Sunday evening I had finished the book I was reading, I had a few paperbacks still to get through but I decided to read something off of the Kindle.
So how has it been?
Readability? - not an issue read a page of kindle is no harder than a page of a book. I've read for over an hour at a time with no eye strain. The page turns are quick.
Glare? Not a problem, occasionally the strong overhead lights at work can create glare BUT this is not like glare on a conventional screen. It is still readable and moving the screen a millimetre clears the problem.
The kindle works well for fiction or for books that you start at the beginning and go to the end. They may sound daft but some books you want to jump about on - reference books for instance. You can do it but it just isn't as easy.
Downloading books? easy via wifi or downloading to your pc and then copying to your kindle. Its great that you have lots of books in a very light package.
Books are generally cheaper BUT be careful of brand new books in hardback and I've found the odd book in paperback dearer. Lots of classics are free.
There are plenty of books available but there are a few omissions.
The biggest con? Its not a book, the one thing I miss is the tactile feel of holding a book, the pages. It is a little anodyne.
However on balance I have no regrets. The kindle is not perfect I will still be buying reference books in physical form but for fiction and travel writing publishers need to make there books available in kindle format! For me the time is right for the e-book!
4 comments:
Interesting. I've been resisting as I live old books and the motheaten bindings, that sense of past readers. but I've also been intrigues by how many book readers have easily converted to kindles. I'll stick with books for the moment, but I feel the slippery slope coming along....
I believe the Kindle and books will co-exist happily - for a lot of the reasons you've mentioned.
I do agree though, there's something very gratifying about the physicality of, with great enjoyment, opening the first new page of a new book and feeling it in your hands.
Be interesting to see, in time, whether anything is done to address the reference books to make the pages easier to search perhaps?
Thanks for the Kindle update, Pete. As everyone seems to suggest its not just the content of the book thats important but the feel, appearance and smell. I also love to see them all lined up on the bookcase shelves just asking to be opened!
I can see though that one day soon I shall have to consider the Kindle route for fiction as the family are fed up with my books cluttering up every room in the house!
As you said once, the Aubrey/Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian can be quite hard to follow, and I'm always flicking back to try and make sense of some unexpected development... "who has he gone to see, and why?" Sometimes you have to flick back quite a few pages, and sometimes it doesn't profit you anyway. :-) I suppose if I had the series on Kindle, I wouldn't have run into the current situation where it turned out (after a lot of scratching around in bookcases and the attic) that my sister borrowed Book 5 and hasn't brought it back yet...
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