Kindling

What with the announcements of new Kindles galore, I suddenly realised that I have never really mentioned my Kindle on here. It arrived as an unexpected birthday present, secretly plotted by my wife, a gift that one that I now consider one of the most useful and entertaining ever.

I take it most places and generally fit in some reading each day, whether it is on the bus journey to work or during
my lunch break.

I have to admit I was nervous of adopting the Kindle in favour of paper-based products, but I really do enjoy the flexibility it offers.
Whatever my mood I can find a book to suit and it’s certainly easier than carting a number of books around in your bag.

I think that samples functionality is great, allowing you to browse the Amazon site for books & send samples of those that interest you to your Kindle.
Samples allow you to expand your reading landscape without having to spend anything, they are a great way to find new authors, genres or forgotten favourites.

Owning a Kindle causes a number of odd things to happen:

  1. Random people will just start talking to you about books, not
    always a bad thing.
  2. People who are interest in Kindles expect you to try and sell the product too them, very odd lines of questioning.
  3. Other Kindle owners seem to only read free books, you feel like the only one purchasing books.
  4. I read things that I’ve not bothered to pick-up before now
  5. Visiting WH Smiths & Waterstones become an exercise of picking out title you may like for later.
  6. People expect it to be a touch screen and I laugh.

Many people still seem uncertain about buying Kindle, they seem to see it as a question of Kindle or new [Insert Pad Device Here], with the new Kindle (without keyboard) is bringing the device closer to peoples price range, I hope to see more family and friends with one.

In my experience it?s changed my reading habits for the better, even if it?s a little pricier due to the VAT being charged for online books (except when you notice how they compare to hardback prices on new
releases).

4 thoughts on “Kindling”

  1. I have been on the fence about an ebook reader for a while. My mom has been through a couple generations of Kindles already and loves them. My dad is also on the wagon. (They are divorced and remarried, so there was no cross-selling there!)

    I tend to be the type who needs to flip back 20-100 pages to verify exactly what somebody said previously, an act effortlessly simple with a real book in your hand (my fingers just seem to know how many pages to move) but complicated, in my view, with an ebook reader where my conscious mind would have to know how many pages to turn. And, of course, I have a large investment in printed text sitting in my office.

    But I have been warming to the idea, especially since one of our cats has decided paperback books are required to supply his daily dietary fibre supplement. He seems to favor aged Larry Niven works. And there is the whole “my eyes aren’t what they used to be” and “boy, paperback print sure is tiny” aspect.

    So the new range of Kindles seems to be just about the right moment for me to jump in. I am already big on Amazon. The prices look about right. Now the big quest: Fire or no Fire?

    1. Thanks for the comment.

      I think I’m type of person that skips about a fair bit, especially if I’m reading mystery books.
      I find that if you can enter a meaningful keyword or phrase into the “search this book” function, the results are presented in way that the context is pretty clear.
      I found that bookmarking can help too, mostly for key points to reference later on.

      Apart from graphic novels, I hope to purchase all my books electronically from now on. My biggest incentive is that the house is running out of room for any more.

      I suppose the next task is deciding what to do with the physical copies.

  2. I have to admit, the grosning bookshelves and piles of books with nowhere to live are becoming a bit of an issue around here. Having just started reading the Horus Heresy series aswell, that’s like snother 15 books to find room for, I am starting to come atound to the idea of a kindle or similar. With Amazons huge clout the Kindle does seem like the obvious choice as there isn’t going to be any shortsge of books available. The question now i guess is which one is for me. I haven’t really looked into the new ones yet, so i guess it’s time for a little research.

    1. Shout if you’d like to give mine a try. I’ve just finished reading Starship Troopers and some Lovecraft stories, so I have variety 🙂

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