Quote:
Originally Posted by pokee
I have had my Kobo for a year now (Kobo WiFi) and have been pretty happy with my purchase. I've had a few hiccups over the year, but nothing as problematic as some of the posts you read on the Kobo forum here.
I've used the BC Online Library extensively. Most 'wait' times for the library books are about 3 weeks to several months - on average I'd say about 6 weeks (I had to wait 4 months for The Help several months ago! That was the longest). Since you can put a 'hold' on 5 books at a time, it's quite effortless. Just buy a book you want to read (that is not available to borrow) and read that until your borrowed book(s) become available. When your book is available, you get an email telling you that your book is ready for download. You have 3 days in which to download that title, or you will lose your place. You have 3 weeks to read it (which is usually perfect for me). There are ways around that, but I've put some books on hold several times because I never got around to reading them. Sometimes two or more books become available for download at the same time. Normally when that happens, I would 'return' the book with the shortest waitlist, and put it on hold again and read the more popular book(s).
I would never buy a Kindle since their format is not available on the BC Online Library. I think the "Kindles Available" may be referring to Kindles being available to borrow at the library pre-loaded with books - but that's just a guess. Despite the fact that you can strip the DRM and then convert/sideload the books using Calibre, why would you want to? It's just an extra set of steps! Waste of time, IMO, when you can read the book in the format it is originally formatted in.
Buying a Kindle also means you are not getting a Canadian warranty and if anything goes wrong with it, you're SOL. Some don't mind that, since not much has gone wrong with the Kindles - but it's something to consider. My friend just bought a Nook and has to go through all these workarounds to buy books from the B&N website (dummy US billing address), plus has the US warranty issue. BUT - she liked the look and feel of the Nook touch better than the Kobo touch, and so it was worth it to buy it in the US. PLUS, she was aware the Kobo touch has a lot of known issues (thanks to me!).
When my Kobo WiFi dies, I am not really sure what I will buy. Probably the Kobo touch (although, I am hoping Kobo customer service and their quality control will have improved by then). One thing is for sure: Chapters is so good when things go wrong! You can just walk in there and say, "I cracked my screen!", "My screen keeps freezing up", "This Kobo sux!" and they'll give you a new one. That would be hard for a BC resident to do with a Nook or a Kindle...
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I dont' know about a warranty for Canadian directly from amazon but I was able to get a 2-year extended Warranty at Staples where i bought mine...Kindles are now being sold at The Source and Staples. I don't use the library system and get most of my books online through free sites(Gutenburg etc) so I'm happy with my purchase so far
But to the OP if you are mainly utilizing your library then yea I'd recommend a more friendly ereader though in good conscious I can't recommend kobo ...I've heard good things about Alurteck(bad spelling there) and my hubby loves his Sony PRS300 which are pretty decently priced at Best Buy right now (refurbished though)