As I mentioned on Friday, I just got the latest Kindle. Here are my thoughts on it so far:
Setting it up was very easy. It only took a couple of hours for the initial charge. Since I bought it for myself, it was already registered to my Amazon account.
It is very light and easy to hold, easier than some of my paperbacks. We'll see what happens once my cover arrives (I got the one that includes a light.)
I downloaded a sample of the complete works of Shakespeare. While it's great to have it all in something so portable, there's no space for footnotes to explain the language. I admit this is one advantage of paper books.
I also downloaded some free books, such as A Little Princess, Swiss Family Robinson, Ulysses, Swann's Way, and some of the Oz books. Some I've read; some I've been meaning to read. The downloads didn't take long at all. I've already managed to read about one and a half books.
The screen is very readable as is, though you can adjust the font and font size.
Turning pages is very easy. It didn't take me long to get used to the screen blacking out between pages, though sometimes I hit the button to go forward when I mean to go back. But it's nice that your spot is automatically saved.
It's a little weird not having page numbers. I'm not sure exactly what the locations mean (each "page" is listed as being a small range of locations within the book. There is a bar at the bottom of the screen showing the percentage of how far you've advanced in the book.
The Kindle allows you to highlight and annotate the text; you even see passages other people have highlighted, though you can turn off this feature.
You can group your titles into collections and choose how you want them organized.
All in all, I'm pleased with it. I don't think I'll give up on paper books entirely, at least not yet. Still, I'm looking forward to reading more books on the Kindle.
3 comments:
It sounds amazing. I wonder why they don't include page numbers. That would bug me, I think.
The lack of page numbers takes some getting used to. Particularly when you're reading a text that refers to specific page numbers ("refer back to your quiz results on page 272").
I use the page numbers to jump around if I can't recall exactly where something I want to go back to is. I make a rough guess as to where in the book it might be (25% of the way through, etc) and that usually saves me time if I don't recall anything more specific.
Page numbers would be better, but the locator works okay. (It's useful for when you've downloaded a full text after reading a sample. Instead of paging through to where the sample left off, you plug in the locator number and Bob's your uncle.)
I have the Nook and love it. Weird that there aren't page numbers -- the Nook even allows you to "go to" a particular page number.
I hardly read paper books anymore ... which surprises me, to be honest. But the eInk is actually easier on my poor, tired eyes than paper books are!
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