Amazon Kindle review... at last!
Ooh, I'm naughty. I have no excuse for my absence except that I've become obsessed with sewing quilts for Chinese orphans. I know that sounds weird, but it's strangely true. Next obsession: find a way to get the quilts to the orphans.
To make it up to you (ha!), here's a video featuring my favorite puppets... the Muppets! This was produced by someone who is near and dear to me, so spread it around, tell your friends, etc. There should be more coming out at some point, so I'll post those as well.
Now, shall we begin our Kindle review?
I got my Kindle as a Christmas present, which means I actually put my hands on it in February (that's a joke... I mean, it's true, but read it in a jokey voice). Ironically, I had just decided to decrease the size of my personal library and utilize the public library more. I know we're supposed to support our author brethren by buying books, but trust me--I buy a LOT of books, if given the chance. So one trip to Bookstar down the street will make up for six months of librariness for me.
Anyway, I can't say no to a gadget, so I didn't say no to my Kindle.
Digression: when I was growing up, Christmas stockings are opened first and contain things like dental floss, chewing gum, maybe some hair ties, a keychain, a few bags of candy... and an orange in the toe, always. The husb's family came out for the holidays, and we were planning to do stockings. I bought the requisite collection of small-ticket items, even ranging as high as a new head for his electric toothbrush.
But the husb's family does things differently--we opened stockings after the rest of the gifts. And as the husb pulled out a pack of orange-mint gum and a bag of Skittles, I found a printed sheet of paper announcing my Kindle and realized that his family puts items of a different ticket in their stockings.
Lesson learned. I actually ended up eating the Skittles and chewing the gum myself, by the way. Don't tell the husb. He left them on the dresser for a month! What does he expect?
On with the review!
So, Kindle. I was waiting to write a review until I had a real "whole book" experience with it. Meaning, I bought a book and read the whole thing and got a feel for the device. I had thought this would be Eileen Cook's Unpredictable, but it turns out that after I bought the Kindle edition, I met Eileen in person at a signing in NYC and bought a hard copy so she could sign it for me.
Fast forward to this recent trip: the book? The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory. I downloaded the whole thing and read it all on the Kindle, and as a result, I am pretty much a convert.
The Kindle, for those of you who don't know of it, is a small e-book ("electronic book") reader produced by Amazon.com. You buy e-books by downloading them from the Kindle Store section of Amazon.com, and they are sent through Amazon's wireless "whispernet" to your Kindle. The whispernet, I think, borrows from cell towers in the area. It eats up battery power, so you can switch it off when you aren't whispering downloads to your Kindle.
The books are downloaded as files, which allows you to read them on your Kindle screen and turn the page using the buttons.
Here are some broad sweeps:
It takes getting used to, but I did get used to it. It's light and comfortable to hold, and easy to read. The screen is not backlit, which means you can't read at night without a lamp, but also means there's no more strain on your eyes than if you were reading any old book.
GOOD THINGS:
* It's small and easy to pack. This is great for people who tend to load their suitcases, purses, bookbags, what-have-you, with books before taking any excursion. Right before I zip my carry-on, I tend to get panicky and throw books in willy-nilly, which adds about eight pounds of weight to my load. (Meaningless, since I always buy books at the airport anyway.) The Kindle carries many books at once, and until you actually get on the plane and have to turn off your wireless devices, you can download still more books.
* You can download a sample chapter of any e-book before buying it. This is really cool. It's the e-version of loitering in a bookstore and reading the first few pages before buying the book--heretofore unknown in online book sales. There's no charge, and once you download the sample, you can keep it or dump it or whatever.
* There's plenty of file space on the Kindle, but if you need more, you can use a memory card. All of your books are listed on the home menu, and if you want to free up space, just remove the file--but Amazon.com has a record of your purchases and you can re-download any time.
* It's easy to use. The controls are simple and intuitive.
* The battery life is very respectable, when the wifi is off (there's an easy on-off switch for the wifi so you can read on planes and don't drain the power).
* The screen is as easy on your eyes as any book. And you can adjust the text size.
* You can email or upload files from your own computer (using a cord that comes with the Kindle). I've seen agents' blogs where they forward manuscripts to themselves and therefore only carry home a Kindle instead of several hundred pages of submissions. For them I think it's basically ideal. I have also used it a time or two for my own work, which is fun. (You protect your Kindle from junkmail by specifying what addresses you can receive email from).
* You can also access Wikipedia (but I haven't tried) as well as read non-Amazon e-books (but not those in a proprietary format, like Sony e-Reader) and even listen to audiobooks (but I haven't tried that, either).
* You can take notes, add bookmarks, etc. It has a little keyboard at the bottom.
