BS: advice about kindles

Subject: BS: advice about Kindles
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 06 May 15 - 05:59 PM

I have a trip across the pond coming, and I will need a number of books to read at night and in the middle of the night. My usual method is to go to the paperback mysteries in the public library and look for silly books. You know, the kind where the cover is hot pink, bright yellow or turquoise and the detective owns a Chihuahua.

The deal is, I don't find these books by author or title. I scan the shelves looking for the bright covers.

Such books are diverting without being upsetting. This will be a two-week trip, so I figure I need ten books.

My sister-in-law has shown me her Kindle, and it seemed comfortable to use and would weigh less than the ten books. But when I tried to find mysteries to download, all I could find was grim bestsellers that cost $8.99 each.

Does anybody know how I can use a Kindle to read the kind of books I want?

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: wysiwyg
Date: 06 May 15 - 06:42 PM

Yup!

Visit librivox.com and browse genres and authors, then look for the titles in the Kindle store. They will usually be free, since they originated at Gutenberg. All Public Domain.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: GUEST,#
Date: 06 May 15 - 07:01 PM

Susan, librivox.com has gone t/u I think. Seems the site's for sale, or domain--whatever it's called.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: wysiwyg
Date: 06 May 15 - 07:17 PM

.org, sorry!

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: GUEST,#
Date: 06 May 15 - 08:16 PM

Thanks, S. Here's the link.

https://librivox.org/

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: JennieG
Date: 07 May 15 - 02:08 AM

Leeneia, I download free mystery books from Omnimystery News who send out a daily newsletter with the day's freebies and bargains.....and yes, some of them have been similar to the books you describe!

Omnimystery News

On the right hand side of the page is "Subscribe to Omnimystery News", just follow the links. You can unsubscribe whenever you wish, too.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: peregrina
Date: 07 May 15 - 03:19 AM

book suggestion:

The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks (herdyshepherd1)
about sheepherding in the Lake District, Herdwicks and Swaledales

just out last month, available for kindle on amazon.co.uk but not yet amazon.com

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Mr Red
Date: 07 May 15 - 03:52 AM

beware reading from any led-lit device too near sleep.
Flourescent, energy saving or LED lighting contains more blue light than tungsten.
Blue light is more prevalent at mid-day. You can't buck evolution. We are not nocturnal mammals. Jet-lag can be eased by getting a dose of mid-day sun.
If you have trouble sleeping correlate it to times reading from your Kindle (eg). PC's are no different in this respect.
Some devices have soft light settings. For good reason. But it is only a partial solution.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 May 15 - 04:08 AM

leeneia, your local library may have books you can read on Kindle or other reading devices. Check your library's Website. I travel with my Kindle Fire all the time, and really like it. I download a lot of documents, magazines, and whatnot in PDF format, and they work well on my Kindle. Can't say I've bought many books in Kindle format because so much is available for free.
I did get a nice desert wildflower guide, though.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Thompson
Date: 07 May 15 - 06:46 AM

There are zillions of cheap books for Kindle.

You don't have to have a Kindle; the app is available for iPhones and iPads and Macs and PCs, and I assume for non-i smartphones. Most smartphones now are big enough that you can read comfortably on them.

If you set up a Kindle account with Amazon, you can email yourself ebooks, for instance those you download from archive.org, which has many wonderful out-of-copyright books from the 18th and 19th and early 20th centuries. (You get a special Kindle email to do this; the book then appears automatically on your device through Whispernet.) If you do this, the books will be listed in the Kindle library on your device under 'Docs'. They'll also turn up on a search of its library.

Some of the books I love and would buy on the Kindle, for instance Florence King's Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady, bafflingly are listed (though sometimes hidden) on Amazon's Kindle store, but not available for purchase.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 07 May 15 - 09:51 AM

Thanks, everyone for the information.

Unfortunately, Mr. Red's warning sounds all too correct for me. The device is going to wake me up more than ever, and that's the last thing I need. I have noticed that using my computer before bedtime wakes me up, and I fear a Kindle will do the same, even though the page looks like a nice, soft gray.

