<p>Well apparently my mom showed my dad what a Kindle was when they went out tonight and he said He’d rather have the hard back copies of books over a digital version so I think we may have to find a new gift unless he changes his mind.</p>
<p>^^^ I think many people feel like this until they actually use one. I was certainly skeptical. Does he like gadgets at all?</p>
<p>I thought I would never use a Kindle, but my mom bought me one and I love it! The fact that I have so many books available to read at any tmie is wonderful. I also have a few games on it. Changing the text size is one of my favorite features, since I’ve just gotten to the point that it’s harder to read small print.</p>
<p>I have to say I was a hardbound snob hold out for a long time. We have an actual library in our home with built in shelves. I don’t even own paperbacks. I swore I wouldn’t like an ereader. I love the feel of a book in my hands. I still do. But I love my kindle. We bought one for my son and I had terrible gadget envy DH got me my own. Amazon has a great return policy so you may still consider it since he’s an avid reader.</p>
<p>I’m the opposite - I don’t like hardbound books and donate the books after I read them since I’ll likely never read the book again (with a few exceptions) so I’d always wait for the book to come out in paperback first but now I just download to my Kindle.</p>
<p>fendergirl - I thought you said your dad would load up on books before going on a trip. This is the ideal situation for a Kindle since dead tree books, particularly hardbound ones, are heavy and bulky and inconvenient to carry. With the Kindle one can load up as many books as one wants.</p>
<p>The Kindle doesn’t have to replace the hardcovers completely but can supplement them for the books he doesn’t care about being hardcover or not. </p>
<p>I don’t miss the ‘feel’ of the paper pages one bit.</p>
<p>I have bought three Kindles as gifts for relatives. All three said that they liked real books when I first brought up the Kindle idea, but they add ended up loving their Kindles after a little time getting used to them.</p>
<p>It’s funny how many times I’ve heard (and said) “I love my Kindle” :)</p>
<p>And of course one thing to remember is that a Kindle is in addition to not instead of. For me it’s just another way of getting reading material. Sometimes I read a book book, sometimes I read a Kindle book.</p>
<p>I read both books and e-books, too and was very opposed to the idea for a long time, until I realized tha the Kindle would let me download books in the middle of the night if I couldn’t sleep or if I was stuck in waiting room hell. I’ve never been sorry. My D is the ultimate book snob. She is studying to be a conservator of medieval manuscripts and has always complained that ebooks are an affront to her career goals and deeply-held principles. She finally caved this semester!</p>
<p>Yeah, he’s got bookshelf upon bookshelf upon bookshelf of hard back books. He won’t buy anything in paper back. I always feel bad for my mom because his bookshelves always right now awful. Last time i saw his bookshelves he was out of room on them so he started a second row of books in front of the original row of books on each shelf. she said she was going to buy a new bookshelf one of these days.</p>
<p>he does load up on books to go on vacation… He’ll pack four or five just to go away for a few days. Obviously a kindle would be much smaller and easier to travel with. Maybe I need to talk to him about this as opposed to my mom just showing him what it was at a store. Also every day after work he can be found on his recliner reading a book or out on the deck reading a book. </p>
<p>He buys them and shares them with his mother… so i wonder if that could be part of his hesitation also. My grandmother is not a techie person at all so I don’t know how she would feel about a kindle. She has a hard enough time with her digital camera! my dad is not a huge techie but is able to send a text message… it just takes him 5 minutes to type it out. :)</p>
<p>Fendergirl, I live on the “other side” (a Nook owner 
) but I wanted to mention that maybe as a gift, the Kindle could still suit your dad. He doesn’t have to give up his hard cover books - but he can have the OPTION of downloading some books to read via Kindle. Perhaps for traveling instead of adding 10 lbs. of extra weight in his suitcase! </p>
<p>I have read several books on my Nook, but am now reading a “regular” book because I didn’t want to spend the $$$ since it was a newer release. It’s fine to go back and forth!</p>
<p>Also, if you get a cover/case for the Kindle, make sure it’s a harder/stiffer cover - with mne, the cover actually helps to mimic a hard-cover book. It holds the same and you still get to open it and shut it. :)</p>
<p>Just my experience–I got my sister a Kindle about a year ago. She loves it loves it loves it. My mom had used it a bit when she was visiting my sister so was familiar with it. We got her one a few weeks ago (for $100 less than it was a year ago!). She loves it loves it LOVES IT. Says the books sometimes are a little heavy, sometimes she falls asleep while reading and the book would topple onto her and wake her up. She likes the larger font, the small size, the lighter weight. I believe her local library is going to start an e-book lending program soon.</p>
<p>If it were my family, we’d probably go ahead and give the Kindle (pre-loaded with a few books you think he’d like), let dad live with it for a while, and then if he absolutely doesn’t bond with it, pass it on to another family member.</p>
<p>Of course, in addition to the ability to have a lot of books at hand in a small lightweight package and get books instantly, the other big advantage in the Kindle, Nook, and the like is the ability to increase the size of the font which many older readers like or need. You can’t do this with hardcover books unless one buys a special large print sized one but many don’t offer it.</p>
<p>There’s another feature I played with for a minute but don’t use - that’s having the e-book actually read the book to you. Not all authors allow this but some do. This could be handy for some people.</p>