Thursday, October 7, 2010

Kindle

Last week, I finally broke down and bought a Kindle from Amazon. I'd been debating it for a few months. It arrived at my house on Wednesday this week, so I've only had a few days to play around with it. I'd have to say, it's freaking awesome!

I put off purchasing one for two main reasons. First was that I'm usually at home when I'm reading. I have bookshelves filled with books at home, so I didn't really *need* a portable reading device. For some reason, I thought it would only be useful on trips.

The second reason was that you can't check out books from the library or lend your books to friends if you get them from the Amazon store. That really bothered me because I don't like to pay much for books. I usually only read them once and so I like to get them from for free from the library. That's also nice because I can return them when I'm done and not waste shelf space.

Those were silly concerns. First, the Kindle seems to be even more convenient than a printed book. For one, it's a lot thinner and takes up a lot less space. I can put a whole library on this little device and it wouldn't take up shelves and shelves of books. It would be a lot easier to move than boxes of books as well. I also found I can read much faster when I can just click the next page button rather than actually flipping the page. Strange, but true.

There's also tons of free content available. Many of the classics are available online or through Amazon for free. I've already loaded this Kindle with more books than I can probably read in the next year and I didn't pay for much of it.

In short, if you do read much at all, you should buy one. If not a Kindle, then get something else. Simplify and stop collecting stacks of books.

4 comments:

  1. I don't have a Kindle and I don't plan to buy one. Why not read on your iPod touch? Or I believe iPad is just a bit more expensive, but much more useful. Plus for the classical titles, I've seen them in Apple's on-line bookstore too.

    BTW, I've compared the Les Miserable that I downloaded free from the on-line bookstore to the paperback I bought from B&N and the translation is different. I'm not sure which one is better, but for now, I'm sticking to actual physical books.

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  2. I used to use the Kindle app on my iPod as well as my Android phone. I liked it, but the Kindle is much easier to read. Bigger screen and no back lighting. That's the deal breaker for the iPad as well. I stare at a computer screen all day long, I don't want to read off of one at night.

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  3. Additionally, I downloaded free books from both Amazon and iBooks. The version I got from iBooks was aweful. It was like 1/2 the text was cut out. I had no idea what was going on in the book. The Kindle version actually made sense. Sorry Apple, I'm not going to buy a book on one of your devices.

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  4. Can you get me one for Christmas? :D
    What you mentioned was so true though, printed books take so much space! I need to get rid of some!

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