Read React Review

I’ve had my Kindle 2.0 — my first ereader –  for less than 2 weeks.

After using the Kindle for about 4 hours a day over the past 10 days (hey — I was on vacation!), I find myself thrilled with ereading, in general, and very pleased with my decision to buy the Kindle.

Here’s what I loved most about my experience (some of these things are Kindle specific, but many would apply to any ereader):

• The Kindle has been incredibly easy to use. I do not have to attach it to a computer. I have yet to even crack the User’s Guide. It’s completely intuitive.
• The Kindle, sans cover, is lighter than even most paperbacks. I can hold it with one hand — or no hands.
• I can turn pages faster and with greater ease than with paper.
• It fits easily in my purse and I take it everywhere (some complain that the Kindle 2.0, unlike the 1.0, doesn’t come with a cover. Obviously, this was Amazon’s way of trying to hide a price increase, the way Juicy Juice started giving us 8 juice boxes for the same price as 10. To me, this is like complaining that it’s raining and refusing to buy an umbrella on principle.)  I can read romances without embarrassing covers.
• I can adjust the font.
• I have many books at my fingertips, and can switch books without losing my place in any of them. I can make notes and bookmark pages without permanently disfiguring the book, and I can find them all in one place.
• My books take up less space!
• With the Kindle, acquiring new books is easy. I don’t have to wait for the UPS truck, or drive anywhere. I don’t have to connect the Kindle to anything. If I want a book, I can have it immediately. It’s fun to take a break from reading and click over to the Kindle store.
• Since I don’t have a smart phone, I find myself tickled over the Whispernet. I can look at my blog for new comments, or Twitter.

There are four things I find less than satisfactory about the Kindle and the ereader experience:

1. No page numbers. This is bad — really, really bad. Sure, it tells me I have “10%” of a book left to read, but that means something very different depending on whether it’s a 200 page Blaze or a 500 page Gabaldon. If I want to write a scholarly article on a Kindle book, I will have to track down the “real” book to cite properly.
2. No way to organize books into folders. This is going to suck eventually.
3. The lack of a backlight. When others have mentioned this, I thought this was kind of like returning your new car because you don’t like the sound of the horn. But having tried to read on the Kindle at night using the clip on Mighty Brighty Book light, which is bulky, glare producing, and illuminates half my house, I get it.
4. The note taking, which everyone says is better on the Kindle than other devices, is still very rudimentary when compared to my Macbook (duh). Using the bubble keyboard is cumbersome, although perhaps it wouldn’t be if I owned a Blackberry and was comfortable with texting. I’m glad to have this feature, but I wish it was smoother. In general, unlike, say, a Word document, getting around an ebook is actually a lot harder than getting around a paperback.

I am more convinced than ever that buying an ereader is a very personal decision.

For example, some complain about the fact that the Kindle does not support many formats. Most of these people want to use their ereader for work. I do not. I am glad I have a dedicated ereader, a source of fun and pleasure, that will not be contaminated by the stress producing elements of my life which my fiction reading is meant to combat. I don’t want look at my Kindle menu and see, next to the Lisa Kleypas and the J.R. Ward, that article from JAMA I meant to get to today.

Others don’t like the looks of the Kindle. Honestly, my view is that carrying around an ereader pretty much kills your street cred anyway. But I can safely say after having it out and about for the past two weeks, I felt way more comfortable reading on the Kindle in public than having the clinch covers in full view.

Others decry the fact that you can’t comparison shop. For me, time is money. I don’t care to surf the net for 20 minutes finding that book for $3 less than at Amazon.

A bigger concern is the lack of available ebooks. Luckily, I have found 90% of what I want so far.  My husband, on the other hand, often reads bios of musicians. On our recent trip, he ran through the two bios he brought with him (I could have told him those books on Bob Marley and Gram Parsons were not going to be very long), and tried finding more on the Kindle store with no luck.

Technology doesn’t just plug into preexisting needs: it changes us, giving us new needs and redefining old ones. And I can already see that the reading experience on the Kindle has affected me.

1. I read a lot faster on the Kindle, for several reasons:

• It is hard to flip around in an ebook. The path of least resistance is forward. I don’t go back to that scene 2 chapters ago. It just takes too long.
• I carry it around everywhere, whereas I would never bring actual romances out of the house.
• I feel ok flicking it on and reading one page, I think this is because visually, the pages appear one at a time, in isolation. This sounds crazy, I know. But with a paperback, all the other pages are staring at me. I feel like if I pick up that paperback, I have to read at least a chapter. So I don’t.

2. I read multiple books at once now. It’s just too convenient to flip to another book, or heck, even buy another book, while I am in the middle of the one I am currently reading. Will this mean more DNFs? I think so. But it’s also helped me to see themes and similarities across multiple books.

3. I buy more books. I rationalize (badly) that they cost less than their paper counterparts.

4. No more trips to the local used bookseller to trade in my pre-read books.

5. My searches for new books on the Kindle are very linear and focused. Very unlike strolling the aisles at Borders, or even clicking around Amazon. I am likely to glom more — it’s just easier.

6. Will I become ebook only? If a book I want is not in ebook form, I may just buy another one.

This is the last ebook post from me for a while. I promise!

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