I read a lot. And I go through a lot of books. I even reread my books over and over again- especially the ones I like. I could spend hours in a book store or library, and want to take most of the shelf contents home with me. But what do you do with those books once their home and your done reading them... and think of all the trees that gave up their lives for my pages... and, come on, can the publishers make these first run, hardbacks any heavier (yes, Harry Potter #4-7, I'm talking to you).
My answer came in the mail last week, the electronic book reader, and I'm having a hard time putting it down.
The e-reader like Amazon's Kindle is the future of all books IMO. It's light weight, easily portable and fairly straight forward to use. And it's WAY too easy to buy books on - some of which are free, like the classics. You can buy them from Amazon's website or on the device's 'store' and the book is downloaded to the machine in less than a minute - it accesses the Sprint network for no extra charge to get it to you. It's battery lasts for days and it holds about 1,500 books at a time. But you can remove a book from the reader and Amazon keeps track of everything you've purchased and lets you re-download back to the device.
I know, I know, I sound like a commercial for the thing, but I've really been enjoying it and just had to share. Click the picture below to go to Amazon's site and find out more.
The only downside I've found is the cost of the thing and the books. While the books are cheaper than if you bought them new from the store (except the free ones), one could argue that the library is even cheaper. Oh well, I think the benies out way that downside by a long shot - no paper killing trees, no more bookshelves to buy, no driving from one store to the other looking for the titles they're out of, no more heavy books falling on my face as I fall asleep in bed reading.
The only other e-ready I know of at the moment is Sony's. I looked into that one too, it's pretty slick, but costs more and there aren't as many books available. And Amazon just makes it so easy to manage the Kindle, so I went with it and highly recommend.
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. - Sir Winston Churchill
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx
A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read. - Mark Twain
7 comments:
I'm glad you wrote about this. I know of one other person who has a Kindle and she loves it too.
My only drawback, aside from the dinero, is that their is something to be said for holding that book (the smell, the feel, you get the point) and snuggling up with a blanket and a nice cup of joe/tea. I love the sound of the turning page, etc. Gah, I'm sounding mushy.
Have you found a draw back yet? Your thoughts... :)
Yikes, another techie thing I just have to have some day. Is the print big enough to read or can you increase font size? I wonder if Uncle John will divorce me if I buy another computer like device. He already hates all the time I spend on the computer, but hey! someone has to blog!
I really like the 1500 book thing.
A BLOG! With WORDS! :) Unthinkable! haha..
I'm impressed with your most recent techie purchase, my dear sister!! How many have you tackled since getting your fun new little toy? Can you check any out from the library or something and play on your e-reader? I guess the library will take a while to catch up with this technology... I've started checking books on MP3 out from the library... it's very handy for those long car rides I take...
The only drawback that I have is that I can't 'lend' my books out to people. My Kindle is registered to my Amazon account so it can only send books my specific machine. There's no 'library' feature yet, though, as I've read other complants on this I hope they include something like that for the future.
While the smell of a book is fun, I am not missing it at all. What I sometimes miss is cover art (wierd, right?)- pictures aren't included usually, though it has no problems with black and whites. Easier for the publisher I guess.
There are 5 different font sizes you can change between. I leave it on the middle one but the next down is actually the size of most paperbacks. And the screen uses e-ink, different than a computer screen, so it feels just like you are looking at a page of a book.
OH MAN I WANT A KINDLE SO BADDDDDDDDDD. Ever since they came out with the Kindle 2 which is so light and cute and all. But I really can't justify it till I have more time and fewer paper books in my queue...
Oh and, by the way, the screen is fundamentally limited to black and white by the technology used by EInk to make the display screen. There are these little black and white particles inside of microcapsules that are charged oppositely so that when you apply a negative field, one type moves to the surface and if you apply a positive field the other color moves to the surface. So it would be really hard to get a good color image using this technology because each pixel-equivalent ('microcapsule') would only have two color options to display. But, this same tech is the reason that the displays do not require a backlight (the most power-hogging feature of an LCD, I think), so they are so much better for battery life. And they allow you to read them at an angle and have great resolution.
Whew -- I promise I am not a huge nerd, I just applied to work in R&D at EInk (the company that invented this electronic paper) like 5 years ago and remember some of their details a little too well...
My brother has one of these that he took to Iraq. He said it's awesome... doesn't take up a lot of space and he can get "books" fairly easily.
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