I get serious jet lag. Ah, the flight across the Atlantic with not a wink of sleep! Ah, waking up in a silent hotel at 2 am with nothing to do! I think I better stick with the paperbacks. Maybe seven will be enough....

But of course I can use all your suggestions for when I'm not travelling abroad, so thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: GUEST,Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 May 15 - 10:06 AM

Always plenty of paperbacks in charity shops, leeneia. Don't bring any - pay 50p or less for some and then give them away before you go back.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Thompson
Date: 07 May 15 - 10:21 AM

I often have a read on the iPad before sleep, and it doesn't bother me; your mileage (of course kilometres if you're coming to Europe) may vary.
For jet lag, try getting as much daylight into your eyes as possible when you arrive, to reset some gland or other; in some parts of Ireland you can buy Lullaby Milk, produced by Ardrahan Dairy in Cork (Supervalu usually has it), which is especially high in melatonin because they milk their cows at midnight for this purpose. Counsel of perfection is to fast the day before you travel and not eat on the plane; I've never managed that.
When you're looking for Kindle books, don't take Amazon's advice, just ask friends what's good and see is it available as a Kindle book and it usually is. Your kindly friends can also buy you presents, and it doesn't matter which Amazon jurisdiction you're in; I recently bought a friend Bel Canto and another Haunts of the Black Masseur, and they transferred happily from amazon.com into their amazon.co.uk and amazon.fr accounts.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Will Fly
Date: 07 May 15 - 01:48 PM

I read from my Kindle every single night - for about half an hour - and it's never had the slightest effect on my sleeping.

And, if you go for classic authors, there's lots of good stuff for free or for pennies.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: GUEST
Date: 07 May 15 - 02:15 PM

I Kindled on my tiny fone at night in he nursing home (and still do it now when I can't sleep), and I always end up as sleepy as I want to be.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: MartinRyan
Date: 07 May 15 - 02:51 PM

Haven't used Fire version but find iPad a strain to read for any time. Paperwhite version most comfortable and adjustable IMHO. Not good for PDF or colour - for both of which i use iPad when necessary.

Incidentally, I find the availability of free/very cheap books in Kindle form has me doing much more reading than has been the case for many years.

regards

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 08 May 15 - 12:07 AM

I'll keep the encouraging remarks in mind. There seems to be no doubt that LED lights wake a person up, but some people think the Kindle is not a problem. However, I say to myself that there must be a light of some kind in it.

But let me ask - if you have a Kindle in a dark room, can you still read it? Or does a light have to shine ON it to make it visible?

I do the things everyone advises in order to avoid jet lag. I go out in the sun, I try to stay up till a reasonable bed time the first day, etc.

The worst time was when somebody suggested I have a beer at bedtime. Bad advice! That's when I found out that I am one of those people who awaken five hours after having alcohol.

Since the DH retired, we are following a new method, the Time & Money Method. We fly from the Midwest to Montreal or Toronto, thus going further east and further north. We stay overnight, then we hop the pond on a somewhat shorter flight. It only cuts an hour or so off the flight, but when my legs hurt and my back hurts, and I'm very tired, an hour is a long time.

If there's a next time, I may stop in Iceland. I like Iceland.

By the way, Montreal seemed to be an unfriendly place. For one thing, I was at a cafe and was being snubbed by the nineteen-year-old staffers. I started talking German, and they suddenly became as friendly as can be. Odd, that.   

Don't forget. Can one read a Kindle in the dark?

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 08 May 15 - 12:09 AM

I think this link could help you now or in the future. It seems that you want "cozy" not "hard-boiled" mysteries. These are available for free on Kindle or for people like me who have a NOOK tablet with the Kindle app. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_ime_i_2_6?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=cozy+mysteries+kindle+free&sprefix=cozy+m%2Cundefined%2C970

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 May 15 - 12:23 AM

Hi, Leeneia - my Kindle Fire is more-or-less a tablet computer, and it has a backlighted color display - with adjustable brightness. Some of the other Kindles do not have backlights, so you need a lamp to read in the dark.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 08 May 15 - 12:31 AM

Hmm! I realized I hadn't used a clicky for my link and was about to do that, but someone (Joe Offer?) beat me to it! Thanks! Also, look closely at the books at that link. Many are free, but a few have a small price.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 08 May 15 - 12:32 AM

Uh-oh Let me try to make a clicky. Also, the free books are mingled with others that are not free but have low prices, so be careful.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 08 May 15 - 02:35 AM

I have a cover on my kindle which has a built-in light - it pops out to light the screen, and works from the Kindle's battery.

