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I Love My Kindle

I placed an order for a Kindle immediately after Amazon announced the price was being lowered (to $139 Wifi and $189 Wifi plus 3G). Traveling is a huge part of my job and I spend an inordinate amount of time sitting in uncomfortable airport chairs, dirty taxi cabs, and lonely hotel rooms. I’m a fast reader and I was tired of my tiny Blackberry screen and the need to plug in my bulky laptop everywhere. I pride myself on being an efficient packer and stuffing magazines and books was bad for my shoulders and my wallet. I LOVE my Kindle and use it much more than I thought I would. It’s wonderful for traveling, but I use it at home a lot too. Getting to read a full chapter as a sample before buying usually prevents unnecessary purchases. The device is light and slips into any purse. Most books are $9.99 and though not all titles are available on Amazon, more books are being added every day.

I was not prepared for how many opinions I would receive from friends and strangers about my new purchase. Among the comments:

“Nothing replaces a real book though. I love the smell and feel of new books.” This is usually accompanied by a glare, as if because I own an e-reader, I burn paper books in my spare time.

“Why didn’t you just get an Ipad? All you can do is read on the Kindle, right?” Well, yes, that’s why it’s called an e-reader. Yes, I knew I could only read books (not watch movies/surf the Internet/play games) on the Kindle before I bought it.

“I prefer the Nook/Sony e-reader/new device Google is coming out with. The Kindle will be obsolete within a year.“ Thanks, stranger. I’m going to get back to reading now.

If anyone is considering buying a Kindle, I recommend thinking about how often you read books and magazines. If you aren’t a reader, the Kindle won’t make you one. The best part of owning a Kindle is that I have read so many books I wouldn’t have considered before just because purchasing is so easy.

The Kindle is a greyscale device and does not offer a touch screen, which may seem outdated to some. Kindle owners can only purchase books through Amazon (which has been accused of some highly publicized censoring of books recently). Though I’ve heard Kindle books can be converted into the ePub format, I’ve never tried. Kindle readers cannot “borrow” books from libraries. And unlike the Nook, Kindle owners cannot read for free anywhere (the Nook offers free reading for limited times in Barnes and Noble stores).

I recommend purchasing the 3G option if you can afford it. Though WiFi is available in many locations, you never know when the signal will be slow or not free. The charge on the Kindle can last for weeks without charging, especially if you turn off the wireless option while you are not using it. This is one of the best parts of the device for me ““ I don’t have to carry yet another power cord while traveling or struggle to find an outlet in a public place.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be sitting in the corner with my nose buried in my Kindle.

28 replies on “I Love My Kindle”

I agree with all your reasons. I’ve had a Kindle for about 3 months now and just love it to pieces. I read more, not because I didn’t love reading before, but because it gives me more opportunities to. And I find the Kindle be so useful for so many other things that it is worth it to me outside of being a dedicated book reader. In nearly all instances where I would normally be printing paper, I just send it to my Kindle (that goes for printing articles for school, travel itineraries or documents and recipes I’ll be cooking that night). Additionally, I use the Kindle to read articles online that I would otherwise not have time to read by sending them directly to my Kindle.

In my opinion, there is a place for physical and ebooks in our lives. I still love to go to a book shop and browse. I still buy physical books on occasion, but I find the Kindle so convenient and versatile that it has become my main way of reading.

I put in considerable thought before I picked a tablet device that fit my needs (went with the ipad), but I love the Kindle’s interface and use the app all the time. My husband is a technophobe, but he reads books on his laptop (a lot), so I’m thinking of getting him a Kindle for his birthday.
I love the smell of books, both old and new, but I don’t see why that should stop me from carrying my library in my purse.

I love my kindle so much. The only bit I don’t like is not being able to flip back immediately to a previous section. I do wish there were more foreign language -> English dictionaries available, because it’s been great for practicing reading skills. I do kind of miss being able to buy really cheap used books, but … oh well.

