UPDATE!

Maybe Amazon read my review! Okay, maybe not! But the great news is they are paying attention. According to The Daily Beast, Kindle is planning to launch library lending. No release date yet, but I'll look forward to erasing that chalk mark from my con list when it happens.

Amazon Kindle 3G

Yes, these have been out for awhile, but I just got mine this past Christmas. When I first heard of the Kindle, I thought it was interesting, but not for me. I buy hardcover books of my very favorite authors, paperbacks when I travel, and borrow everything else from the library. I love using the library to preview new authors and/or read books I am interested in, but don't wish to own. I really didn't feel I needed a dedicated e-reader; my other options were working out just fine.

So how have things changed in the four months since I've been using my Kindle? Well, I haven't been to the library since; I probably won't be buying paperbacks anymore; and as far as hardcover... well, I still plan to buy my very favorite authors because I like having them on my bookshelf. I've always been an avid reader and, though it may sound corny, I love the smell of a new book. I also love a well-designed dust jacket, the feel of paper in my fingers as I turn the page, and... okay, I'm going all Elizabeth Barrett Browning on you. The point is, I did discover a place in my life for the Kindle in spite of my old fashioned reading habits. Like Hanna Montana, I get the best of both worlds. (Don't mark me down for the Hanna reference- I have nieces, okay?)

So, it's clear why I love printed books; now let me tell you what I like about the Kindle. First, I love all the free books you can download. Between what Amazon offers and websites like Project Gutenberg, I have thousands of books to read and I didn't have to pay a dime for them or leave my house to get them. Granted, most of these are books that are free of their copyrights, meaning they are old, old, old! Or, as I should refer to them, classics. I've downloaded Treasure Island, Sherlock Holmes, books by Washington Irving, Alexandre Dumas(Count of Monte Cristo, for those who've seen the movie), Alcott, and many other outstanding reads. But Amazon offers new books for free as well. Will you ever get a free Grisham, Baldacci, or Cormac? Not likely, but there are some surprisingly terrific lesser known authors out there. And it doesn't stop at fiction. Poetry, philosophy, history, biography, cooking- you name it, I've found it. There's also a 'higher tier' of 99¢ to $2.99 books to downloaded as well. I plan to pay full price (usually around $9.99) for books I'd normally buy in paperback when I travel (a nice way to save space in my carry-on).

Okay, I've made my point. There's good stuff to put on the Kindle, but what about the machine itself? Well, I love the way print looks on this device. One of the reasons I didn't want to buy an e-reader is because my poor middle-aged eyes were having enough trouble with eyestrain from using my laptop all day; I couldn't imagine putting my eyes through another computer screen just to read. But Kindle's E-ink technology is wonderfully easy on the eyes. The Kindle also allows you to customize your text: make words bigger or smaller, chose how words are spaced, and even change the orientation of the screen.

The highlighting feature is a nice bonus. No longer do I have to feel guilty for marring a book with pencil underlines and highlighting markers, or waste time copying the text to notes when I didn't want to mark up a nice book. I also like the dictionary feature in Kindle. Reading a book and unsure of a word? Click in front of the word and a short definition pops up. Not enough info? Hit the return button and a full definition pops up. I haven't used the 'add a note' feature yet, but I can see where it would be handy when reading a textbook or how-to book.

And I love, love, love that the Kindle has FREE 3G! Other e-readers charge you for access, but not Amazon. It makes downloading books anywhere a breeze. The internet is sometimes hard to navigate with the Kindle, but I have other devices for surfing the web, so it's a non-issue for me. I'm willing to make the trade off in exchange for the readable screen.

Speaking of the screen, I like that I can read the Kindle anywhere, even at the beach. Try reading an LCD screen in direct sunlight. The downside is that you can't read the Kindle in the dark or in low light, but then I've never read a book in the dark, so what difference does it make? Other e-readers have color screens, but since I'm an adult and most of my books are black and white with no pictures, I don't really miss it.

There are downsides, i.e. Kindle accepts PDF, but doesn't support EPUB, so you can't download library books on it, but overall, I am pleased with this little device. From a dedicated print book reader, that's saying a lot. The bottom line: I'll still buy hardcover, occasionally use the library to pre-screen books, but I'll be doing a heck of a lot more with my new Kindle.

This website!

I thought it fitting that my first post should be a review of this site. So far so good, but it would be nice to have an easy way to search for other bloggers on this site without having to go to Google. Nice templates, tho. And best of all, it's free!