Kindle Users: How are you liking it now?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Now that Amazon has Kindles back in stock, I’m sorely tempted to buy one.

I still go back and forth, though. Money-wise, I’m guessing it will be a wash; “real” books tend to cost more, but I can sell the ones I don’t want to keep and get at least some of the money back. Kindle books tend to be cheaper ($10 versus $15-$25) but they can never be sold, so I’d never get any cash back.

But perhaps the biggest thing that I struggle with is that the whole idea of books going away makes me sad. I’ve spent a large portion of my life hoarding books, but I’m also a technology nerd. Part of me loves the idea of being able to carry around a gazillion books at once, reading them whenever I want. The other part of me weeps at the idea of a home without books stacked in every corner, and bookshelves bursting at the seams. Yeah, a Kindle can hold a lot, but it’s not nearly as fun to walk through and browse and perhaps find an old friend you’d forgotten about.

Plus, I have four new bookshelves, newly hand built by my father, that are barely half full. I’ve achieved my dream of having stacks (in the library sense - free standing bookshelves placed back to back to make a wall) in my office. I can’t give up on them now! But still… $10 a book, downloaded instantaneously… how can I not want that?

2

I don’t have a Kindle, I have a Sony Digital Book - I got it right before Christmas. I still really like it, it’s ideal for travel. Instead of having to lug around 4-5 books in my suitcase, I just have the digital book. I splurged and bought the pink leather cover, it’s so pretty (and has a little sleeve for my boarding pass/ID which is really handy)!

I don’t use the digital book for all my reading - I can’t afford my book habit and normally use the library pretty heavily. On a day to day basis, I read books from the library, I pretty much exclusively use the digital book for travel (which I do quite a bit for work).

The download site is pretty clunky and it’s really surprising what books aren’t available for the Sony digital reader (Gone With the Wind, Shogun, Lonesome Dove, really?) but most new titles are available. Sony has partnered with Borders online so hopefully the selection will just get bigger and bigger as more authors/publishers adopt the technlogy and release their back catalogues digitally. I wish digital books were a little cheaper - they are only about 25% off - so a new hard back book is more like 20 bucks vs. 10 bucks (which prohibits me from using the device for all my reading).

I also like being able to play MP3s, so when I’m traveling I don’t have to carry a big old book and a music player, I just load up a playlist to digital book. It’s lightweight, the battery lasts a really long time (and charges easily from my computer) and it has a newer generation of eInk screen technology than the Kindle. The screen isn’t backlit like a computer screen (which is good on the eyes - like paper) but it means if you want to read in dim light, you’ll need a reading light, just like a book.

There is a tiny “flicker” when I turn the page. Since there is only one page (instead of 2 like an open-faced book), I have to turn the page a LOT. The flicker bothered me for about 5 minutes, now I don’t even notice it anymore. To be fair, there is an instant when you turn the page where you can’t read anything while the page is in motion.

I haven’t tried it yet, but there have been some changes to how the Sony Digital Book handles pdfs - I heard at CES there were some big improvements.

I really debated Kindle vs. Sony Digital Book when I was making my choice. Kindle had a lot of extra, positive features. I liked the form factor of the Sony product and it was cheaper. Basically, I wanted to be about to read digital books and the Sony Digital Book does that just fine.

I don’t think my collection of real books will go away any time soon. The digital book is just another facet of my love of books, it enhances, but doesn’t replace.

3

I have a co-worker who got one and he loves it. It is very easy to read. The controls are a littel touchy, though. He gets the newspaper downloaded to it every day, which he loves.

4

First, I’ve got a house full of pBooks and I love 'em, but no more room. Periodically I cull them and donate some to the library, but I think they breed at night.

I got my first Rocket eBook more than eight years ago, and it was wonderful. Unfortunately a couple of years ago the stupid company decided to give it up, so no longer could buy ebooks on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. However, can get thousands of free books from Gutenberg, that has all the old classics. These can also be downloaded and put on your Kindle.

When the Sony Reader came out over a year ago, I immediately got one. It was good, but was missing a lot of the features the old eBook had. Sony made a big mistake there. Plus, the books had to be purchased from the Sony site, and they were far too expensive. Many cost as much or more than a hardcover book.

So, when the Kindle was announced, I signed up immediately. It is absolutely wonderful. It has many features Sony did not, such as a built-in dictionary, ability to make annotations, bookmarks and the owner can pick any of six different font sizes, up to 20 point which is great for those with vision problems.

The really great thing is its Whispernet. Once you buy a book from Amazon, it is downloaded automatically to your device in a minute without having to hook up to the computer. This is not Wi-Fi, but the network used by Sprint cell phones, so you don’t need to go to a hotspot, but can buy books anywhere in the U.S. You can still load books or your own documents into it with the USB cable. You can also download free the first chapter of any Kindle book on Amazon to see if you will like it. If so, just order it then.

eInk is absolute amazing. It is not backlighted, but then neither is a paper book! You just hit the page-foward or page-back buttons to read through. It has far too many great features to list here. Just read about them on the Amazon site.

You can’t buy it anywhere but there, but they have a very good 30-day guarantee. If you don’t like it for any reason, send it back for a full refund. Also, their customer service is extremely good, unlike Sony’s which is horrible.

You can visit a great Kindle forum here
tp see what others think, and get some good hints and your questions answered.

5

I got a Kindle and adore it. It is so much nicer for travel than trying to lug enough paper books to keep me in reading. Being able to download books when I was in the LA airport was awesome.

Another feature I appreciate is being able to change the text size - since I’m now in the reading-glasses stage of life, it is wonderful to make the letters big.