Like Will and others, I read my Kindle in bed until I start falling asleep - in my case usually five to ten minutes. I find the Kindle extremely soporific, but then TV is very soporific too, for me.

I never sleep on flights, even the long overnights I used to take from Houston TX to Amsterdam or London - too much going on - I read my Kindle the whole time.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 08 May 15 - 02:40 AM

When I travel to Canada (AB/BC) in a few weeks, I'll download my unread Kindle books to my iPad and read them there. Saves taking two devices, and saves weight/bulk in my hand-luggage.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Thompson
Date: 08 May 15 - 03:28 AM

Warning: my first Kindle met a sad end within a week when I got up on my elbow to sit up in bed…
There was a horrible crackkk and when I sank back and investigated I found that the Kindle screen was cracked and the Kindle was utterly broken.
Amazon, bless them, sent me a brand-new replacement even though it was my fault and I told them so.
I didn't find the Kindle that useful, though, and ended up selling it and buying an iPad, which I find much handier because you can do more on it; I also like its presentation of books in the Kindle app better.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Will Fly
Date: 08 May 15 - 05:22 AM

I have one of the older, original Kindles - it needs light on it to be read - just like the paper that the screen is simulating. Modern ones may have a newer technology.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 08 May 15 - 08:28 AM

Mine's one of those too, Will.
I agree with Thompson above, the iPad Kindle app presents the pages in a much nicer way.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 08 May 15 - 11:02 AM

Thanks for the info about the older Kindles.

Thompson, I'll remember that about the elbow.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Musket
Date: 08 May 15 - 11:31 AM

I loved my Kindle so much that I splashed out and got the paper white with built in backlighting. It makes a huge difference to clipping a light and jakes it easier "drop on the pillow."

The battery seems to last as long as my old one too, funnily enough.

What I like best is Whispersynch. It means if I don't have it with me but killing a bit of time, I can open the Kindle app on my iPhone or iPad and carry on from where I left off and vice versa. Train etc.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Musket
Date: 08 May 15 - 11:33 AM

Of course, the bloody iPad lives to auto correct to make posts illegible, even when I turn auto correct off!

Sorry about the jakes. I'm taking pills for it.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 08 May 15 - 07:41 PM

Chanteylass, thank you for the link and for your information. I'm going to save it in a document. "Cozies" is a good term to remember.

I draw the line at mysteries where the cat solves the crime, however. That's going too far.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 08 May 15 - 08:21 PM

I draw the line there, too!

When I'm at home I prefer hard-boiled mysteries featuring women detectives. Series about Anna Pigeon, Kinsey Milhone, and V. I. Warshawsky are among my favorites. I also like historical myseries like those with Maisie Dobbs. When I travel, though, I prefer cozies because I am usually reading while tired and don't concentrate well.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: EBarnacle
Date: 09 May 15 - 12:02 PM

My problem with Kindles began when I won a Paperwhite in a raffle. I discovered that they are locked to Amazon. Perhaps I have been spoiled by my netbook which has both Amazon and Nook applications on it and can go all over.
Most models of the Nook are "other provider capable" which is a big selling point in my book. If the seller does not have enough confidence in their product to allow other inputs, I don't patronize them.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 26 Jun 15 - 10:59 AM

Update: I ordered an old-fashioned Kindle and the clip-on light. It was a bust. First of all, the unit hardly functioned as a device. It might take 14 taps or swipes to turn the page. When I wanted to make the print smaller, it made it bigger.

When I got to the end of my first book, I could not figure out how to get off the last page and start another. (The web site was no help.) I could not find how to delete a book I had finished. and so on and so on

I thought it would be fun to read about the geology of the Rocky Mountains, but all I found in their vaunted 800,000 books was a series called the 'Rocky Mountain Six-pack Series,' whose cover featured a shirtless stud in a Stetson with his nipples pressed into a low-cut bodice.

