time they are downloaded. A Kindle is very portable and can be read in your armchair more comfortably that that heavy paper book.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