* There's a very easy way to put the Kindle to sleep, so you don't have to constantly reboot it if you're reading in short intervals.
* Bestsellers are $9.99 (even some books that, in hardback, are $25) and many other books are less expensive.
* No more overstuffed bookshelves! A truly minimalist approach to reading.
"MEH" THINGS:
* The minimalism prevents sharing or passing a book along when you're done with it. I'm a big fan of sharing the lit, but with a Kindle, you obviously can't pass something on to a sibling or friend, unless you're willing to part with your Kindle.
* There are no page numbers. I know this sounds trivial, but I like to always be aware of my exact position. Instead, they use "section numbers" (or segment numbers) that can go as high as necessary (a recent book I read was 10,000 sections). There's a bar at the bottom that shows you relatively how far you are--like a progress bar-- but I never realized how much I paid attention to page numbers until I lost them.
* Not every book, old or new, is available on the Kindle. Many are. But many aren't. I guess that's where hard copies come in.
* The reading area is smaller than a traditional page. This is mostly distracting when you are just looking at the Kindle, not when you're reading. When you're involved in a book, it doesn't matter. But then you set it down and think, "Dang, that's small!"
* Although the notes feature is cool, typing is a little tough.
* The screen doesn't produce light, so if it's dim, you need a book light. But it is a little shiny, so you need to find the correct angle to avoid glare (like reading a shiny magazine).
* One "previous page" control is right where I keep thinking a "next page" control should be. So I'm constantly hitting that and then getting confused about where I am.
* The case is kind of silly. It took me a little while to get used to how non-functional it is. Like, it looks like it has an elastic strap to hold the device down while you read, but that only works when the case is shut. I mostly read without the case at all.
* Occasionally, on documents you email to yourself, the formatting comes across wonky. Like, it will mash the paragraphs together or get rid of indents.
* Let's face it--if you like having full bookshelves, or holding an actual book in your hands, the Kindle won't be your favorite item. Which is to say, if you aren't into minimalism, it's probably too minimalist for your taste. Part of the joy of owning it is knowing that it's a clutter solution.
* The home menu could be better organized, which is to say, could be more elaborate than just a list of your books. But I'm hoping a firmware upgrade will happen along soon that might add a few bells and whistles.
* Searching for books to buy from the Kindle is easy; browsing is a pain. If I know exactly what I want, I use the Kindle to obtain it; if I want to browse, I use my computer.
* The display is nice and readable, but it's not really any fancier than a plain old book. Your reading experience isn't more fancy or mindblowing. It's just more convenient.
OVERALL:
I'm glad I have my Kindle. It's great, great, great for travelling. The flash that occurs when you turn the page (and the e-ink, or whatever it's called, rearranges itself) isn't distracting at all once you get into your reading--you really don't notice it. And it does have the feeling of reading a book. You take in the info the same way and get into the characters as well.
The price is a little high for something that doesn't really save you very much money, unless you buy hardcover books non-stop. On the other hand, it can also play audiobooks, so if you don't have an iPod, it save that cost.
It's fun and convenient and compact. There are certainly worse ways to spend your money.
Cheers!
I'm off to work on more quilts.
To make it up to you (ha!), here's a video featuring my favorite puppets... the Muppets! This was produced by someone who is near and dear to me, so spread it around, tell your friends, etc. There should be more coming out at some point, so I'll post those as well.
Now, shall we begin our Kindle review?
I got my Kindle as a Christmas present, which means I actually put my hands on it in February (that's a joke... I mean, it's true, but read it in a jokey voice). Ironically, I had just decided to decrease the size of my personal library and utilize the public library more. I know we're supposed to support our author brethren by buying books, but trust me--I buy a LOT of books, if given the chance. So one trip to Bookstar down the street will make up for six months of librariness for me.
Anyway, I can't say no to a gadget, so I didn't say no to my Kindle.
Digression: when I was growing up, Christmas stockings are opened first and contain things like dental floss, chewing gum, maybe some hair ties, a keychain, a few bags of candy... and an orange in the toe, always. The husb's family came out for the holidays, and we were planning to do stockings. I bought the requisite collection of small-ticket items, even ranging as high as a new head for his electric toothbrush.
But the husb's family does things differently--we opened stockings after the rest of the gifts. And as the husb pulled out a pack of orange-mint gum and a bag of Skittles, I found a printed sheet of paper announcing my Kindle and realized that his family puts items of a different ticket in their stockings.
Lesson learned. I actually ended up eating the Skittles and chewing the gum myself, by the way. Don't tell the husb. He left them on the dresser for a month! What does he expect?
On with the review!