They want $9 to $11 for an old Sheriff Walt Longmire mystery.

I thought it might be fun to re-read Tennyson's 'Idylls of the King,' but it was Not Found.

They said it would run for a month, but in less than a week, I had the low battery signal. I was ready to ship it back, but my husband thinks he can use it.   

Granted, it does not shine a light in one's eyes, and so it's nice for reading one's self to sleep. This is the old model, remember.

For my travels, I am going back to paperbacks.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: GUEST,DaveRo
Date: 26 Jun 15 - 12:03 PM

I thought it might be fun to re-read Tennyson's 'Idylls of the King,' but it was Not Found.

Idylls_of_the_King
You can load it over a USB wire - the Calibre application is useful to do that. Or you can email it to the kindle - each kindle account has an email address.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 26 Jun 15 - 02:53 PM

Classic out of print books are free via Project Gutenberg and can be sent to your Kindle.
http://www.gutenberg.org


RtS

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 26 Jun 15 - 08:27 PM

I'm sorry your Kindle was a bust and hope the two posts above will help you in the future.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Jun 15 - 08:40 PM

I have two Kindle Fire tablets. They're very versatile, and I like them very much (and they cost much less than iPads). They're lighted, and I understand you don't want a lighted display. But the display can be adjusted way down, so it's not too bright for you.
I use my Kindle Fire tablets mostly to display PDF files, and they do the job very well. I load all sorts of need-to-read things on my Kindle Fire for travel.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 26 Jun 15 - 10:12 PM

You might like M C Beaton's "Agatha Raisin" stories, or her "Hamish Macbeth" series. She is very prolific, and many UK charity shops will have a few in stock.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/m-c-beaton/

The Fantastic Fiction website is great for finding other titles by your favourite authors.

Good luck with your trip.

Ross

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: LadyJean
Date: 26 Jun 15 - 10:20 PM

I have a friend who always travels with a kindle. She says it's the best way to carry as many books she wants. They'll let you have all kinds of books for free.

That having been said, my book, "The First Class" and "These Vampires Still Don't Sparkle" an anthology with my short story Miss Transylvania in it, are both available on Kindle, very cheap.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 27 Jun 15 - 10:53 AM

I'm familiar with M.C. Beaton's books. Thanks, Ross.

Thanks for all the tips, but I'm giving up on the Kindle. I had taken the Kindle to a workshop in Texas. There I was, in the middle of the night in a dorm room whose air-conditioning didn't work. I couldn't sleep, and the stupid Kindle wouldn't bring up a new book to help me pass the time.

Plus, every move wasted battery, battery that wasn't supposed to have gone down the way it had. To me, it isn't worth the hassle.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Jun 15 - 02:51 PM

I feel the same way. I like my old wall phone. I don't see how people can stand to use a phone that needs to be recharged all the time and may stop working while you're in the middle of a call. You can't even put a new battery in and get it working again.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Jun 15 - 03:03 PM

As I often say to my Boss the Nun, leeneia, perhaps could it have been operator error? ;-)

If you want to sell your Kindle cheap....


Ross, that's the second time this week that somebody has recommended Hamish MacBeth. I think it was Micca who recommended the TV series to me, and I see it's available at Amazon in the US. Guess I'd better look into it. Micca says that the TV series was filmed in Plockton, which may well be the prettiest town on Scotland. I was privileged to spend three nights there last week.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Noreen
Date: 27 Jun 15 - 03:45 PM

Leenia, did you buy your "old-fashioned Kindle" second-hand?
Batteries get less efficient with use and age.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 28 Jun 15 - 12:55 AM

Leenia, why do you want to 'delete' books you've finished reading? Just leave them there. The 'Old Kindle' (I have the original Kindle, it's now over five years old and works perfectly) can hold over 3,000 books - at a rate of one per week, it would take over 60 years to read that number, so you're never going to 'fill it up'.

Each time I finish a book, I add it to the 'Archive' folder, so that my 'Home' page contains only un-read books, plus the one I'm currently reading. Then, if I want to re-read a book, I just move it back from the Archive into my Home folder.

