# Kindle lies!



## Paul_C (Dec 6, 2019)

It probably doesn't, really. 

However, I find that it takes much longer to get from 0 - 50% than it does to get from 50 - 100%. 

So it feels like a lie, even though I'm sure it isn't.


----------



## Elckerlyc (Dec 6, 2019)

Nah.... I have exactly the same feeling with dead-wood books. Reading the second half always seem to take less time as the first half.


----------



## Alex The G and T (Dec 6, 2019)

Well some books can't be finished soon enough.  Others, you wish would never end.


----------



## tinkerdan (Dec 7, 2019)

I've never seen this.
I always have the percentage on because they rarely if ever have page numbers; so its the only way to tell where you are. The percentage seems pretty accurate.

On the other hand I don't think their estimated times for finishing chapters are very realistic. 

I haven't had a whole lot of trouble with books I couldn't finish or couldn't wait to finish. I like to pace myself.
In fact some of the worst, I've read twice; to figure out what went wrong with them.

I used to have that trouble with not wanting the book to end--because I love the character so much--since publishing my own I seem to have had a change of heart in that respect. Now I pace myself and savor the whole story to the end.

The best books are the ones you can't put down and you plow through them from front to back and then sit and marvel over it for a while, while rolling it from cover to cover in your hands...wait you can't do that with a kindle.

Yeah, I still like paper books so I can do that.


----------



## -K2- (Dec 7, 2019)

tinkerdan said:


> The best books are the ones you can't put down and you plow through them from front to back and then sit and marvel over it for a while, while rolling it from cover to cover in your hands...wait you can't do that with a kindle.
> 
> Yeah, I still like paper books so I can do that.



That's what happened to me when I read Swan Song. Three days later I finished. Recently, I went back to try and sort out exactly what about the writing compelled me to do that. I'm still not sure. 

K2


----------



## J Riff (Dec 7, 2019)

Kindle 3, battery on way from China, it better work. 35$, the most spent on tech in a decade, pretty sure it will fire up and I can reload it with good good stuff, and not leave it on a bus this time, thank you.


----------



## soulsinging (Dec 12, 2019)

tinkerdan said:


> On the other hand I don't think their estimated times for finishing chapters are very realistic.



This gets me into trouble all the time at home as I tell my wife "only 3 more minutes left in this chapter, then I'll come to bed!"


----------



## Venusian Broon (Dec 12, 2019)

Elckerlyc said:


> Nah.... I have exactly the same feeling with dead-wood books. Reading the second half always seem to take less time as the first half.



It's because you are going downhill. 

The week past Wednesday noon always goes quicker than the first half, for example. Uphill is always harder.


----------



## tinkerdan (Dec 13, 2019)

Then Friday the 13th shows up...


Venusian Broon said:


> The week past Wednesday noon always goes quicker than the first half, for example. Uphill is always harder.


...and it's like, when will this day end.


----------



## biodroid (Dec 17, 2019)

I noticed that if you have the page counter on and you read 2 pages, it only says you have read 1. And what is it with location numbers? How do you understand those compared to page numbers and time left in the chapter?


----------



## Foxbat (Dec 24, 2019)

I bought a kindle simply because I was running out of room for books. I was a reluctant user but I grew to like it. Now I like it even more and thought I'd explain why. Happy as I was with the original, I then bought a kindle Fire HD a few years back and it's been of great benefit to me. As I get older and my eyesight gets worse, I find it difficult to read under artificial light (I find energy saving bulbs just don't have the oomph of the old tungsten ones) but the Fire with its backlit screen has been a great help. I find it's the best way to read at night.

So, for all its faults, and although I still prefer print in the daytime,  I couldn't do without my Fire now.


----------



## Wyrmlord (Dec 24, 2019)

With all the hate people give eBooks, I am a staunch supporter for the Kindle Paperwhite. It's seriously the best in the line. Compact, with a great backlight, it can't be beat.


----------



## Overread (Dec 24, 2019)

Wyrmlord said:


> With all the hate people give eBooks, I am a staunch supporter for the Kindle Paperwhite. It's seriously the best in the line. Compact, with a great backlight, it can't be beat.



I've yet to talk to anyone who reads novels who has yet to hate a Kindle. Even those who were dead against them still end up loving them. 

The e-readers are simple in what they do, they let you read books. The Paperwhite with the backlight are just fantastic. Even in modest lighting where its not "bad" but not great they take strain off the eyes. No more clip on lights that only light half a page and flop around; no more contorting your back to get the light in the right place; no more annoying others in the room etc... Just turn it on and read. The ability to boost the text size and carry hundreds of books in less space than the average paperback are further great boons! 

Plus I rather like being free to choose to buy special editions and really great print books, whilst buying all the regular reading books on the Kindle. Plus you can read a special edition or picture edition once for the differences it offers and the leave it nice and safe on the shelf. The kindle version can be the "dog eared" version that gets read a dozen times - and its spine will never break nor its text wear thin. 



Also I find many who hate ebooks often talk about not wanting to read on their computer or with the glaring light from an LCD screen - the soft light from an e-reader is a world away.


----------



## Elckerlyc (Dec 24, 2019)

<Kindle Paperwhite owner>


----------



## Foxbat (Dec 25, 2019)

I often come across books that I'd like to read but hesitate at paying £30 or £40 for (usually history books etc.). Often, I can get them on sale for the kindle for under a tenner. The Fire HD is great for all the colour plates and photos that often appear in these publications.


