E-reader advice please

[LouiseCastricum]

I'm thinking of buying an e-reader. Any advice please ?

[trevnhil]

I would go for a Kindle form Amazon , but there are so many differing models that you would have to sort out which was best for you.
I know with my cheaper one you can download books directly to the device wirelessly .. A few years back I had connect my reader to the computer and load from there.

[PW in Polemi]

I second Trev's recommendation. Whichever model you get, ensure it can be read in bright sunshine. I have a basic one with no integral light which means the bedside light needs to be on, same as for a physical book, and this would lead to some grumpiness on the part of my late hubby if I read in bed too long! No longer a problem.
When you order whichever e-reader you choose, get a decent cover for it too.

[Dominic]

Any tablet will do. There is a kindle app available for just about everything these days. But reading books doesn't require a huge capacity tablet, so don't spend too much.

The kindle devices themselves are very good, and come in a variety of configurations. PW is right. Get a cover too.

This is a good place to start:

https://amzn.to/2VnAhEg

And if you buy one through that link then Paphos Life will get an affiliate cut. Woohoo!

[Jim B]

Hello Louise
I would suggest a Kindle but it depends if you wish to read in English or Dutch. You would have to read the specifications to determine if the Dutch language is programmed into the Kindle if that's the language you wish to read in.
I know this because my wife likes to read in Russian and it's only fairly recently that Kindle's were available with that language.

Jim

[Dominic]

That surprises me. I would have thought the language would be decided on a book-by-book basis. Eg, you would either buy the English version of "Hot Tub Time-Machine, The Annotated Scripts" or you would buy the Russian version -
"Машина времени джакузи, аннотированные сценарии".

If not, how would something like a Greek-English dictionary work?

[PhotoLady]

If it's purely a device for reading then Kindle is definitely the best option, particularly for reading outside as the screens are built to stop the glare you get if you ever struggle with a mobile phone or tablet in the sunlight.

The original version is the Kindle Keyboard which does have a keyboard at the bottom of the device. Both me and hubby have these, mine was bought new from Amazon just over 9yrs ago. Hubby's is second hand, bought a couple of years later.

I haven't picked up a real book since I bought mine. Hubby wasn't convinced at first but he disappears to the conservatory for his read and a siesta every afternoon with his.

There have been several upgrades since then and my next one will be the Paperwhite version. It's been developed for low light reading as well as outdoors.

There are two versions I'm aware of, the latest is apparently waterproof but other than that, I don't think there were many big changes. However, check out the reviews on Amazon against each other - I always make sure the reviews are sorted by most recent first and read back a few pages.
Amazon like to put them in their own order when it comes to reviews

[Maggie B]

Hi Louise, I originally had the basic Kindle which I bought whilst living in Cyprus. It was FABULOUS for reading in sunny conditions. About 5/6 years ago I moved on to the Paperwhite Kindle and wouldn't be without it.

The advantage, as Kaye says, is you don't need a bedside light in the evening. I just recently bought one for my OH, who also likes to read a physical book, but he loves it too.

Maggie B

[Jim B]

That surprises me. I would have thought the language would be decided on a book-by-book basis. Eg, you would either buy the English version of "Hot Tub Time-Machine, The Annotated Scripts" or you would buy the Russian version -
"Машина времени джакузи, аннотированные сценарии".

If not, how would something like a Greek-English dictionary work?

Sony brought out an e-reader about fifteen years ago but it didn't support Cyrllic characters and then a company in the Ukraine brought out one called E- Reader which did. It was the first with magnetic ink I believe; I got one for the wife but they were very expensive and when it gave up the ghost we managed to get her one made in China.
We bought her a Paperwhite for Christmas a couple of years ago and I think Kindle Type 6 were the first model that did Russian.
I agree with Road Warrior regarding the Paperwhite.