No need to 'delete' read books, no reason to either, IMHO.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Thompson
Date: 28 Jun 15 - 02:37 AM

Leenia, if I or someone else hasn't said this before, you can get an @kindle.com address from Amazon for sending 'documents' - which includes books you haven't bought from them - to your Kindle. You attach the .mobi file (.mobi being the format the Kindle uses) and send the email to your @kindle.com address with no subject or content, and it will be automatically zoomed to your Kindle, where you'll find it in the Docs folder of your Library.

A couple of suggestions: do you know archive.org? This is a non-profit library of millions of out-of-copyright books.

I don't find its search very good since they changed the format in the last month, so I find it easier to find books with a search term like this in Google:

"john buchan" greenmantle archive.org

(the quotes are to make Google search for the phrase "John Buchan", the lower-case is so that it'll search for both upper- and lower-case variants, the archive.org is to direct it first to that site; if you want to limit the search to the archive.org site you change that bit to

site:archive.org

and it'll do that.

Archive.org includes a lot of Gutenberg books; it's better (often) than Gutenberg because its books tend to be formatted better.

Now, a few recommendations - my own tastes in softie detective novels, I hope you like them! Do you know Alexander McCall's No 1 Detective Agency series? Sweet books about a lady running a detective agency in Botswana. Colin Cotterill's series of books about Dr Siri, set in Laois, are lovely. You probably know Donna Leon's series set in Venice.

And not detective but kind of political satire disguised as soft-edged fantasy, Terry Pratchett's books are very funny (to me, anyway); I'm currently reading Guard! Guard! which is an anti-royalist satire.

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 28 Jun 15 - 05:36 AM

the kindle fire will do talking books, but its battery doesn't last as long as the paperwhite. you have to have it constantly on charge and it really every two three days. the paperwhite will go for weeks without a recharge,

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 28 Jun 15 - 09:59 AM

My 'original' Kindle needs a charge about once a month ( I read maybe an hour or so a day).

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 28 Jun 15 - 12:35 PM

just downloaded idylls of the king for free onto my kindle.

are you sure you have the routine - you tapp the top of the screen - the little house for home
then tap the pram -shopping basket
then search
then type in idylls of the king
then then tap the picture of the little book
then buy, even if its for free and its delivered
then you tap the little house for home
slide your finger through your books till you find the one you want
tap the one you want
start reading
should take you about a minute. ask for the kindle back. yes you can read a paperwhite in the dark without waking anyone up. with a pair of headphones and a kindle fire you can often have it read to you
i'm a fan!

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: GUEST,MikeL2
Date: 28 Jun 15 - 02:22 PM

Hi

I have a Kindle Paperwhite and have used it every single day since I bought it.

I find it very easy to read in any light conditions including outdoors in bright sunshine. I also find that my eyes don't get as tired as they do when reading a paper book.
I have had no problems whatsoever in reading before going to sleep in fact several times I have fallen asleep and found the Kindle on the bed beside me in the morning. The Kindle switches itself off after a short time to prevent battery waste.

Whilst on about the battery as I said, I use it for at least half an hour every day, usually more. I only need to re-charge about every 3 weeks.

Withe regard to finding books again I have no problem. As is advised above there is a very useful search mode where many books and genres can be found.

Kindle does do a sample of books if you wish to try before buying.

I can understand your problem of trying to alter text size etcetera, you do have to be VERY accurate with your pointer. In fact I discarded mine and use my finger. You still need to be accurate but that comes with use.

I don't know about your Kindle but my one opens automatically at the last point at which I was reading.

I have 1594 books on my Kindle. A kind friend downloaded them for me for free. There are many obscure ones among them.

So I do have to organise them in some way to be able to get what I want quickly. I find that Collections work for me although it is a bit of a chore setting them set up. But now I have I can find any book rapidly.

I wouldn't be without me Kindle. Although I do miss going to the library a Little.

regards MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: advice about kindles
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 28 Jun 15 - 07:07 PM

A big "Amen" to everything Mike said.

When you use a Kindle for its intended purpose, it's a doddle. Trouble only happens when you try to do something outside the envelope, IME. In which circumstances, you're asking for it.

IMHO, YMMV.