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[The Local Dialect]

Right. I can read my Kindle for hours on end without it hurting my eyes. I have the newest version of Kindle, the very inexpensive one with the ads. It is only $79 USD from Amazon. It is just like a book -- if you're reading in the dark you have you use a book light.

The new Kindle tablet, the Kindle Fire, IS backlit, so if the non-backlit thing is important to you (and if you do a lot of reading, it probably will be) then stay away from that model. On the other hand, if you're looking for a tablet it is very inexpensive (for what it is) and can do most of the fun stuff that other tablets can.

[Cassnadra]

I heart my kindle.

I seem to manage to get wireless connections where others can't.  It can be dangerous when I'm bored though.  I just buy the next book.

[Foscolo]

You can connect your Kindle to a USB port on your PC, transfer PDFs of whatever type across and then read them. As mentioned above, Project Gutenburg ( http://www.gutenberg.org/ ) has enough free stuff to keep you going for a few centuries.

I'd really recommend paying a little extra to get the Kindle version with the keypad at the bottom. This makes it much easier to navigate reference books and search for things to download. If you get the 3G version, you can also use it for emergency internet browsing and email on the move in many countries. It's far from perfect for that, but just about workable.

[Just Like Mr Benn]

Apparently Kindles are now available to buy in China, at Amazon China and Suning.

Admittedly you could get them fairly easily on Taobao anyway.


http://gigaom.com/2013/06/07/amazon-starts-selling-kindle-paperwhite-and-fire-hd-in-china/

Amazon started selling Kindle e-readers and tablets in China on Friday. The front-lit Kindle Paperwhite e-reader is ¥849 (USD $138), and the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD is ¥1499 (USD $244) for the 16 GB version and ¥1799 (USD $293) for the 32 GB version.

Amazon launched a Chinese Kindle store, with iOS and Android apps for reading ebooks, in December. The store contained around 25,000 ebooks at launch and is now up to about 47,000 titles. When I surfed around a Google Translated version of the store today, I noticed that the device page translates as “Optional Kindle device,” perhaps to remind users that they don’t actually have to buy a Kindle in order to read ebooks. Most of the books in the Chinese Kindle store are priced very, very low, with the top 15 bestselling books in the store all priced under 3 yuan (USD $0.49) and many at 1 yuan (USD $0.16).

[Tree]

Has anybody bought a decent e-book reader that will display *ahem* not entirely legal e-books?

I'm not sure about getting a Kindle as I heard you absolutely have to buy everything for it. And the price is high too.

I was looking at this one on TaoBao: http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=10223245219&prt=1330002313031&prc=1

Any opinions from anyone who knows what they are talking about on this subject? (I sure as hell don't) 

I have limited experience with e-books, but what I do know is how to ahem.

I've had success with the Nook, as well as the Korea Nuut. Both loaded up .pdf and/or .docs just fine. Had to fiddle with the formatting for some.

For an more information PM wakethenight. She's a writer and spend oodles of time messing around with different ereaders.

[The Local Dialect]

Mr. Benn I too had noticed the Chinese Amazon site had finally started carrying Kindles and e-books.

Interestingly, the Amazon version is not really significantly cheaper than the American import version you can get on Taobao, and the Japanese version is actually even cheaper. I've been thinking of upgrading my basic Kindle to a Paperwhite but I think I'll stick with the American version in case I need to use it outside of China. I wonder if I give my basic Kindle (bought in America) to my husband if he could get Chinese Amazon e-books on it?