So, Kindle. I was waiting to write a review until I had a real "whole book" experience with it. Meaning, I bought a book and read the whole thing and got a feel for the device. I had thought this would be Eileen Cook's Unpredictable, but it turns out that after I bought the Kindle edition, I met Eileen in person at a signing in NYC and bought a hard copy so she could sign it for me.
Fast forward to this recent trip: the book? The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory. I downloaded the whole thing and read it all on the Kindle, and as a result, I am pretty much a convert.
The Kindle, for those of you who don't know of it, is a small e-book ("electronic book") reader produced by Amazon.com. You buy e-books by downloading them from the Kindle Store section of Amazon.com, and they are sent through Amazon's wireless "whispernet" to your Kindle. The whispernet, I think, borrows from cell towers in the area. It eats up battery power, so you can switch it off when you aren't whispering downloads to your Kindle.
The books are downloaded as files, which allows you to read them on your Kindle screen and turn the page using the buttons.
Here are some broad sweeps:
It takes getting used to, but I did get used to it. It's light and comfortable to hold, and easy to read. The screen is not backlit, which means you can't read at night without a lamp, but also means there's no more strain on your eyes than if you were reading any old book.
GOOD THINGS:
* It's small and easy to pack. This is great for people who tend to load their suitcases, purses, bookbags, what-have-you, with books before taking any excursion. Right before I zip my carry-on, I tend to get panicky and throw books in willy-nilly, which adds about eight pounds of weight to my load. (Meaningless, since I always buy books at the airport anyway.) The Kindle carries many books at once, and until you actually get on the plane and have to turn off your wireless devices, you can download still more books.
* You can download a sample chapter of any e-book before buying it. This is really cool. It's the e-version of loitering in a bookstore and reading the first few pages before buying the book--heretofore unknown in online book sales. There's no charge, and once you download the sample, you can keep it or dump it or whatever.
* There's plenty of file space on the Kindle, but if you need more, you can use a memory card. All of your books are listed on the home menu, and if you want to free up space, just remove the file--but Amazon.com has a record of your purchases and you can re-download any time.
* It's easy to use. The controls are simple and intuitive.
* The battery life is very respectable, when the wifi is off (there's an easy on-off switch for the wifi so you can read on planes and don't drain the power).
* The screen is as easy on your eyes as any book. And you can adjust the text size.
* You can email or upload files from your own computer (using a cord that comes with the Kindle). I've seen agents' blogs where they forward manuscripts to themselves and therefore only carry home a Kindle instead of several hundred pages of submissions. For them I think it's basically ideal. I have also used it a time or two for my own work, which is fun. (You protect your Kindle from junkmail by specifying what addresses you can receive email from).
* You can also access Wikipedia (but I haven't tried) as well as read non-Amazon e-books (but not those in a proprietary format, like Sony e-Reader) and even listen to audiobooks (but I haven't tried that, either).
* You can take notes, add bookmarks, etc. It has a little keyboard at the bottom.
* There's a very easy way to put the Kindle to sleep, so you don't have to constantly reboot it if you're reading in short intervals.
* Bestsellers are $9.99 (even some books that, in hardback, are $25) and many other books are less expensive.
* No more overstuffed bookshelves! A truly minimalist approach to reading.
"MEH" THINGS:
* The minimalism prevents sharing or passing a book along when you're done with it. I'm a big fan of sharing the lit, but with a Kindle, you obviously can't pass something on to a sibling or friend, unless you're willing to part with your Kindle.
* There are no page numbers. I know this sounds trivial, but I like to always be aware of my exact position. Instead, they use "section numbers" (or segment numbers) that can go as high as necessary (a recent book I read was 10,000 sections). There's a bar at the bottom that shows you relatively how far you are--like a progress bar-- but I never realized how much I paid attention to page numbers until I lost them.
* Not every book, old or new, is available on the Kindle. Many are. But many aren't. I guess that's where hard copies come in.
* The reading area is smaller than a traditional page. This is mostly distracting when you are just looking at the Kindle, not when you're reading. When you're involved in a book, it doesn't matter. But then you set it down and think, "Dang, that's small!"
* Although the notes feature is cool, typing is a little tough.
* The screen doesn't produce light, so if it's dim, you need a book light. But it is a little shiny, so you need to find the correct angle to avoid glare (like reading a shiny magazine).
* One "previous page" control is right where I keep thinking a "next page" control should be. So I'm constantly hitting that and then getting confused about where I am.
* The case is kind of silly. It took me a little while to get used to how non-functional it is. Like, it looks like it has an elastic strap to hold the device down while you read, but that only works when the case is shut. I mostly read without the case at all.
