Why You Should Buy Amazon's Kindle Book Reader

I've been publishing electronic books for 15 years, but until now I've only read them on a computer, never on a special handheld reading gadget.  I didn't feel the need.  Like someone who has never tasted chocolate or never touched ice doesn't feel the need...

I'm also an obsessive reader.  I've kept a list of every book I've read since I was in the sixth grade -- fifty years ago. Over 3000 books. http://www.samizdat.com/readall.html  Reading is an important part of my life.

Now Amazon's Kindle has changed reading for me -- irreversibly.

I just got my Kindle two days ago.  It's excellent, far better than expected.  The drawbacks that I anticipated (and rambled on about in my blog) were bogus. Amazon's Kindle Book Reader deserves an unqualified “BUY!” recommendation. (NB -- for now, this device is for the sighted only, not the blind.)

First revelation: Easy on the eyes.  You have to see it to appreciate it, but “digital ink” makes a big difference.  With digital ink, the screen looks like paper, with the text visible as reflected light, rather than light passing through a screen (as with computer monitors).  The digital ink is very easy on the eyes, so you can read longer without fatigue.  And you can select the type size (six choices) to suit your eyes and tastes.  In the past, people read electronic books when they had no choice (due to availability or cost or because they needed to do searches), and used printed books far more often, not just from habit, but also for comfort and convenience and portability.  Now, finally, there's a gadget that gives the advantage to electronic books.

Second revelation: It can use plain-text files. The Kindle comes with about 180 Mbytes of storage (which Amazon translates as room for about 200 books).  When you connect it to your PC or Mac, it appears to your computer like an external storage device.  You can move files to and from it as easily as you do with flash memory.  And you can read plain-text files on your Kindle without having to convert them to Kindle's special format.  That means (this is a plug) nearly all the books on our CD and DVD book collections are immediately readable on the Kindle. http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/ For our customers, the Kindle is the ideal reading device that they have been dreaming of.  And for Kindle users, our book collections are the ideal source of great reading material at extremely low cost (as low as a penny a book with our Complete Book 3-DVD set, as opposed to a typical cost of 99 cents per public domain book at Amazon's Kindle Store).

Third revelation: You can easily and inexpensively expand the storage space to hold thousands of books. The Kindle has a slot for you to add an SD memory card.  Nowadays a 2 gig card typically sells for about $13, 4 gig for $32, 8 gig for $60, and prices for this kind of storage have been falling. In other words, you don't need to wait for Amazon to come out with a new model to be able to expand your library beyond 200 books.  With the typical plain-text book taking up about 500 kbytes (less than the typical specially formatted book that Amazon uses as a benchmark), one gig of storage can hold about 2,000 books.  That means that an eight gig SD card should hold about 16,000 books -- (which, by the way, is close to the size of our Complete Book DVD set).

Fourth revelation: Unexpected extras.

• You don't need a computer at all, much less a computer connected to the Internet, and you don't need to pay any monthly service fees to enjoy your Kindle. You can buy and receive books over the built-in wireless connection, hassle-free, never needing any technical knowledge, not even needing to type in an Internet address.
• The Kindle has a small, but very usable keyboard and a search function that makes it easy to find what you want within a book or in all the files on your Kindle.  It also has easy ways to highlight text, make annotations, and to put copies of favorite pages/passages in a clipboard area. At first I thought I'd move books onto the Kindle when I wanted to read them, and delete them when I was done, and hence I wouldn't need expanded storage capacity.  Now I realize I'm going to want to keep them all on the Kindle with my personal notes and highlighting.
• Navigating from page to page and from book to book is intuitive, (helped by left-right page turning, rather than up-down scrolling). If you stop reading a book before you finish, the next time you turn on the gadget or go to that book, you'll start where you left off.  And there are multiple ways to navigate through a text.
• The rechargeable battery appears to last for days of use (apparently because the digital ink draws little power).  You can continue to read and otherwise use the unit while it recharges. (Quick tip -- on the back next to the on-off button, is a switch for turning the wireless on or off. If you aren't doing anything that requires a wireless connection, make sure that's in the off position, or your batteries will run down far faster than necessary.)
• Not only can you easily copy plain-text files to your Kindle, you can also copy MP3 files, so you can (with headphones) listen to music while reading.
• You can also use your Kindle to wirelessly browse the Web without fees. When you elect to go to the Web, you are presented with only about a dozen choices, of which Amazon.com is, of course, number one.  But second on the list is Google, and while it's a bit awkward, combining use of the little keyboard and following the choices you are presented, you can generate lists of Google search results and by selecting items you can go just about anywhere on the Web. Simple text shows up best; video and special effects not at all.
• The Kindle Store shows up very much like the Kindle Books area at Amazon.com does on a PC (digital ink displays graphics well, but only in black and white).  You can find anything you want.  For example, search for the word “samizdat” and you get a listing of the over 1,000 Kindle books that we offer.  Do a search for “samizdat dickens” or “samizdat” followed by any other classic author and you'll get a list of our offerings by that author. Then you can make the online purchase with a few quick clicks and the book is immediately delivered to your Kindle, wirelessly. The process is ridiculously convenient.

I'm hooked, and the folks who see me using it seem to get hooked quickly too.

Suggestions welcome.

Richard Seltzer,  seltzer@samizdat.com
Book collections on CD and DVD http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/ A library for the price of a book. As featured in the New York Times
Books for Amazon's Kindle http://www.samizdat.com/kindle

Please visit our online store at http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat Book collections on CD and DVD. A library for the price of a book.
 

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