I’ve written here about the Kindle twice before. When it was first released in late 2007, I predicted that it was going to be a hit, and many really smart friends (and my wife) told me I was dead wrong and that it was going to be a flop.
Then, when the Kindle 2 was released in early 2009, I wrote about it again, and said that the only reason I didn’t buy one was that I had gotten used to reading books using Stanza on my iPhone. Now, of course, I have an iPad, and I read ebooks on that. But the iPad has some significant disadvantages as an ebook reader. It’s heavy in the hand; you have to prop it on something or put it on a table. It’s too big to fit in a jacket pocket (except for my ScottEVest jacket), and the iPad, having email, tends to interrupt my reading experience. And the Kindle has that just-about-forever battery life.
I’d been thinking that I was going to try a Kindle when it hit the magic $99 price point. So after today’s Amazon announcements, I sprang for the $99 Kindle Touch (the one with the ads, because I’m pretty good at ignoring ads, the ads don’t interfere with the reading experience, and I didn’t mind saving $40). I’ll report back when the thing arrives in November. We’ll see if I like it or not. But my track record so far has been pretty good.
The strangest thing about the Kindle to me is how quickly I adapted. It was like the Nintendo DS — after playing video games for twenty years using cursor keys, I picked up a DS and within three months, I was confused when a game required me to use the arrow keys to move. The instincts just changed overnight. I was reading a paper book the other night, in the evening, when my eyes are tired, and subconsciously poking the page with my thumb. That’s sort of hard to describe in a way that makes sense. But I was being fidgety. I finally realized I was trying to magnify the text, but the paper — obviously! — didn’t let me.
And the worst thing about the Kindle to me is how quickly I adapted. More than once I’ve stepped halfway into the swimming pool and realized that Kindle + swimming pool = much worse combo than book + swimming pool. (And yes, it’s Florida, I float and read!)
My deepest wish for the Kindle would be some sort of program where I could send in my paper books and have them converted to e-books without having to re-buy the book. I would never read on paper again, I bet. Although I suppose it’s good to have a few paper books around in case of long-term power outages!
I love my Kindle, for many of the reasons you listed. So much lighter than the iPad, the battery lasts for about a month – a little less if I do heavy reading and because I have the case with the light built in to it. I love the e-ink most of all though. No backlight is so much more soothing on the eyes, especially if I’m reading before I go to sleep.
Bonus? It is meant for reading books. So that is all I do on it. I don’t jump over the Facebook, check in on Twitter, and play a round of Angry Birds – all things I might do on the iPad.
I predict you will be really, really happy with it! I’ve had mine for a few years now (Gen 1 and then Gen 3) and as much as I rallied against reading books digitally before I bought it, I just can’t imagine going back to reading most books any other way!