September 15, 2011

Why a Kindle

I always thought the Kindle and other e-readers were simply only for those who travel alot, and who are on the go and need the convenience of having a library closer than just in down the street. But I have changed my mind and recently invested in one.


What changed my mind was a sale I saw on G.A. Henty Books. A company was selling these historical fictions novels I just love for a little over $7 a piece! WOW! What a steal. Now these books usually go for $16 to $25 a piece and my boys love love love love them. So I went to my shelf took down the Henty books I owned and began to put the ones I didn't have into my shopping cart. Once I had the books all selected and in the cart then I looked at the final cost and realized something profound....if I bought a Kindle I could save a pretty penny and get all these books for virtually free, plus many more to boot. So I did some research and then I did it. I bought us a Kindle.


One thing a really like about this purchase is the access I now have to vintage, old, public domain books. In the past I would print them with my laser printer and bind them in various ways to use them in my lessons. But printing costs money. It is also alot of work. Not to mention that many of these older books are copied so that the pages which in real life had a color to them now print a dark grey. Not so easy to read and very ugly too. But with the kindle no problem. I now have list upon lists of old books I can download into my Kindle for free. I have a library in my hand. On raining or inconvenient days when it just isn't easy to get down to a library I am set.

Here are a few sites to check out for downloadable reading at your finger tips some are free, some for a small price under $5 or so.

Project Gutenberg FREE
Manybooks FREE
Yesterdays Classics E-reader books
Amazon Kindle FREE
Amazon Kindle Store
Archive.org

If books are not in a Kindle format the Kindle can read a PDF and with some clicks of the buttons you can get those in a readable fashion as well. Also the Kindle will play MP3 and other audio formats so if you like audio books like we do then there are a few sites to check out to store those on your Kindle as well. I hook mine up to speakers so we all can listen to the story while the kids are doing dishes or in lying bed on their way to sleep.

Librivox
Recordings of books for Ambelside Year 0-4
Recordings of books for Ambelside Year 5-8
My Audio School (pay $15 and get more than your money's worth of audio books)
Project Gutenberg Audio

I use my Kindle as a read aloud device for the many vintage and public domain books we love to read. It is a book, a book shelf, and an MP3 player all in one. I waited until this year to buy because now my boys are ready for longer stories and more complicated plots. Though they still enjoy books with picture they also enjoy books that feed their imaginations. And because we simply love the older writers and the classics

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