Kindle
I recieved my Kindle yesterday, the e-book reader from Amazon.
So far, I love it. It is great for just sitting and reading, the device ‘dissappears’ and after a few minutes it feels just like reading a book, except it is even less intrusive as the page turning is just a twitch of the thumb. The ability to purchase e-books from Amazon and get them instantly is also great, although I view that feature with some trepidation, as I fear how much money I will spend that way.
I haven’t really played around with the web interface very much, seems functional but only barely and I can get to my gmail account no problem. That isn’t really what I want the device for, but it is a nice little bonus feature.
The main thing for me is being able to read absolutely comfortably, both from a visual perspective and also different positions and stuff. I often read several hours a day, and if Kindle didn’t ‘work’ for that, I would be very unhappy. Thankfully though, it is supperior, rather then inferior to a book in that regard. It is easy to hold and turn pages in just one hand, and equally easy for left hand or right hand use. It is about as light as an average paperback book.
The second thing that I was looking for is portability and storage. Since I already have a full room in my house that is overflowing with my books, being able to start converting my library to an electronic format is a huge plus. Being able to take a couple thousand books with me in my pocket is also pretty cool.
The only thing that I regard as a downside in converting to Kindle is the ability to loan books to my friends. I think pretty much all of my friends have gotten involved in a series or two based upon my loaning them of a book to get started with. Beyond the simple joy of sharing something nice, this also leads to a lot of enjoyable discussions and speculation sessions. Doing that with the kindle is of course pretty much impossible, but we’ll see how much that matters over time. Perhaps I will resort to giving more books as gifts to keep that dynamic going.
As of right now anyway, I am very happy with the device.
