More Reading on the Kindle

Now that I have my *own* kindle, I have more to say about the reading experience. At my nieces recommendation, i bought the first book in the series, "The Warriors". The book is about cats, with very similar names - firepaw, moonpaw, starpaw, etc. etc. If I had read the book in print, I would have occasionally flipped back to the beginning to review the list of characters. I think you can do it on the kindle, but I don't know how and it's not intuitive. The barrier is too high for me to bother to figure it out. There is also a map in the front of the book, that my niece went out of her way to point out to me. I never even thought to look at it on the kindle. The resolution was poor and again I was flummoxed by how to flip to the front of the book.

I also find it difficult to *find* books on the kindle. It's not made for browsing, which is surprising, because the Amazon site is all about browsing.

On the plus side, I *love* being about to download a sample chapter for FREE. I downloaded at least a dozen sample chapters over the weekend. I will try them and if I like them, I can just buy them while I'm travelling. O.K. That's the best thing about the kindle - I can buy a book almost anywhere, anytime!

Reading on the Kindle

I finally borrowed my mother's Kindle for a trip and actually *read*  several books.  I want to capture my impressions before I read this week's New Yorker article by Nicholson Baker...

The Kindle is fantastic for a trip.  There was none of my usual agony about choosing which books to take.  I didn't run out of books to read, which is deadly.  The device itself is tiny and easy to tuck in the outside pocket of my bag.  I recharged the battery once, but I don't think I needed to.  

I love the wireless Amazon bookstore. I was in Oak Park and decided I wanted to read a book about Frank Lloyd Wright.  Presto. I bought one and read it.  I *love* that feature.

I quickly got into the reading experience and got caught up in the book rather than the device.

The book cover and reviews on the back of the book influence my choice much more than I thought.  I actually had a hard time browsing Amazon online.  The awkward keyboard was also a contributing factor because it was a pain to use the "if you like this book..." feature.  Next time I will bring the Kindle to the bookstore with me and buy Kindle books after looking at the physical book.

Initially I struggled with my itouch because of the touch screen.  Apparently I've acclimated because I was very frustrated that the kindle did not use a touch screen.  

I don't know why I missed this, but I found it disorienting to not know how much of the book I had read or had left to read.  The kindle shows me what percentage of the book I've read, but it wasn't quite the same.

Someone needs to invent a single,  universal recharging cord!!! I had a cord for my phone, my camera, my itouch AND the kindle.  Enough is enough.

Overall the Kindle is definitely a good reading experience and it is ideal for travel.  I must like it because I checked out a book from the library yesterday and instead found myself reading the title on the Kindle!  Which reminds me of my last wish for the next generation Kindle - a light. I would love to be able to read in bed or on a dark plane.