----------



## Pyan (Dec 25, 2019)

Overread said:


> I've yet to talk to anyone who reads novels who has yet to hate a Kindle. Even those who were dead against them still end up loving them.
> The e-readers are simple in what they do, they let you read books. The Paperwhite with the backlight are just fantastic. Even in modest lighting where its not "bad" but not great they take strain off the eyes. No more clip on lights that only light half a page and flop around; no more contorting your back to get the light in the right place; no more annoying others in the room etc... Just turn it on and read. The ability to boost the text size and carry hundreds of books in less space than the average paperback are further great boons!
> Plus I rather like being free to choose to buy special editions and really great print books, whilst buying all the regular reading books on the Kindle. Plus you can read a special edition or picture edition once for the differences it offers and the leave it nice and safe on the shelf. The kindle version can be the "dog eared" version that gets read a dozen times - and its spine will never break nor its text wear thin.
> Also I find many who hate ebooks often talk about not wanting to read on their computer or with the glaring light from an LCD screen - the soft light from an e-reader is a world away.



Plus if you forget your reading glasses, you can enlarge the text until it's readable without them....

The only bad point on my Paperwhites (I've had three) has been the fragility of the micro-USB charging socket. Hopefully, they'll eventually change it to USB-C.


----------



## Foxbat (Dec 26, 2019)

pyan said:


> The only bad point on my Paperwhites (I've had three) has been the fragility of the micro-USB charging socket. Hopefully, they'll eventually change it to USB-C.


Agreed. I've got to (as we say up here) _shoogle the plug aboot a bit_ until I see the charge icon. And to use another phrase, if it weren't so good to read from, my kindle's coat would be on a shoogly peg


----------



## Pyan (Dec 26, 2019)

Foxbat said:


> Agreed. I've got to (as we say up here) _shoogle the plug aboot a bit_ until I see the charge icon. And to use another phrase, if it weren't so good to read from, my kindle's coat would be on a shoogly peg


And when it got to the point that charging it involved two elastic bands, several paperclips, a Klippit, a copy of _The Complete Works of the Brothers Grimm_ and an absolutely vibration-free surface, then I gave up...


----------



## Overread (Dec 26, 2019)

Charging connection points are weak on so many modern appliances. I know that my old laptop went for over a decade without issue, but more modern machines my siblings have had, have ALL had problems where the charge connection point breaks inside the laptop. 

Though I have to admit that my Kindle hasn't had issue with the charging port (touch wood)


----------



## Parson (Dec 26, 2019)

I love my Kindles. I don't put too much stock into the x amount left statements. For one reason, often that statement includes the tease from the next book which I almost never read!

I've not had a problem with the charging port, but I've two young 5 + 7 grandsons who have ruined more than a few kid's versions of the Kindle Fire. For the first time (maybe ever?) the insurance I bought for them has paid off handsomely.


----------



## tinkerdan (Dec 26, 2019)

This is definitely a problem with any device that has those Micro-USB Connectors


pyan said:


> The only bad point on my Paperwhites (I've had three) has been the fragility of the micro-USB charging socket. Hopefully, they'll eventually change it to USB-C.


It is exacerbated by readers who leave the device plugged in while they read.
The biggest part of the problem is that both the connector on the cable and the one on the device are prone to being stretched and worn over time and they no longer fit as tight as they should.  I think the only way around that problem would be to find something new or create something different.

I have found that shopping around for cables is helpful;  least one connector[the one on the cable]is tight for a small period and works until you wear it down. The other is to buy cables that are one foot long so that you have to unplug the thing before trying to read.

I have one device that has never had that problem because I have a place to put the device where I don't have to hold it and move it around and I can keep it plugged in without all the hand movement wearing out the connectors I've replaced my better half's cables about a dozen times and her device twice. The problem for her is that she reads so much that she runs the charge down only half the way through a days reading and has to plug it in to continue to read. The device I'm using that has not had the problem was the first one she wore out(prior to my discovery that a new cable often works to fix the problem) and as I said that one is still working fine.


----------



## -K2- (Dec 26, 2019)

If reading while charging is a problem for some due to habits they cannot break, than perhaps a simple docking station to charge the device is the solution.

K2


----------



## Foxbat (Dec 27, 2019)

I've replaced those small barrel jack sockets (2mm)  that you often find in electical goods with external power supplies. It's fairly straightforward but a bit fiddly.  All you need is the right sized screwdriver, a soldering iron, solder sucker and good long-nosed pliers. I wonder how difficult it would be to replace a micro USB socket (if I can get one). 

Actually, thinking about it, if the manufacturers made a modular variety in order that you could simply unplug the bad socket and replace with a new one...but they wouldn't because it would mean we would buy less items in the long run


----------



## Pyan (Dec 27, 2019)

Foxbat said:


> Actually, thinking about it, if the manufacturers made a modular variety in order that you could simply unplug the bad socket and replace with a new one...but they wouldn't because it would mean we would buy less items in the long run



I've three items I charge on my desk at home - my Kindle, my personal i-Phone, and my work Samsung X-cover PDA (soon to be four, as we're being issued with Surface Pros for mobile working). I've had to get a 4-socket extension to accommodate a micro-USB charger, a Lightning connector and a USB-C charger. Can you imagine the problems if your toaster, your electric kettle, your microwave, your blender and your fridge all had different shaped and sized plugs?

I thought about getting a multi-USB socket mains charger, but have seen and heard some bad reviews about them. Anyone got first-hand experience?


----------