I have the second generation Kindle from a few years ago, when they were still more than $300 (BEST GIFT EVER), and I can’t imagine life without it. I read quickly, and I read a LOT, so carrying one skinny little Kindle is so much better than carrying around half a dozen paperbacks for a cross-country flight. I’ve commented in a few places today that I don’t understand the whole, “But it doesn’t smell like a book!” thing. Old, musty books make me sneeze. And I like to read my books, not smell them. For some people, it’s the tactile experience, but for me, I like all my focus on the words.

My parents asked me if I wanted a Kindle when it first came out. I suppose I am the sort that just inherently prefers a real book, but it’s more because I don’t understand information read from a screen as well as from a printed page than the inherent rightness of REAL BOOKS. I’m also an annotator (though I haven’t been much because I’m trying to plough through a large unread book pile that came from living in a country with few and expensive English books and then suddenly coming back here with lots and lots of cheap books), so that doesn’t work as well on an eReader, either.

I never thought I’d get an e-reader because I was one of those awful “REALZ BOOKS IS BETTAH” people. But my Mom got a Nook and loved it so much that she gave me one too. I’m addicted to it. All of the ridiculously trashy mystery novels that I can plow through in a day or so are dirt cheap through Barnes & Noble. And I can buy them from the comfort of my couch in quick succession.

There are a billion reasons why I love it (see: article above) but really, I can read what I want to read to goof off and no one can raise an eyebrow at my coffee table if I forget to hide my Harlan Coben before they come over. (and they put Sudoku on it…I mean…come on.)

Nothing replaces a real book though. I love the smell and feel of new books.”

Yes, I was (am?) one of those people. But there is a place for both a home library of physical books and an e-reader. My sister has the Kindle (an older version) and loves it. An e-reader of some kind is definitely on my wish list, but I’m not sure which one to purchase; one that allows me to borrow books from the library is a bonus.

While I do love the feel/smell/whatever of a book, my biggest problem with the idea of e-readers is my general clumsiness. Like, if I drop a book into a puddle, it gets a little bloated, but I can still read it later. If I drop an e-reader, I lose the whole e-library. EEP! I also have terrible luck with battery life (cell phones, laptops, etc all die in fear of my repellent touch) and can see myself settling in for a long flight or something only for it to conk out five minutes in. A book won’t do that to me.

I have no problem with other folks using them and enjoying them. The Death Glare is super annoying and condescending, whether accompanying raised eyebrows about meat eating or e-reading. But just because other folks like them doesn’t mean I have to!

the Kindle battery can last over a month on a single charge without the WiFi on; with the WiFi on it lasts two weeks or more. I also use my kindle in the bath, but I’ve been reading books in the bath since I was six and don’t drop them in anymore. The cover I use protects from most of the other places it would encounter water in my house, and I read while cooking and lots of other activities, too. It’s honestly less awkward than a book to hold onto.

Not that I’m trying to make you a believer. Just arguing.

Oh, I know how long the charges are “supposed” to last, but I have such shitty luck with my electronics.

I feel like that last point is the kicker for me. The more people try to sell me on it, the less interested I become. Just like @Sneha doesn’t want the raised eyebrows about having an e-reader, I don’t want them about not having one! (Which is not what I think you’re doing, I’m just commenting on the phenomenon.)

I’m also not trying to push it on you but the safety hasn’t really been an issue for me either. I don’t even have a case for my Kindle and I just shove it into purses, suitcases, etc. But I also do this with my Blackberry and it’s always covered in crumbs…so my advice probably isn’t good for people who take good care of electronic devices :)

I’m a Kindle owner who has one big problem with it: I don’t like the idea that the books I’ve bought aren’t living on my computer somewhere. I only own them through an account.

For some books, this is fine. I don’t *need* a physical copy of every book I’ve read. I figure, if I really love something I’ve read on my Kindle, I’ll buy a physical copy. I don’t normally re-read books, so I’m glad to cut back on the clutter in my apartment.

