I finally got the Kindle and I adore it

[Mira]

Well, I finally got the Kindle on my I-phone, and I love it. I'll never go back.

That's not to say it's not perfect. I think it uses a different part of my brain, which may take some getting used to. It also feels slightly more distant than a regular book. That may just be comfort level, though. I'm sure when I first read books it took some getting used to. And the batttery life is an issue. I may have to buy multiple chargers for the various places I inhabit - work, etc.

But everything else - I think I got it a week and a half ago, and I've already bought eight books. The immediate access to books is incredible. I love, love, love that I can buy a book and have it delivered to me within minutes. It's truly wonderful.

Also, I love that I can carry around multiple books with me - all the time. I keep my phone with me anyway, and now it's storing three books that I'm reading simulatenously. Two are new, and one I've read before, but I wanted to re-read it. I love that I could read these books without using up storage space in my room. I never know what to do with books when I'm done with them. Now, I just archive them.

My biggest problem, I can see, is restraining myself from constantly buying new books. I'll go broke!

I know some people are doubting Amazon's figures, but I'm not. Once you factor in easy access, increased sales on the Kindle become quite believable!

I've always been an advocate of e-books, because of the opportunities it affords authors, but I am delighted that as a reader, I am a total convert.

If anyone else wants to share about their experience, I'd love to hear it.

[Down the well]

I think I might enjoy the experience better on an ipad or one of the dedicated readers. The iphone is just too small for me to get any enjoyment out of it, and so far that is all I have tried.

I know what you mean about the impulse buying. I did the same thing with songs when the ipod came out. Ooh, I want that song NOW. If I found the e-reading experience more enjoyable I would go mad downloading books. But so far I still prefer the "dead tree" books.

They're going to have to pry the hardcovers out of my cold, dead hands.

[Mira]

Lol. Well, it may partly be that I refuse to buy hardcovers. They hurt my hand to hold up, I hate lugging them all over the place, and they take up so much room on my shelf. Besides being too expensive.

So, I'd usually have to wait a year or so for the paperback, and half the time I'd forget all about it.

So, this is just heavenly! :)

And I did have to get used to turning pages more quickly on the I-phone - that's true.

Well, fortunately we still have both, so we can all read on our preferred format. :)

[Down the well]

The storage of books is a huge issue. I know I'm not the only one with leaning towers of books on every night table and bookshelf in the house.

And I'm not opposed to e-books. I think the art/graphics in electronic books could potentially be very exciting. Interactive books would be cool, too. So I'll hold a hardcover in one hand and an e-reader in the other.

[HillaryJ]

I hear you, Mira. I went freaking crazy when I first got my Kindle...found about six new authors, all with established series and started getting cranky when I finished a book at 1 am if couldn't get the next one within 30 seconds. It was kind of pathetic, really.

I have since calmed down, but I seriously almost needed an intervention for about a month.

[Quill]

Let me get this straight, people are reading books on their phones? Must have way good eyesight. I can't think that would be fun.

[Mira]

Down the Well - yes! There is room for both hardbacks and e-books. I say 'live and let live.' ;)

HilaryJ - yes! I'm so glad you understand. I'm also glad this is relatively normal, in that other people experienced it too. I was in serious deprivation and didnt' even know it. It's like I found an oasis in a desert of booklessness. An oxygen tank in a vast book vaccum. A sunshine in a dark.......

Okay, I need an intervention, too. Seriously.

Quill - the I-phone has a back-lit screen and normal size print. It's easy to read on it. No eyestrain that I can tell....

[HillaryJ]

Let me get this straight, people are reading books on their phones? Must have way good eyesight. I can't think that would be fun.

Quill,

My agent read a bunch of my manuscript on her I-Pod Touch, which I found unbelievable, before offering representation. I can only assume the tiny screen skewed her reading (and thank Apple mightily for that).

[Quill]

Normal size print on a tiny screen? Something does not compute. Are you scrolling back and forth constantly to read? How big is an I-phone screen, the size of a post-it note?

I can see me buying a unit the size of a book to read on...

[Nathan Bransford]

Let me get this straight, people are reading books on their phones? Must have way good eyesight. I can't think that would be fun.

I was skeptical too, but it really disappears in your hand when you get used to it. I prefer the iPad for reading because it's bigger, but still read comfortably on my phone when the iPad isn't handy.

[Mira]

Quill - I can't do it at work, but I'll look for some pictures on the web this weekend. The screen is 2 inches by 3 inches. Think of it as a magnifying glass. You only see about 3 or 4 paragraphs, but you see them clearly.

[Harper Karcz]

I have a 2nd gen Kindle, and I love it! I think I'm just getting out of the Kindle honeymoon period. ;) I stocked up on books when I first got mine too -- but mainly I went for the free books. Namely, free classics! I love all the public domain stuff that's available for free or almost-free (my Kindle copy of Jane Eyre was $1.99; all of the Jane Austen books were free, as were George Eliot's works). The formatting is a little wonky on some of the free Kindle books, but the advantages of having SO many classic books on hand at all times trumps the occasional distraction of a formatting glitch.

I'm reading Middlemarch right now, and it's great to just carry around the Kindle rather than the bulky paperback version of the book my mom lent me several years ago (and went back to her, unread). Plus, when it comes to reading a long book, there's something less daunting about the Kindle's abstract "locations" versus looking at a paperback or hardback and seeing the bulk of all. those. pages.

There was a study done recently that said people generally read slower on e-reading devices than they do when reading analog (heh) books. However, I'm not one of those people. I guess this is a side product from years of reading / skimming things on the internet, but whenever I turn the page in a paper book, my eyes go all over the place -- I unconsciously start reading way down at the bottom of the right-hand page, rather than, you know, at the proper place. I catch myself doing this, but I of course have to go back and read the stuff on the left-hand page that I didn't read before, and then come back and re-read the stuff on the right-hand page in the proper order. I also have a tendency to absentmindedly flip around in paper books, and sometimes wind up spoiling myself on the ending! With my Kindle, these things don't happen -- I plow on through, unspoiled, and wind up finishing books much faster than before!

(tl;dr version: Me + Kindle = friends forever)

[mmcdonald64]

I only have the Kindle application for PC, but it's on my little netbook, so that makes it easier to read on than a desktop or full size laptop. I love it! Makes me want a real Kindle even more. The other night I had bought a book, loved it, finished it about midnight, and bought the sequel right then and started reading. Without the Kindle app, I'd have had to wait.

However, yesterday I had to set my dad up with the Kindle application on his laptop so he could buy my book. I'm not even sure I want him reading it, but he's been bugging me for the last six weeks. So, I set him up, and of course, he didn't have an Amazon account, and the gift card I gave him for Father's Day was buried in his email. It took me an hour because he put his name in the password box instead of his password and couldn't figure out why it didn't work. By then, he was grumbling and cranky. I tried telling him that it won't be like this every time. Now that he's set up, he can buy with one click--except that he won't buy anything over the internet.

[wetair]

the iphone screen is about 2 post it notes. lol and yeah, it is not bad at all. 4.5 inches by 2.31 inches. 3.5 inches diagonally.

[Mira]

Harper - I read faster on the Kindle too! I'm sure of it. And I haven't even begun to explore the free book offerings!

mmmacdonald - that was a cute story about your dad and your book. Sorry he won't buy anything over the internet! :)

Quill - check out this link to Amazon. They have several pictures of kindle on the I-phone. Should give you an idea:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?i ... w7bwke5h_b