Hello again! Welcome to a new year, a new decade, a new face on Woolly Mutts. It was way overdue and is a bit of a work in progress, but a good place to start, none the less. I avoid resolutions in general. I can find other ways to disappoint myself, but I do intend to become more faithful to this blog. Wenders, a long time friend and blog reader (as well as writer) asked me for a review of my new Kindle and now is as good a time as any. You might want to get comfy and grab a beverage, cause there is much to say about Kindle, both positive and negative.
Before I get into specifics, let me remind that I am, at heart, a book girl. There is nothing I don't love about a book. The smell, the weight of it in my hands, the adventure that book and I take together. I worked in a library for nearly 10 years and never, ever met a book I didn't like. Love, even. However, I am also a lover of the gadget. It it has a power source and buttons I am probably interested. Kindle is the meeting of both worlds.
And there he/she is. Apparently, many Kindle owners choose to give it a name. Not sure about that, yet. You can see it has the screen, a full keyboard, page turn buttons, menu, home, and a teeny, tiny joy stick thingy. (I am so technical.)
To give you some idea of the size, here it is a top of an average sized hard cover book. It is small and very light.
I was lucky enough to get a case for mine (thanks Sonya!), so here it is, in the case, same book.
A quick overview; Kindle holds up to 1500 books, uploads them in less than a minute (my experience has been more like 20 seconds) from the Amazon store, either from your computer or straight from the Kindle itself. It also will display newspapers, magazines, text files, and blogs for your reading pleasure.
The good:
*Small and light with a non glare screen. The display looks almost exactly like a page in a book.
*It keeps your place without even asking it to, and does so for every document that you are reading. If, like me, you read while having a meal, there is no struggling to keep it open or need to prop up to get the right view.
*You can highlight, annotate, clip sections for later use. The little controller moves a cursor any where on the page. Place it in front of any word and the definition of that word appears (like magic) at the bottom of the page. Fabulous!
*When it goes to sleep a new picture appears on the screen. Some times it's the picture of an author, or a field of butterflies, or a tree of birds. I get a kick out of seeing what picture will appear next.
*As earlier reported, books appear in the Kindle less than a minute after you request them. Amazon also offers LOTS of free books in lots of genres AND (this is so cool) you can order the first chapter of any book for free so you can sample the book before you buy. There a number of places that offer free books for the Kindle and I have heard, though not experienced yet, that some libraries have a Kindle download program. (LOVE libraries!)
*Newspapers from 15 countries can be delivered daily to your Kindle. You also get a free 14 day trial of each newspaper before you commit. I am currently enjoying a trial of The Independent, a UK newspaper. There are also magazines and blogs. There is a cost for all, including blogs. I haven't experimented too much with the built in browser, but have read that it supports Google Reader, so you could read your blogs using the Kindle.
*Lovely long battery life. I just plugged it in today and I've been reading it, on and off, since the 27th. I've read one complete book and almost half of another along with daily newspaper reading.
*PDF files. Oh knitters, this one is tres cool. When you register your Kindle you get an exclusive email address where you are able to email documents and images. A large number of my knitting patterns are in PDF form so I can email them to the Kindle to have available instead of the paper copy. I adore this feature. Same is true for Word docs.
*You can search any publication using word or phrase. Great tool if you're studying a particular subject.
*Text size is customizable and it has the ability to size up to extremely large print. You can also change how many words appear on a line and the screen rotation.
*It will read to you and it's a pretty good voice. I was expecting the sort of computer voice that isn't appealing to listen to, but you can choose a male or female voice and the rate that it speaks. If you're engrossed in a story and have to leave for work, you can just have it read as you drive and then pick up reading again where the voice leaves off. Fantastic feature!
The not so good:
*No color. I understand the necessity of black and white, but I am hoping that someday they will be able to over come this hurdle and offer a color version.
*The screen can not be brightened. The screen is calibrated to be seen at any angle and in most lights with no glare, but it still feels a bit dim to me. Having said that, after I begin reading I hardly notice it and I can and have read in sunlight or with a lamp and had no trouble.
*You can't format a pdf file. Having the knitting patterns in the Kindle is fantastic, but it would be even more so if I could make the text larger. Again, color would be better in this instance as well.
*You are only viewing one page at a time so you must hit the "turn page" button more often than you would turn a page. This sort of annoyed me at first, but after using it for awhile I don't notice it as much.
*It's not a book. Some times it just has to be a book.
Overall, taking the good and the not so much into consideration, I adore my Kindle. LOVE it. 5 stars, two thumbs up, standing ovation. This dedicated book lover is just crazy about her Kindle!
If you are a Kindle owner and have tips or comments to share, please do so!!!
Wow, a shoutout in your first post of 2010! Thank you. ;)
This answers all my questions and more - is a reading gadget right for a book lover? Yes. I am going to be commuting via train into Boston more this year, and the idea of having a daily newspaper for the ride to work AND a book for the ride home all in a less bulky package is intriguing. And knitting pdfs... oooooh. Bonus.
Maybe 2010 is the year of the gadget for me? Of course, a netbook is on my list, too...
thanks again, Holly!
Posted by: wenders | January 01, 2010 at 05:03 PM
Hi Holly, I too received a Kindle for Christmas, albeit a bit early so I am a seasoned Kindle user by now. I've read that you can bring a pdf file into word, adjust the text size, and import it into the kindle. I haven't tried it yet but perhaps it will help with the small text size. Another hint, if you put the device into reading text, and turn down the sound, the pages turn automatically. Also there is a software update so I don't know if you have the latest version installed but the new version has many features including changing to landscape mode, a feature I've enjoyed. Enjoy your new toy! I love mine..just email if you run into any problems and I'll try to help.
Joy
Posted by: Joy Clenaghan | January 02, 2010 at 04:17 PM