I recently bought three Kindle Fire 7 tablets. The Kindle Fire is the Amazon answer to the iPad. I was interested in trying to find a good and inexpensive e-reader. The Kindle, the Nook (Barnes and Noble) and the Kobo ereaders are all quite similar to a paper book. The size, weight and reading convenience are much like a traditional book.
The back lighting, the print size are similar if you want them to be. Of course, the readers can hold electronic files of many books, not just one. You can remove a file and then call it back from your archives that are stored in the company's computers.
I bought the Kindle Fires, which are not electronic readers, because of the price. At the time, I could buy three Fire tablets for $34 each. That low price was only available for a set of three. I have not owned a Nook but we have several Kindle readers. The Fires are like Apple iPads in that there are many small programs and games that are free or low cost and can be loaded onto the Fire. The Kindle e-reader itself, which is handy to be THE BOOK I am currently reading, whichever book that is, costs more than the Kindle Fire tablet. Trying to introduced the convenience of ebooks to friends makes me want to have some devices they can hold and try. Right now, the cheapest new Kindle costs $99.
The Kindle Fire tablets can easily perform like a Kindle but there are so many extras, games, social media, camera and other distractions that reading tends to get put aside.
It is true that it is technically easy to load ebooks onto a computer and read the text there. However, many people work at a computer and associate it with the opposite of leisure and enjoyable reading.
Having a book-sized object that is lightweight and is kept aside just for reading is a pleasure. There some important advantages a Kindle reader has over a paper book.
It is easy and quick to make the print larger or smaller at any time.
It is easy to highlight parts of the text, to send the highlights to social media, such at Twitter or Facebook. (A file of the highlights can be quickly sent to an email account.)
It is easy and quick to add books to the Kindle without any additional equipment, wires or even a Wi-fi connection. The Kindle can download books in a cellphone-like "call".
The selection of books available for Kindle is very large and the prices are generally low, often lower than paper copies.
It is often about here that I am asked if I am an agent for Amazon.com. I am not. I am just quite pleased to have a handy collection of many books that collectively weigh 10 oz.