* Occasionally, on documents you email to yourself, the formatting comes across wonky. Like, it will mash the paragraphs together or get rid of indents.
* Let's face it--if you like having full bookshelves, or holding an actual book in your hands, the Kindle won't be your favorite item. Which is to say, if you aren't into minimalism, it's probably too minimalist for your taste. Part of the joy of owning it is knowing that it's a clutter solution.
* The home menu could be better organized, which is to say, could be more elaborate than just a list of your books. But I'm hoping a firmware upgrade will happen along soon that might add a few bells and whistles.
* Searching for books to buy from the Kindle is easy; browsing is a pain. If I know exactly what I want, I use the Kindle to obtain it; if I want to browse, I use my computer.
* The display is nice and readable, but it's not really any fancier than a plain old book. Your reading experience isn't more fancy or mindblowing. It's just more convenient.
OVERALL:
I'm glad I have my Kindle. It's great, great, great for travelling. The flash that occurs when you turn the page (and the e-ink, or whatever it's called, rearranges itself) isn't distracting at all once you get into your reading--you really don't notice it. And it does have the feeling of reading a book. You take in the info the same way and get into the characters as well.
The price is a little high for something that doesn't really save you very much money, unless you buy hardcover books non-stop. On the other hand, it can also play audiobooks, so if you don't have an iPod, it save that cost.
It's fun and convenient and compact. There are certainly worse ways to spend your money.
Cheers!
I'm off to work on more quilts.
Labels: books, geekery, katie expresses an opinion, less is more, reading
posted by Katie Alender at
7:49 PM
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10 Comments:
Katie-
First and foremost: I was LMAO when I watched the Muppet's video! Beaker, my all-time favorite Muppet, is "beeping" away in the background looking just like a hippie. LOL!
As for the Kindle, I have my reservations. Maintaining manuscripts in the Kindle is far more accommodating than handling thousands of physical pages. That is an extraordinary convenience. But books? I kinda like having page numbers instead of sections (although they are both analogous since they seem to provide the same functionality); and I like (sometimes) to highlight a section of the book I'm reading to elucidate important details. I think the Kindle will become more relevant to someone like myself when physical books you buy at Amazon or at a bookstore come with the built-in capacity to be downloaded to a hard drive, much like a CD you can rip to your computer then sync to your iPod. In this scenario, you have both a physical copy of the book as well as a electronic version of it.
BTW, like you, the vast majority of the books I buy don’t come with pictures. But if they did, would those pictures be included in the e-book version? Color?
I want an e-reader, but the Kindle has too many negatives and its aesthetic value is low. So... I’m waiting to see what comes next.
Thanks for posting a comprehensive review! :)
I am far too amused by that video. :)
I still have the picture you sent me of Unpredictable on your Kindle. I felt so cool.
I am torn on this. I love the idea for travel. LOVE IT. Not sure if I would like it other times.
I read about Kindles on the Dystel & Goderich website. The thing is this: they don't smell or feel like books, do they? That is a huge factor, for me.
"The controls are simple and intuitive." Katie, do you solemnly swear this? I'm betting I'd find differently!
I will buy a Kindle when I am assured that I can fit on my Kindaichi Japanese-Japanese dictionary plus my Nelson's and Spahn-Hadmitsky character dictionaries, plus my English-Japanese and Japanese-English dictionaries, and maybe a thesaurus. I'll bet it would do wonders for my bursitis...
But no page numbers? Maybe I'll wait until they can iron that one out...
Isn't it funny? I'm not surprised the page number thing has hit a nerve with readers. There's something about knowing exactly where you stand.
Eileen, that's exactly it. It's great for travel, but at home, I always reach for a real book first.
Little Willow, I'm glad you liked the video! I'll pass the compliment along.
I'm another who requires page numbers. I also like being able to stick my finger in a book and deal with something else. I know I could just hold the electronic reader, but it wouldn't feel the same. And it doesn't quite scream interruption the same way as a book carefully held open by an index finger.
I had never heard of Kindle till I started reading your blog (I'm just a country hick!).Then I wondered if it might not be a good idea for when we live on our boat and where space will always be an issue. So! I'm going to wait until that time, and keep an eye on improvements etc...But I'm with Mary Witzl; there is nothing like the smell of books!
So, I don't really have any interest in a Kindle, but i had to stop by and let you know that my preschooler thinks you're the coolest person on Earth.
Ballerina stickers and a card with a piggy on it will get you EVERYWHERE.
Peyton says she loves you. ;)
Hmm. Thanks for this very thorough review. I'm still not sold, entirely. This technology seems as though it may evolve, don't you think? Will there be a battle to the death, as with VCR and Betamax, between Kindle and other e-readers???
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