Kindle Review

Perhaps I should say up front that I just L.O.V.E. my Kindle. Reading, contray to the opinion of all those naysayers of ebooks, is as good and in someways better. While I would never exclusively read on the Kindle (or its later incarnations), I will read lots on it. This is my first ebook device, so I’m really just giving some general impressions of the experience.

The idea is that the Kindle (or whatever device you use) falls away and leaves you just with the reading experience. I knew this had happened when I tried to ‘turn the page’ by flicking the top right hand corner of the Kindle.  Now, I’m more into the rhythm of using it, I don’t do that, but still remain ‘in’ what I’m reading.

In fact, because I do most of my reading in bed, lying on my side, the Kindle is a hundred times more comfortable and easy to use than a book. Not only do I not need to hold it open (getting sore arms and cold fingers) but, I can prop it against a pillow and just stick a finger out from the covers to turn the page. Genius! And I can read longer in one stretch of time (usually I’d stop because I was uncomfortable, rather than being sick of reading). This lead to finishing the first book I read (John Birmingham’s After America) in about four days (pretty quick for my current level of work).

There is no fatigue at all reading on the screen. The only issue I’ve had is a slight glare from a direct light source (like a bedside light or the light through a plane window). This isn’t a problem if reading in a widely lit area. The screen is so unlike a screen and so like paper that really only by touching it are you sure that it isn’t paper. I love that it isn’t a touch screen too – this makes the device a lot more robust, in my opinion. I can treat the object just as I would a book, without worrying about changing a setting or a page. I haven’t used a touch screen ebook device though, so I shouldn’t be considered an authority on this.

The cover you can buy is worth it. It is well-made and useful to have the device tucked into it, but I often take it out to read as it is lighter and more comfortable to hold. The cover makes the device only a bit bigger, but it is significantly heavier than the device on its own.

Having just travelled to Melbourne, it has been wonderful to bring everything I’ve wanted to read with me on the Kindle. I’ve been mostly downloading free classics from the Amazon Kindle store and very much enjoying reading them. Tomorow I’ve reviewing one, so stay tuned! But, it is nice to purchase books I want to read but don’t want to spend $30+ on. I haven’t really found yet that the Australian Kindle store is limiting, but I guess I’ll get there. Hopefully by then Google Edition will be online and it won’t be a problem anymore.

Other little extras like adding notes (love), sharing (an interesting idea, but not sure how much I’d use it), text-to-speech (great idea but not up to scratch yet) are there, as is a good ability to adjust text size and orientation (useful when reading a pdf) to suit your personal needs.

The keypad is not that great and the access to symbols is annoying (especially if your passwords include numbers – although you only put this in once, as long as your wireless works first time!) but this is generally not a big deal.

Getting pdfs onto it is a breeze – just email them as attachments to your kindle email address (which you set up) – and they magically appear! Love it. Books bought from the device appear quickly and the process to purchase them is scarily easy.

So there you are. All in all – I’m so happy I bought it. Not even $150 has been so worth it. If you think you might like to use one, I’d recommend it. And let’s push for better access to ebooks together!

If there was something you wanted to know that I didn’t mention, just let me know!

Oh, and I especially love the literary themed screensaver/off screen.

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Comments
4 Responses to “Kindle Review”
  1. RandomizeME says:

    FYI, the mobile version of Google books is online so you can access it with the web browser – http://books.google.com/m

    and you can also access Google docs on your Kindle’s browser – http://docs.google.com/m

  2. kalgrl says:

    Thank you Jen, I can see that it has similar features to the Kobo and is as easy to use.

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