My husband had been getting more and more excited last week. It all culminated yesterday, when Amazon announced the Kindle 2. If you have never heard of a Kindle, it is an electronic reader for books. We got our first ones over a year ago around Christmas. DH said he wanted to try it. He had a friend at work with one and he really liked it. I didn't quite have the desire he did, but I did know one thing. If he had one, I had to have one. He buys all the books in the house - well most of the books. I read what he buys.
Despite my skepticism, I fell in love with my little electronic book. I thought I would hate the feel of it and miss my paper, but no. It is so much easier to hold than a real book. If my aging eyes get tired, I can change the font size to make reading easier. I vote for the Hugo Awards and they usually send out all the books and stories in electronic format. I hate reading them on the computer screen, but on my Kindle it is a joy. When we travel, we have a whole library with us and if we are within Sprint cell phone range we can download more books whenever we want.
DH pre-ordered the newer ones yesterday. My response is similar to the last time we got them, what's wrong with how I do it now? I don't know if I really want a new one, but it is required of me. My kids know that when we get the next version, they get our hand-me-downs. We can have up to 6 Kindles on our account and this would make four. When we buy a book, we can all read it. Even when they are off at college. They have been impatiently waiting.
I do have one major problem with the Kindle. I downloaded a gardening book - Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties. I thought I would be OK since there isn't supposed to be photos and illustrations, but no. Reference books really suck on the Kindle. When they refer you to charts in the back, you can't flip back really quick to look at them. You have to page through or randomly pick a spot in the book. You can bookmark spots, but not label them. Ick. I returned it. Somethings just have to be on real paper.
Interesting Daphne. I was looking at those when they first came out and didn't quite know what to think. Maybe I should think about looking into it again. My big drawback would be the reference books, like you mentioned. I am not much of a novel reader- I read for information, with highlighter in hand. When I'm thinking about buying a book, I get it first at my library and if I find myself reaching for my highlighter too often- time to buy the book. I remember exactly what book had what info I needed (that probably was highlighted) years later.
ReplyDeleteI do really need to read more for enjoyment, at least that is what my mom says, but reading for information about gardening is enjoyable. I've been know to check out 10 books at a time or more and go through them very fast. Still, I may have to give Kindle a shot because it would be really hard to take all my books with me traveling!
*covers eyes* I can't see you talking about the Kindle!! LOL! I want one! Good to know about reference books.
ReplyDeleteWhat a handy gadget to have Daphne. I better not tell hubby or he'll want one too. lol (Just kidding)
ReplyDeleteTessa if I were you I wouldn't get it. Unless you do start reading more for pleasure, it really isn't worth it. Though you can highlight the text, I haven't found I like it much. Plus it is hard to flip through the book looking for the highlighted text (the pages take a while to turn, fine in regular reading but impossible to do if you are trying to flip through fast). You will just be disappointed. Of course if you travel a lot (like my husband does for work), it might be an OK trade off.
ReplyDeleteSorry Amy. I didn't mean to tempt you :>
perennialgardener, hehe nope. I never show hubby anything like that. He loves his technology. He is always the one showing me.