Jim

[LouiseCastricum]

Thanks all for your recommendations, very helpful. One more question. I have quite some ebooks on my Ipad. Can I copy those to the Kindle?
And Jim B, I mostly read books in English, only sometimes a Dutch one.

[Dominic]

That surprises me. I would have thought the language would be decided on a book-by-book basis. Eg, you would either buy the English version of "Hot Tub Time-Machine, The Annotated Scripts" or you would buy the Russian version -
"Машина времени джакузи, аннотированные сценарии".

If not, how would something like a Greek-English dictionary work?

Sony brought out an e-reader about fifteen years ago but it didn't support Cyrllic characters and then a company in the Ukraine brought out one called E- Reader which did. It was the first with magnetic ink I believe; I got one for the wife but they were very expensive and when it gave up the ghost we managed to get her one made in China.
We bought her a Paperwhite for Christmas a couple of years ago and I think Kindle Type 6 were the first model that did Russian.
I agree with Road Warrior regarding the Paperwhite.

Jim

Interesting. I had assumed that they would both have used a unicode character set which accommodates pretty much every language. Learn something new every day.

I used to rant about unicode. Before it came along, the IT industry was a virtual global harmony, with everybody pretty much forced to communicate in English, thanks to the limits of the ascii character set. It was a virtual tower of Babel, which was collapsed by the rise of unicode and its multibyte character sets.

Now admitedly, had the language of choice been anything other than English I probably wouldn't have been so keen.

Thinking about it, it must be weird for a French person to write a modern application, as all the commands are in English.

Merde!

[LouiseCastricum]

Oh oh, Amazon doesn't deliver the Kindle to Cyprus.....

[Cheshire Lad]

Louise.....would it work, having it sent to the UK centre for lhukcy, and collecting it in Trem. 4 weeks later

CL

[Jim B]

Louise
That's right. The first Kindles had to be ordered from Amazon USA and would be delivered here.but later they had to be ordered (for us British) from Amazon UK and they won't post them to Cyprus. We had to get the wife's posted to the daughter who was studying in the UK and she brought it home with her.
Possibly you can get it posted to friends or family from Amazon De. and they can DHL it over for you.

Jim

[Jim B]

Dominic
What I know about E-Readers I learnt from my work crew in Kazakhstan who were mostly research scientists from the Mig Fighter Factory in Ufa, Russia who came to work as Instrument Techs in the Kazakh Oil Fields when the Soviet Union collapsed.
These guys used to read novels on their mobile phones and were collectively searching for the best E-Reader to spend their limited funds on. They came up with the Reader from Ukraine as it had magnetic ink and had Cyrillic on it which the Sony didn't.
Even now the Kindle will not support certain computer language, in many cases you can convert to mobi or epub but some cannot be supported.

Jim

[trevnhil]

I forgot to mention that it is, and as far as I know, always been, Amazon.com that you would get a Kindle from if you want to use it in Cyprus

[PhotoLady]

I ordered mine from Amazon.com when I bought it as we were living in Cyprus in 2011.
I ordered it on Easter Sunday and it was in my hands by DHL on Tuesday afternoon.
Very quick and tracked all the way.

[Cornelia]

Hallo Louise,
Als je Nederlandse boeken wilt downloaden moet je beslist geen Kindle kopen, want dan kun je alleen maar boeken van Amazon downloaden en de Nederlandse boeken niet lezen. Ik heb nu al mijn derde Kobo, echt geweldig. Ik lees al wel 10 jaar via min ereader en als je wilt heb ik veel Nederlandse boeken voor je, die ik via wetransfer aan je kan versturen. Zeg maar als je interesse hebt en welk genre je graag leest. met vriendelijke groeten, Liset

[Dominic]

You can get two months free Kindle Unlimited at the moment too! Worth about £15

https://amzn.to/2Vmfm4w

[trevnhil]

There are also loads of Free books for Kindles from Amazon... They load directly to you Kindle when it is online
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kin ... =UTF8&tf=1