But the public domain books. I *love* having an E-Reader for the free, public domain books. Free or dirt cheap.

Yeah, the Cloud makes a lot of people nervous, and with plenty of reason.
I also have the Kindle software on my computer, and while you don’t really store the file there, you can keep all of your archive live on one machine and accessible whether or not you have internet access, if you choose. You just have to bring it into your library instead of your archive. This doesn’t mean it has to be live on the actual Kindle, either; your computer acts as a separate device.

I cannot afford an e-reader but I thought I’d get one for my birthday last year. Genius Boyfriend (hereafter referred to as GB) bought me an iPhone instead. I’m obsessively obsessed with this phone now and am making my way steadily through free classics on iBooks! I thought it would be hard to read on a small screen but I’m surprisingly comfortable with it.

This has made my life so much easier, even though I absolutely drain the battery everyday with my habit of reading on it and listening to audiobooks the rest of the time.

BUT – you can pry my real, delicious books out of my cold dead hands!

I believe I said something to the effect of real books > e-readers in early 2010. 10 months later, I got the Nook wifi for $99 during Thanksgiving Black Friday and have read more books in almost 3 months than I have the past 2 years. I WISH I had a Kindle or something a few years ago when I was traveling so much for work. The Kindle has a wider book selection than B&N but I found a program to convert the books for my Nook. I hardly use the wifi on it so the definitely 3G would have been a waste of money since I can buy books from my phone then load them from my laptop if need be. The greyscale is my favorite feature, after staring at a computer for work and my phone, it’s a bit of a relief.

Personally, I adore my kindle.
Truth, though- I haven’t read a single book on it. It’s my school reader. All my grad school readings are in pdf format, and the kindle handles those super well. I don’t have to strain my eyes reading for endless hours on a bright screen (I LOVE THE SCREEN) and I don’t have to waste gallons of ink printing everything out. It makes reading on the go so much more plausible, and I get so much more done.
I AM A BETTER STUDENT WITH MY KINDLE. F’reals.

Yes, the Kindle not being library-friendly sucks. I don’t really know much about open source content and I don’t like to contribute to Amazon’s domination of the book world, but it currently is the easiest device out there. Hopefully something else will come along in the future.

If you’re pre-loading a device, Kindles are fairly easy, but do you support sharing titles onto user-owned devices? I haven’t seen anything that makes the Kindle friendly to that, because it supports so few file formats. If you’ve got information I don’t, though, I’d love to know!

I prefer the Kindle’s “outdated” kind of screen–the whole purpose of an e-reader for me was so I didn’t have the backlighting you get from the color screens, even on e-readers. It was the e-paper on the Kindle that was a major selling point; the eyestrain is just so much less. I use it for PDF files for school and books.

I’m going to have to get rid of most of my books in the spring when I move across the continent with only what I can fit into my Focus, so having the Kindle helps ease that pain a little.

I’m a librarian, though, and Kindles are the least library-friendly e-readers out there. Unfortunately they’re also the only ones with any real international capabilities that are also connected to their own source for materials. You can read something you own on a device no matter where you purchased it, usually, but Amazon’s international branches mean that after my move I’ll also still be able to access new content.

All that said, I’m in no way planning to stop owning bound books. I’m just going to have to re-start my collection from scratch. In the meantime, I’ll still have more reading material than I’ll probably ever get through.

My mom, a college librarian and a book advocate, loves her Kindle. She got the first version of the Kindle when it came out, and for Christmas she got the new version (and I got the old one, score!) For every Kindle book she reads, she buys 5 books because she has an addiction.

Anyways, ““Nothing replaces a real book though. I love the smell and feel of new books.” This is usually accompanied by a glare, as if because I own an e-reader, I burn paper books in my spare time.” Love it. I don’t think e-readers will stop people from buying books ever. The e-reader is not ruining anything, personally I think it will increase readers and help out lesser known authors.

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