Me And My Kindle

THIS SUMMER I picked up an Amazon Kindle, which is a bit of crow-eating given some of my first impressions, which I can best characterize as stodgy and dogmatic ("Oh please. Who would ever want to read an e-book, let alone do it on something that looks like that?") Well, I've been using it for about six months now, and I'm pleased to say that I enjoy my Kindle very much. The things I enjoy most ...

It's like reading a book. The screen has almost no glare, and often I forget that it's not a printed page I'm reading.

Many, many things to read on hand. The Kindle can handle literally hundreds of books, newspapers, and articles in its standard memory. I like to read five or six books at a time, and now they're always available.

Portability. It's small and light. Important given how much I travel.

Battery life. With the cell network on, it lasts a day or two. With it off, I can go weeks between charges. So I only turn on the cell network when I need to.

The Amazon store. It's always there, and most of the books I've wanted to buy have been available. Time to turn on the cell network, search for a book, buy and download it: maybe two minutes. The download itself takes about 20-30 seconds.

Wikipedia and dictionary lookup. Select any line in your book and you can instantly search the dictionary for definitions of all words in that line. If the cell network is on, you can do the same in Wikipedia. I've repeatedly used this option to follow a thread of info from something in a book into an entirely unexpected line of learning.

Easy highlighting and notation. One of the things I do constantly with physical books is notate them as I read, both with asides to myself and by marking lines I really love. Both are easy to do with the Kindle, and you can access those notations and highlights just by connecting the Kindle to your computer.

Cheap books. I'm not one to stick with a book that's not doing it for me, and I always feel a bit guilty when I pay for a new hardcover business book that loses my interest after the first few chapters. On the Kindle the books are typically between $2 and $10. If I don't get into a book, no worries. That said, I love having a physical library, and think of ours as an endowment to James. So when I do read a book on Kindle that I really like, I buy the physical book so I can add it to our collection.

What I don't like about the Kindle ...

Actually, there's hardly anything I don't like. While it's very appealing to think that you have a relatively high-speed and free connection to the Internet always on-hand with the Kindle (and you do), the fact is that the Kindle's browser is sufficiently clunky that I hardly ever use it. It's nice to know it's there in a pinch, though. The cover Amazon gives you didn't really turn me on, either, but I picked one up from a third party provider (M-edge) that is, frankly, sumptuous, and I like it very much.

In summary, the big insight that I've gotten through the Kindle, and that overcame my initial stodginess, was that the experience I love about reading books is the act of reading, not the act of turning pages. With the Kindle you can read with ease, and I've not once felt I've missed the sense of "curling up" with a book. It's not the container, it's the words. And the Kindle has the same words as the physical book. Word is that Amazon is coming out with version 2 of the Kindle any time now. If you've thought about getting one, I'd wait. And then I'd buy it. It's a great tool for anybody who loves to read.

Comments

[Sharon]

Thanks for the Kindle comments. You've pretty much summed up my experience, right down to finding the Amazon cover lacking. I do enjoy the Kindle very much and when I'm in the throes of a great book, it just doesn't matter whether it's (an immensely readable) screen or a physical page.

Welcome back to blogging, too! It's great to hear your voice.