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I try not to use the Kindle app on my phone, app on my PC (& tablet) for the same reason I don't really like on line documentation. While searching is easier I prefer a book for reference as when I throw a phone at the wall the phone disintegrates Seriously the images in Kindle are not up to the quality needed (I'm an Electronics guy) some books are poor and on a Kindle copy illegible. Kindle quick, searchable. Dead wood legible. My two penny worth. 
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Kindle is bad for technical books because at some point there will be a code listing and the editors never think to check it fits nicely on one page...so you just have to scroll past the "flock of birds" page.
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I got my Nexus 7 two years ago, and can say with my hand on my heart I haven't opened a paper book since.
The Kindle itself annoyed me (the page change was too slow, and the screen quality a bit low) and the Kindle app is just annoying, so I mostly use FBReader, though I have 4 or five reader apps installed (so I can switch quickly between books when I need to).
Being able to hold hundreds of books on the tablet and carry them everywhere is wonderful! Highlight text, copy it to google and get a definition immediately? Brilliant! And you try searching a paper book for something you know is in there somewhere...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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I love my kindle for fiction and news but I also read a lot of non-fiction, especially popular science books and mathematics. They are definitely worse than reading the paper version:
- Graphics don't always appear in the right place or even at all.
- In the maths books, you can expand the text but the equations get left behind so fractions and powers can be difficult to read
- Explanatory panels that focus on a particular topic can be embedded anywhere and lose their distinctive styling
Overall, they're a bit of a nightmare but then again, so is lugging around a lot of technical books which can be quite bulky.
David
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I use to love Kindles when I was a kid, the mix of milk chocolate and white, the anticipation of what's going to be inside the yellow egg and then assembling the toy (hoping it wasn't a girls).
You know there are instructions inside if you haven't got the hang of it?
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Some of those toys were really good! And the yellow plastic egg came in handy too - the cat loved 'em!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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So long as it isn't a book with swaths of code in it you're expected to copy(which generally fits better if you flip it over to landscape) I'd say it's far better.
I've bought what is easily 40 lbs worth the programming books on mine, I carry the lot of it in the kindle and have it all available more or less all the time. It's also slowed the growth of my recreational reading shelf considerably, which is good as the shelf is beginning to consume all of the area around it. Still reading, just not getting everything hard back.
My one piece of advice with it, turn the text size as small as you can manage. Odds are it'll still be bigger than a trade paper back. If that is still huge after changing the settings on the kindle, look into some of the unpack/repack software for e-books. I've had to neuter some remarkably poor publisher decisions in terms of font size more than once. That helped me a great deal with a few of the programing books, turning the page every half sentence isn't what I was looking for.
Edit: Lies, I have more than one thing of advice. Drop the brightness to the minimum you're comfortable with and turn airplane mode on. It'll save battery and I've found the less bright backing easier on my eyes, but it really depends on the light around me at the time.
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I still prefer paper. I don't think I've used Kindle in the last year.
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Luddite! 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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You didn't use the secret handshake.
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Ha! That's where you are wrong: I typed that with one trouser leg rolled up, and shaking a yellow budgie in my other hand...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Oh, you're an Orthodox Luddite. Sorry, I took you for a Reformed Luddite.
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Actually I'm a Reformed Cultist of The Ichor God Belshamaroth, but I'm a closet Luddite on Tuesdays when there is an "F" in the date.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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OriginalGriff wrote: when there is an "F" in the date.
Any day I get to "F" in a date is a good day.
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I read most of my fiction on my Kindle; non-fic is mostly paper (or even PDF on the PC). Other people have commented on code formatting problems; my more general problem is that with history/etc books I often want to be able to flip back between text and maps/charts/tables/etc. That's easy to do with dead trees; not so much with an eReader. What I think I need is a tabbed ereader; one tab for the main text and the ability to add more tabs for each reference I want to be able to refer to quickly.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Kindle is not perfect, but it is a heck of a good substitute for non-technical books (or any other books with lot of images/drawings).
I went back to the public library a couple of weeks ago; got some books and found it hard to read (and to have in my bags while commuting).
I'd rather be phishing!
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I use iBooks on my iPad and Calibre on my PCs. I am not a fiction person; almost all of my reading is technical. Mostly I prefer ebooks (epub format) but still love the dead-tree edition of PC Gamer.
According to my calculations, I should be able to retire about 5 years after I die.
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I love reading on my Kindle.... but I haven't used it for reference material at all. Not sure why, but I'm guessing because I somehow knew in the back of my mind that it wouldn't work well for that because of the size of the screen.
At least it's a great alternative to having a ton of books. I tend to read a lot but I'm also a bit of a neat freak, so I don't care for a bunch of books.
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It would be easier if mine didn't crash constantly - anything less than 60% battery and it will crash
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I like the kindle for "entertainment" reading.
For research things. I prefer. Books24x7 or safarionline I have used both. I prefer SafariOnline.
It takes care of the code copy and paste issues etc....
Not sure why one would try to use the kindle version or any technical book. Searching and stuff is just horrible on that platform.
To err is human to really mess up you need a computer
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As I said mentioned here on CP tonight, I have yet to find anything technical remotely readable, even less usable, on a Kindle.
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Hi All,
Regulars will know of employment trouble, I now have two second interviews coming. I feel that while I could do both jobs one is beyond the 'Here Be Monsters' sign very close to the middle of know where, the other is much closer to life but does work in an area which I don't really know (but the employers seem to want to train me!). Any suggestions, Help?
Glenn
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Two-second interviews ? Like *starts counting* one ... two ... done ? You should be more confident in yourself, I am sure you can last at least five minutes. 
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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Hope springs eternal, never really been in this situation before 
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