I got a Kindle for Christmas and I seriously LOVE it. I didn’t think I would love it as much as I do. But it’s:
- lightweight
- able to hold LOTS of books–the equivalent of a portable library
- extremely easy on the eyes, and the change-font-size feature is very nice for my six-year-old reader
- has an astoundingly long battery life. Sometimes I forget it’s a high-tech electronic device
However, it’s not perfect. It:
- had issues because the metal clasps of the cover created a short circuit, causing it to reboot randomly, freeze up, drain its battery fast and/or forget my place in a book. It’s a known issue with the cover, and when I called to complain, they gave me a refund and credit to buy a cover with a light. Haven’t had a problem since.
- makes it toooo easy to buy books. It defaults to the Buy button when I’m looking at any book on the Kindle store. I can’t count–okay, I don’t want to count–the number of times I’ve accidentally bought a book. And the number of times I just shrugged and said, “Oh well. What the hey” after doing so.
- is not friendly to those of us who like to go back to reread our favorite parts or need to look back through the pages to refresh our poor aged memories (“wait, who exactly is this character again?”). When I have to do arcane mathematical calculations to figure out the numerical “location” of such information, it’s not a good thing for my poor aching head.
How has the Kindle changed my reading habits? I’m glad you asked! It has:
- increased my book buying, both in quantity and in monetary terms. Not only am I happily buying e-books, I’ve also upped my print book-buying to support my beleagured Borders and/or authors whose works I want to support. So, er… yeah. That’s a… con?
- …but I haven’t entirely lost my head. I’ve also downloaded a bunch of free classics–and I’ve actually read some of them.
- expanded to include e-book-only novels (or those with prohibitively-priced POD versions), which I avoided for years because I find it that hard to read fiction on a computer screen.
And I just read yesterday that Amazon is working with Overdrive to make Kindle books available to libraries. I am very excited by that development.
Do you have an e-reader? What do you like/dislike about it?
I only know 2 people who have e-readers: you’re one and a colleague is another. She loves hers too.
I don’t have one and, like sat navs, have no intention of getting one. Some modern technology I’m nuts about but mobile phones, sat navs and e-readers don’t get onto that list…not sure why.
Recently, I got another two bookshelves. Large ones. That’s 8 in total. All those books would go on an e-reader so easily. And free stories for e-readers too…and yet…and yet…
Nope. I’m still resistant to having one. I wonder why? 😀
I was an e-reader holdout, too, for a while. Maybe you just need more time to get warmed up to the idea… or maybe you just prefer the feel of a book in your hands. Either way, whatever works for you!
I’ve actually got Kindle For PC; I don’t have the actual Kindle itself.
What’s getting me are all the free classics. I downloaded Kindle because I saw a cheap collection of Robert E. Howard stories and I wanted to go back and re-read some of that stuff. I hadn’t read an Conan stories for… oh, man… 30+ years? Robert E. Howard had come up in a conversation with a friend of mine so I downloaded the Kindle and started reading. It was great.
But, like I said, it’s just on my PC. I can see how it would be great to have the “real” Kindle.
*nod* I had a Kindle app for the PC before I got the real deal, but I never used it. Couldn’t stand to read on a computer screen after spending so much time writing, emailing, chatting, browsing, etc. on the laptop. The Kindle is a lot easier to snuggle in bed with. 😀
Kindle App for Mac. I like it, but honestly, I’d prefer for everyone to offer their books in PDF format. They don’t, of course, because they worry about being ripped off because it’s so easy to duplicate or crack into PDFs. That said, I do like my Kindle App. It’s better for fiction (story books) than for non-fiction. Non-fiction, I want books that I can highlight, underline, stick Post-its into, and flip instantly to the paragraph that I need to see.
My eyes get awfully tired, too. That’s why PDF would be better–let the computer read the book when the eyes need a rest.
Glad you’re liking your Kindle! :)TX
Hi Rabia, I don’t have an e-reader yet, but I’ve dropped hints to my hubby… and my birthday is coming up soon!
I’d like an e-reader that doesn’t lock me into buying from any one store, though, and supports a variety of ebook formats.
*nod* Yeah, I wish the Kindle was a bit more flexible in what formats it supports, but I do so love how it works.
Actually, Texanne, one of the reasons I like Kindle for PC is that it’s easy to select text, highlight it, add bookmarks, and add notes.
That makes it easy to write things in the margins. You can pull up your bookmarks and notes and instantly go to that point in the book.