Following up on my previous Kindle review post...
Things I love about my Kindle (Wi-Fi)
- A third generation Kindle can hold up to 3500 books.
This means that you can carry a really extensive library with you pretty much wherever you go. You can always have a "next" book with you; instead of carrying both the book you've almost finished and the one you're about to start, you have both - and loads more besides. Oh, yes, and the Kindle is very lightweight: tips the scale at only 8.5 ounces. - You can read your ebooks just about anywhere, including in direct sunlight, without glare.
I read on my Kindle on a bright, sunny Saturday afternoon in between garage sale customers early last month. This past week, I took my Kindle along on a six-mile walk. The weather was variable, varying between overcast and grey and clear blue skies with spots of cottony clouds. No sunglasses and no glare from the screen at all. - Lots of books are available in Kindle format for free.
Amazon offers a varying list of books on a limited-time promotional basis. Kindle users "purchase" the titles for $0.00. Later on, when the book has be returned to its regular price, it stays in your digital library and you don't pay anything. This is a great way to explore books by a new author and books in genres which may be outside your normal comfort zone, a chance to expand your literary horizons.
Amazon also offers a wide assortment of classics for free. I recently read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I'd previously read Disney-fied versions but this time I read it in the original. - The New Oxford American Dictionary
is built into the Kindle; over a quarter million entries.
This was a great feature to have while reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.Washington Irving published the story way back in 1820 so the wording used is often very different from modern language. It was great to have immediate access to a dictionary for those couple of unfamiliar archaic terms. Of course, there were a couple more obsolete words not in the dictionary, but they are no longer in common usage.
- Kindle content is searchable.
The search facility has got to be just about the coolest feature. A week or two ago, Number Guy asked me if I could remember which type of werewolf the Street Wolves were in Jim Butcher's Fool Moon.I clearly remembered Bob telling Harry about the several types of werewolf. Instead of flipping through the paperback copy on the bookshelf, I reached for my Kindle, searched on the phrase "loup garou" and immediately located the exchange. We had our answer in moments. Oh, just for the record, the Street Wolves were lycanthropes.
- Kindles can contain collections.
Books in a Kindle can be displayed alphabetically by title or by author or organized into user-defined collections. I've got all of my books tagged. You can even cross-categorize: for example, I have The Real Enemyby Kathy Herman classified as both Christian Fiction and as Mystery/Suspense/Thriller.
I am hoping that in the future the collections feature will be expanded to include multi-level classifications, then I will file the specific collection "The Dresden Files" under the general collection Urban Fantasy. - Users can convert documents into Kindle format for free.
Got a pdf or Word document that you'd like to read on your Kindle? Piece of cake. Simply send an email to your Kindle's free email address, with the subject "convert" and the file in question as an attachment. Amazon converts the file and returns it to the originating email address. Next, transfer the file from your computer to your Kindle via USB cable. Fast, easy, and free. - The ebook market has the potential to become an excellent entry portal for new authors.
We've got some friends who have written a book and a few short stories. They've tried to secure an agent but haven't had any luck. Acquiring an agent and a publisher is hard. Often publishers are looking for a particular kind of story so even if a writer has a good story, they might not be able to bring it to market. Our friends are currently exploring the possibility of preparing their manuscript for the ebook market and self-publishing. Making a manuscript available as a low cost ebook can stir up a lot of exposure for a new author. Viral advertising at work.
- Poor quality of many unknown authors who self-publish.
This is the flip side of the ease of self-publishing in the ebook market: anybody with a story can convert the document into Kindle format, upload it to the Kindle store, and start selling it. I can't count high enough to tot up the number of low-rent, cheap, trashy romances I've seen offered for sale in the ebook market - Building an ebook library can become very expensive very quickly.
Back when Amazon first offered the Kindle and econtent, they made the decision that new releases should not cost more than ten dollars. They predicted, quite accurately, that $10 would end up being a psychological barrier. Unfortunately, not all of the publishing houses agreed, demanding $12.99 (or higher)price tags for Kindle editions being released at the same time as new release hardcovers. Now, it is not uncommon to see a note right below the price line of a Kindle book which reads: This price was set by the publisher. Heck, I've even seen pre-order prices on hardcovers lower than Kindle editions of certain new books. This is just insane: the materials and shipping costs for ebooks is negligible compared to paper books.
Established authors may have very long backlists and at $9-10 each, this adds up rapidly. Backlist paperbacks are commonly bundled together in promotional offers. One of my favorites is Amazon's 4-for-3 promo. Ebooks just don't get bundled that way. So far, they aren't getting collected into an electronic equivalent of the "boxed set" either. I think that publishers need to understand that consumers are often purchasing electronic copies of books they already own in hardcopy. - Consumers are losing the right of first sale.
Traditionally, when a customer purchases a book, that book becomes their property. The consumer can do with the book as they will. Suppose you were given a book for Christmas. You started to read it but after a couple of chapters, you realized that you just weren't into it. Now you have some choices you could: toss the book onto a bookshelf and forget about it; sell it at your next yard sale; or give it to a friend. You just can't do this with ebooks. This is problematic for me. If I buy a book and I don't like it and can't return it, I should be able to give it to someone else. The inability to sell, give away, or otherwise transfer ownership of an ebook causes me to curtail my ebook spending. Unless I am 100% positive that I will read and reread an ebook, I won't spend money on it.
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7 yarns:
All very good rants - the raves that are applicable to this non-Kindle person were good, too. :)
I'd add as a rave the low power consumption of eink devices, which only use power when pages are turned (although I suspect the Kindle, being so busy, uses power for more). Since eink doesn't cause screen burn, it makes no difference at all whether you leave the device on or turn it off - it actually probably takes less power to just leave it on.
Hee hee - my veri word is ceingewe, which amuses me on multiple levels. :)
Lord of the Rings is not an ebook yet...and you cant read it in low light or the dark unless you have a little light to attach to it...
I am not at all knowledgeable about this subject, so I am enjoying learning from you!
My husband and I do not buy from itunes because of the non-transfer issue. We buy mp3 albums from amazon, so we can place them on our iphone or use in the car etc.
You're getting me way more educated than I was. Thanks.
Gillian
I've been debating on buying a Kindle or other e-reader myself. Thanks for such a well thought out review. Not that it makes the decision easier, but it does give me more to consider!
My daughter owns a Nook and loves it for all the reasons you name. We're getting one for her significant other for his birthday because he picks hers up everytime she puts it down.
The idea that I can' transfer a book to someone else is a huge hurdle for me.
Reply to Denise: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings most certainly are available as ebooks!
I can read my Kindle in fairly low light but you are correct that there is a point at which is it too dim to read. For me, that's pretty much the same point at which I could not read a paper book so I can't count that as a rant, just reality.
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