The Kindle Review

I've now had my Kindle eBook Reader for 2 months, 12 days and after extensive use, I can give it an unequivocal five out of five stars, two thumbs up, an "I Heart the Kindle".   

When the Kindle was delivered, I made a commitment that I would not buy a paper and ink book, magazine or newspaper for all of 2008, partially to justify the cost of the Kindle ($399.00 is still too expensive, in my opinion), partially to try to be more green and partially to force myself to use the Kindle.  So far, so good. There's only one book I'm itching to read that's not currently available, and I've more than enough to occupy me without it. 

I subscribe to three newspapers: The New York Times, The Boston Globe and the Washington Post.  I love having all three on the Kindle every morning by no later than 6 am no matter where I am in the country.  I could read all three on-line (and often do when I'm home), but given my travel schedule, there are many mornings where I'm en route somewhere and I can't buy a print version of the newspaper and often on those mornings, I don't have access to the internet on my computer.    Almost as  important to  me, reading the paper via the Kindle on an airplane is so much easier than trying to manage a paper while crunched up in a tiny airplane seat--and no newsprint on my fingers or my suit is an added bonus. After the election, I'll most likely discontinue the WaPo and after baseball's over, I'll end the Globe, but for now,  I'm getting my news, Sox and political fix in one, convenient place. 

I'm also getting Time Magazine and The Atlantic Monthly.  I find that I miss the pictures in Time quite a bit and the user experience (due to layout/lack of color, lack of different fonts) is actually much less satisfying than the print magazine, but the cost is so minimal ($1.99 per month) that I've not bothered to cancel it.   The reading experience with The Atlantic is very similar to the print magazine and I don't miss the glossy pages at all. 

As for book reading:  it's the best.  I love the fact that I can change the font size.  Now that I've got middle-aged eyes, the lower the light, the  bigger the  type.  I also find that the eye strain is much less than I have with my computer  screen.  I love that I can travel with an entire library in a device that's the size of a trade paperback  and weighs a little less than that. 

What I'm in the mood to read changes depending on how tired I am, how much distraction there is (airport versus hotel room, for instance) and how much uninterrupted time I have to read.  With the Kindle, I can read Dan Shaughnessy's latest column in the Globe, continue reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao or jump back into The End of America by Naomi Wolf. 

The biggest advantage of the Kindle Reader is the ability to shop Amazon from the device itself.  The Kindle shop on the Kindle is easy to navigate and loads quickly.   I really love the option to walk by a Borders in the airport, see a new title by, oh, let's say Jacqueline Winspear, and have it on my Kindle before my next flight takes off.  I don't have to load books from my computer as is required with the Sony device--a major inconvenience for us travelers who want to buy a new book (also, the Sony is Windows only-tsk, tsk, Sony).

The wireless shopping has been very handy this winter.  There have been plenty of days where  I've finished a book in the middle of the storm and bought another without leaving the house.   Whispernet is free with the Kindle and works everywhere I've been, except Cushing.  But then again, nothing works in Cushing--not Direct TV, not my cell phone, not RG's cell phone. 

I currently have 92 books,  21 documents/articles (including one entitled "Why the Kindle Will Fail" by Rick Munarriz and the latest PEW Research Report on Religion in America), and three sample books (including Gone With The Wind--which I've never read).  Many of the articles are required reading for work, and loading them onto the Kindle is much easier than carrying a paper file with me (the Kindle accepts .txt, .mobi and .prc files as well as the Kindle format and Amazon will reformat a .pdf file for one thin dime). 

Almost everything I want to read is available in Kindle format.  I have the entire NIV Bible on my Kindle, as well as The End of Faith by Sam Harris and The Reason for God  (don't ask why I've these three books), as well as recent titles such as The Reserve, The Senator's Wife , The English American , Gas City, and Darkmans.    Most of the books have been purchased from Amazon (generally $9.99 for a current hardback title and as low as $0.99 for paperbacks) , but many, like Jane Eyre or Pride and Prejudice are available in the public domain.  I went to Project Gutenberg, downloaded the .txt files for these books and loaded them into the Kindle, free of charge. 

I use the highlighting and note taking functions frequently and I use the search function fairly often.  The Kindle searches across all the content on the reader and can also connect to the Web to search wikipedia.com.  There is a built in dictionary and I find that I use it more often than I thought I would, which is also more often than I care to admit.  I rarely use the web browser; I've never used the mp3 player or the NowNow service (ask a question and you'll get three researched answers within 10 minutes), but I don't feel that I've paid for functionality that I'm not using.  These services are jimmies on an already great tasting ice cream cone. 

There are still a couple of things that I'd like to see changed in version 2.0:  The buttons are too big and there's no good place to grab the Kindle.  Even after all this time, I still accidentally turn pages every once in a while.  While they're redesigning the outside, the bottom corners should be rounded as my palm has a little callous where the corner juts into it (I hold it at the bottom with one hand).  I'd love to see different fonts.  Times Roman is fine, but every so often a nice Helvetica or Arial Narrow would make a nice change.  I could give Amazon a few tips on organizing content and I  hope that soon the e-ink technology will become available in color so that we can start building out textbook pedagogy for the Kindle (saving a boatload of trees and a lot of money for the students)--but these issues are minor compared to the convenience and the money I'm saving on the price of books. 

UPDATE:  I should add that one of my favorite places to read is in the tub.  Thanks to Margaret, I do take my Kindle into the bath.  She tipped me to the cheapest waterproof container for the Kindle.  I use a Glad Freezer bag with the interlocking double zipper.  The trackball doesn't work through the plastic, so I select the place in the book I want to start, drop the kindle into the baggy, zip it up and read away. 

Comments

[Lori Thornton]

I'll have to add a Kindle to my wish list, but since I just bought a new computer, it may be awhile before I purchase it. I've really been itching to try one out.

By the way, I give you permission to go to the library and check out that book that isn't available in Kindle format!

[Gordon Rogers]

I agree with your comments about the Kindle. Regarding your last thought about textbooks on the Kindle, you might be interested to know that at least two organizations are working to address that need. One is CK12, founded by Vinod Khosla and his wife Neeru, which is geared toward developing open-source digital textbooks for the K-12 market. Another, called FLatworld Knowledge, is aiming to do the same thing for the higher-ed market.
Gordon Rogers

[Melissa]

Lori-thanks....I think we have a library here in York. I'll look for it ;)
Seriously, I might actually go get a couple of non-Kindle books from the library but I continue to hold out hope that they'll be available soon on the Kindle.
Gordon-Thanks for the tips on the development companies. I'll go check them out. It will be interesting to see how publishers react to this. We (I work for one of the 'Big Three' in Higher Ed publishing) are ready to port our content to the Kindle and have talked to Amazon, but pedagogically there are a lot of challenges.

[jenny]

*falls down dead with envy*

[Melissa]

Jenny-
it was a business investment. (But I am having a lot of fun with it).

[Jennifer]

I think my spouse has a Kindle on order for my birthday. I am looking forward to having several books/articles/newspapers & such in one spot and I think it is a great small step in becoming more green. I like the fact that you made a commitment to not purchase any books for the year, I may have to make a similar commitment. Thank you for you review, it reaffirms my need for a new gadget! :)