In May of 2007, I wrote about the Problem with books in English and I updated my thoughts on the topic on Feb 13, 2009 update: books in English. Today I received a comment from Carolina about the possibility of using Kindle, here is what she says, ‘
Ginger --- The Kindle is now available to purchase in lots of places internationally including Brazil. (Import duties apply.) Go to Amazon.com. Search for Kindle. On any Kindle page it will tell you it is available now internationally and gives you a link to search for a country. Pull the dropdown box to Brazil. Click on the link to coverage areas for wireless downloads, and type in a city & country. Looks like Nova Friburgo is within the hi-speed area, certainly Rio is.
Kindle comes with a U.S. electric adaptor, but international ones are available for an extra charge. Kindle isn't lighted like a computer screen, but a light is available to attach to it.
Apparently 350,000 titles. plus newspapers and magazines are now available in English. Not all can be downloaded everywhere due to copyright laws. Some titles cost $0.00 (older books in the public domain ---Jane Austin, Conan-Doyle ---or some by writers I never heard of.) Most others range from about $3.00 to $12.00. New books on best seller lists are less expensive on Kindle than in book form ---no printing costs ---but probably cost more than used paperbacks.
I understand Amazon's goal is to have every title ever published available on Kindle eventually.”
I hope this helps any x-pat who is looking into alternatives - I am personally an enthusiast of laying on the sofa reading, taking a short nap, then reading again. I sit on the veranda, in the piazza (the patio) or in front of the fire. I like the old way of reading and turning pages and don’t know it I can adapt to this new way but THANK you Carolina for the info. Just an FYI – The high speed is available in Nova Friburgo – if this is what Carolina is talking about they sell it with the cell phones, is a little box that cost R$150.00 plus the line charge by minutes of usage…. even at high speed I wonder about the cost of a download of a book. With the cost of the book, the use of the “kindle box” (cost of box/ # of books read) and the cost of the high speed download – I would think that the cost of a book soon gets as high as just buying one – the advantage would end up being the variety of choice in titles and when you want it you can have it.
Additional footnote and comment - by Texas Heather
Photo by Ginger V – my reading (napping/thinking) room.
Just to add -- if you have a US account with Amazon, as many ex-pats do, you can buy under the US plan.
ReplyDeleteThe Kindle itself, yes, is costly, but if you use your US account to buy it, the downloads are free. Simply download the book to your computer (and even with piddly internet this only takes a few seconds), then simply copy/paste the file from your computer to the file of the Kindle, by connecting the Kindle via USB plug (included w/the device) to your computer.
It is so simple, and truly worth it for having books available. There is no extra download fee needed, unless you download to your Kindle directly - Amazon charges $1.99 for a US customer outside the US to download straight to the device. But it doesn't use any extra high speed download or anything, just your regular internet connection, and it truly takes only seconds.
And, I got mine for the availability of books but wound up absolutely loving it, even though I thought I prefered the "old way". It's truly amazing.
With the variety of free books, the cost/book comes out okay. I've about 20 books so far, and only 5 were pay-for books, the rest were free. It's truly worth it for those living where English choices are limited & over-priced.
I have been fantasizing about a Kindle for more than a year. But I still have a load of books I brought with me (as well as some I've borrowed from Ginger) so I still can't justify the purchase.
ReplyDeleteI have a student who reads books on her iPhone. My eyes ache just thinking about it! (Not to mention my finger that would be clicking through pages every few seconds.)