Cozying up with a Kindle
About three weeks ago I ordered an Amazon Kindle. Since then, I've purchased and read more books than I have for the entire last year and I've loved every second of it. Just like ordering Amazon Prime did for online shopping for me, the Kindle has made it super convenient and cheap to buy books that I want to read. It's really great to be able to get a book when a topic is fresh in my interests (they tend to change daily) and start reading it within seconds... and no, I'm not getting paid to say this.
I was immediately surprised by the screen when I opened the box and saw an instructional image displayed, asking me to slider the power slider at the top to turn it on. I quickly looked for a plastic tab to use to remove this sticker that covers most LCD screens on electronics, but couldn't find one. I figured I'd have to dig my nails into the corner of the screen to try and pry it loose. Then I realized I was looking at a naked screen... there was no sticker or overlay. This was just how it looked.
My biggest concern prior to purchasing an eReader was how well the screen was going to work for long-term reading. I did a fair bit of research and read that most people thought the screen looked even better than a printed book, and that pretty much sold me. I knew that reading long-term on a computer screen is annoying (I get paid to do it 8 hours a day, 5 days a week) and didn't want to deal with the same thing for leisure. Thankfully, this was totally a non-issue. The screen is absolutely amazing and does look better than printed paper... especially in direct light. There's absolutely no glare and the contrast is amazingly crisp.
Before getting the Kindle, I was tempted to get a Nook. The Barnes & Noble eReader runs Android and seemed to be generally much cooler than the Kindle. The cover flow-like bottom touch screen is a really cool way of solving the book management issue, which is something that the Kindle hasn't grasped yet. Thankfully I did a bit of price research on B&N's and Amazon's eBook stores and found that a number of books I was going to be purchasing in the near future were sometimes 2-3x more expensive for the Nook! Granted, these weren't current New York Times Best Sellers, but they were books that I was going to be reading for sure. An eReader is already a fairly large investment by itself (both the Nook and Kindle are $259) but the fact that on day 1 the Nook would already cost more than the Kindle pretty much sold me on the Kindle.
I'm hoping that the Kindle is going to keep me reading in the long term. I've definitely been enjoying having the local paper delivered wirelessly to me every morning, and it's great to be able to quietly and easily read in bed at night too. I got an awesome case and light to use in bed, and it works infinitely better than dealing with a light on a soft-cover printed book. It seems to have already outlived the "newness" factor, which leads me to believe that I'm back into reading for good. I really do enjoy reading, and my Kindle makes it even more fun.
I was immediately surprised by the screen when I opened the box and saw an instructional image displayed, asking me to slider the power slider at the top to turn it on. I quickly looked for a plastic tab to use to remove this sticker that covers most LCD screens on electronics, but couldn't find one. I figured I'd have to dig my nails into the corner of the screen to try and pry it loose. Then I realized I was looking at a naked screen... there was no sticker or overlay. This was just how it looked.
My biggest concern prior to purchasing an eReader was how well the screen was going to work for long-term reading. I did a fair bit of research and read that most people thought the screen looked even better than a printed book, and that pretty much sold me. I knew that reading long-term on a computer screen is annoying (I get paid to do it 8 hours a day, 5 days a week) and didn't want to deal with the same thing for leisure. Thankfully, this was totally a non-issue. The screen is absolutely amazing and does look better than printed paper... especially in direct light. There's absolutely no glare and the contrast is amazingly crisp.
Before getting the Kindle, I was tempted to get a Nook. The Barnes & Noble eReader runs Android and seemed to be generally much cooler than the Kindle. The cover flow-like bottom touch screen is a really cool way of solving the book management issue, which is something that the Kindle hasn't grasped yet. Thankfully I did a bit of price research on B&N's and Amazon's eBook stores and found that a number of books I was going to be purchasing in the near future were sometimes 2-3x more expensive for the Nook! Granted, these weren't current New York Times Best Sellers, but they were books that I was going to be reading for sure. An eReader is already a fairly large investment by itself (both the Nook and Kindle are $259) but the fact that on day 1 the Nook would already cost more than the Kindle pretty much sold me on the Kindle.
I'm hoping that the Kindle is going to keep me reading in the long term. I've definitely been enjoying having the local paper delivered wirelessly to me every morning, and it's great to be able to quietly and easily read in bed at night too. I got an awesome case and light to use in bed, and it works infinitely better than dealing with a light on a soft-cover printed book. It seems to have already outlived the "newness" factor, which leads me to believe that I'm back into reading for good. I really do enjoy reading, and my Kindle makes it even more fun.
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