e-reader or tablet for English/French language books ?

Mountainsandh

I might treat myself this Christmas with a tablet or reader, and would love some advice, have been looking at Kindles etc... but I'm still confused.

I'm French so I would like to access both French and English language books.
I would love access to the internet as well, apps, etc... as a bonus.

Got caught before with one of the first versions of a Sony e-reader which was purchased in US, but wouldn't let me buy from US store (French visa card), only source was Waterstones. I would love to avoid that hassle now, and have access to Amazon (French and UK versions), Eason's, French Fnac...

I'd love the battery life of a Kindle, was looking at the Kindle/Fire tablet type thing. Would I be better off getting a cheap Kindle and a separate tablet ?

Thanks

dohouch

I live in Ireland and use my Kindle Paperwhite to read Spanish books,and primarily bought it for this reason. I'm a long time learner. I went for the Kindle because of battery life, plus suspect Amazon have best choice. I have to buy my books either from Amzon.com or Co.Uk. have done both. Don't get access to Amazon .es.

The offline dictionary, RAE, Esp<>Esp is a disappointment. It is often downright lazy in IMHO. Too often the word you are looking up is used in definition, also because pronouns,etc get added to verbs in Spanish you have to input manually.

I have a tablet also as browser on Kindle is pre-dial-up in terms of speed. Apart from battery life most tablets are much heavier than kindles

Mountainsandh

Thanks a lot dohouch.

You don't get access to amazon.es ? :eek:

I thought with the Kindle accessing amazon.fr would be no bother.
It is kind of important for me, because I find that some French books take a while to come out onto the amazon.co.uk site, in paper form at least. Maybe that doesn't apply for ebooks. I'd love to have direct access to best sellers from both Ireland and France, sometimes as soon as they're released.

I'm not too pushed for it to be a tablet too, I use my laptop mostly... I can always get myself a tablet at a later time.

I read online that one of the Kindles, 3G ready, had direct free access to the internet practically every where for downloading books, is that a real thing or is there a subscription to amazon prime or something ?

dohouch

@Mountainsandh: Forgot something very important, Every time I look up a Spanish word it is added to a vocabluray list that I can go over later if I want to refresh.

I think a Kindle can only be registered to one store, either "co.uk or .com" . For us in Ireland we have a choice but it's either one or the other.
I never tried to register my kindle on amazon.es BUT

---

copied from amazon.es site , ebook pages "

"Los títulos Kindle correspondientes a tu país no están disponibles en Amazon.es.
Compra títulos Kindle en Amazon.co.uk.

¿Has cambiado de país

Not sure if I would need a Spanish address (false addresss is no problem as all books are delivered wirelesly) or Irish address with different credit card, but for sure I would have to remove my Kindle's "co.uk" registration. That would mean wiping the slate and loosing all content.

Maybe somebody knows if I could register the Kindle Tablet app on one domain"co.uk" and the Kindle on amazon.es

Mountainsandh

Thanks for that !

Address in France is no bother, but I wouldn't like to lose access to English language books either.

I guess I'll just have to register with .co.uk, and hope that my French titles will be available. Haven't really looked at the Fnac site, maybe they allow downloads from abroad, although I guess if it's a royalties issue they won't.

I can take my time anyway, after Christmas is fine since it's for myself. There was a good offer on a high spec Kindle fire on Argos, but they're all gone, I'm thinking if I wait for restock after Christmas I might get a good price.

The vocabulary is not really an issue since I'm French, I guess it wouldn't harm to have definitions for English words at times alright.

dohouch

From Kindle Help Community

yes, I have one kindle registered to amazon.fr and 6 to amazon.com and it works as I live in France

the problem you might potentially face is forgetting, while you're in the US for 6 months, and ordering downloading lots of books in that time period on your French or UK account - you might have to go through the hassle of proving that you live in whichever country it is

on the otherhand, you can register to amazon.com and by changing your country settings while you're in other country, have access to almost all the same books that you woud on that country's kindle store. I've only found a few books on amazon.fr that aren't on amazon.com

Also

the person you knoew from France was a tad bit clueless as there are over 2 million ebooks in English an amazon.fr (I have a kindle registered thee and I know this is true)> I just looked and there are at this moment 2 238 948 résultats pour Boutique Kindle : Ebooks Kindle : Ebooks en langues étrangères : Ebooks en anglais

and it looks like there are even more on amazon.co.jp = 2,315,696 Kindle (English)

on amazon.co.uk, you have 2,921,741 total books - 645,609 = 2,276,132

all of which means there are more books in English on amazon.co.jp than there are on amazon.co.uk and y'all have just a few moer than amazon.fr

Dades

Also bear in mind you can convert any other type of eBook (or PDF) to work on your Kindle and put it on your device. Most people use a really simple bit of free software called Calibre.

So if you find a book you want in a another format from another source that's not a problem.

Lastly, a tablet is not good for reading long term.

Mountainsandh

dohouch wrote: »

the person you knoew from France was a tad bit clueless as there are over 2 million ebooks in English an amazon.fr (I have a kindle registered thee and I know this is true)> I just looked and there are at this moment 2 238 948 résultats pour Boutique Kindle : Ebooks Kindle : Ebooks en langues étrangères : Ebooks en anglais

I didn't mention anyone telling me anything about amazon.fr

What I said is that I use amazon.fr to get French language paper books, because some of the newer French titles I might want are not available on amazon.co.uk straight away. It probably takes a little time to sort out royalties.

I could go the opposite, like you are suggesting, and register with amazon.fr and get my English books on it, but then I guess some of the Irish titles, or other English language books that are newly released, may not be available straight away.

I do get a feeling I'll get a bit more scope with amazon.co.uk, so I think that's the one I'll register with. I checked on some of my favourite French authors last night, and most of their titles were available in French language from .co.uk, so hopefully there won't be too many frustrating situations.

@Dades thanks for the tip, I had seen that mentioned on other threads alright, it is great. It means that if I find a smaller outfit in France that sells ebooks I might be able to buy newer titles from them. That would be ideal, one account only with amazon, but another account with another French librarian, and a French address.

I hadn't thought of that before.

Would that be possible, or awkward to set up ?
In the worst case scenario, I could always download the books from the French librarian to my laptop, then transfer them to the Kindle, is that possible ?

Also Dades, are you saying the tablet is tough on the eyes if you read too long on it ? Isn't the Kindle Fire a bit better than other tablets in that regard ?

Dades

The free software makes it very easy to convert - it's really just a drag and drop type step. If you can get a file in any common eBook standard you'll be able to get it on your Kindle no bother.

Don't let the Kindle name fool you - the Kindle Fire is a tablet like an iPad or a Galaxy Tab. This means the screen is backlit like any smartphone or surfing device.

For extended, comfortable reading you will want an eReader which uses an eInk display. The Kindle Paperwhite, while you can read it in the dark, uses subtle side lighting to light the otherwise un-illuminated page which avoids the strain caused to your eyes by the backlit screens mentioned above.