My love for my Kindle
When I was trying to decide to buy a Kindle I couldn’t find very much information apart from the obvious advertising stuff. Various members of my f’list and in turn their f’lists helped. So I though, now that I’m a devoted Kindle user I’d share some of my experiences with you in case you also have a desperate ‘need to know’!
So, two months after buying it, I love my Kindle!
It took me a while to get used to - it isn't quite as 'take it out of the box and start reading' as they'd like you to think. You need to read the user guide pretty carefully. Bits of it more than once. I'm fairly confident now. I'm also very pleased to have found a really useful program called 'calibre' - a free download though if you enjoy it they'd love donations - which organises your e-library (well, OK, you have to do a bit of work alongside them) and converts things into the format your e-reader likes. This means I'm not tied to Amazon and can continue to buy from independent publishers. I can also read fanfic provided I create a .pdf version for calibre to play with though I think they accept some other formats. Calibre keeps your book in its files so you can delete it from your Kindle to save on Kindle memory space.
Kindle does accept .pdfs, grudgingly. To read a .pdf on Kindle without conversion you have to choose landscape mode instead of portrait, which makes it harder to turn pages and isn't quite as like reading a book. It is also harder to alter the font size. Kindle allows you to send them .pdf files to convert, so that you can put your own documents onto the reader but it does say it isn't intended for commercial stuff so they might not like too many e-books! Fanfic would probably be OK.
It's a wonderful way to take dozens of books travelling all over the place with you. It's also a much pleasanter way to read e-books anywhere. As well as being green!! You can buy most books at slightly below the paperback price in Kindle format from Amazon and there are loads of e-book publishers out there with formats that Calibre can convert. Fanfic is easy to convert for Calibre - you just copy/paste it to Word or Open Office and export as a .pdf to the folder you want it in, and you can even add illustrations e.g. using icons (I always have dozens of gorgeous icons I can’t really use on LJ). For short fics I usually create an anthology of half a dozen.
Then you have a hand-held device about the size of a slim paperback, which slips into a handbag or can be read in bed. The battery lasts ages and ages. It is odd, at first, reading on only one side of the page. You need a cover, to protect your investment, but also to make it more comfortable to hold. The cover opens like a book but the Kindle is only on the right hand side. Or, if you’re left handed you could have it only on the left hand side. No more carting heavy laptops around, and no printing of long fanfic using up all those trees. Besides, I hate reading on A4 almost as much as some people hate reading on a laptop.
I'd recommend splashing out on the cover with an inbuilt light (works off the Kindle battery) because whilst the e-ink technology is lovely to read in bright sunshine it isn't that good in poorly lit rooms (like the piano bar on a ferry (!) or in bed if you don’t want to disturb your partner). The screen really does look like paper and there’s no glare. You don't need the 3G wi-fi unless you can't wait to buy books till you get home.
About the only drawback is the lack of colour. You just have to admire the cover art on your laptop before you start reading. And one of my Christmas presents was a field guide to Mediterranean flowers and I wouldn't want that on the Kindle, though a friend is considering taking a travel guide on holiday on hers. I find the search function doesn’t work as well on non-Kindle books but as I have them on my laptop anyway I’m not too bothered. The Kindle does display art - just in black and white. It has a nice set of default pictures that appear when you’ve left it idle for a while. I’m aware that there are expensive colour e-readers available now but they’re still not the standard and anyway, for most ordinary reading you don’t need colour.
Amazon have just said that the sale of e-books has passed that of printed ones for the first time. In UK there was a scathing comment in the media about how only 7% of the population had e-readers yet. I suspect that the 7% overlap pretty much with the percentage of the population who are avid book buyers. And there are those who can't afford an e-reader yet but who read on their laptops or netbooks. So the future seems to be the Kindle and the various other e-readers. I can recommend the Kindle and it’s one of the cheapest for the features you get.
Hope somebody somewhere finds this helpful! I’ve unlocked it in case you have a friend who’s considering taking the plunge.
So, two months after buying it, I love my Kindle!
It took me a while to get used to - it isn't quite as 'take it out of the box and start reading' as they'd like you to think. You need to read the user guide pretty carefully. Bits of it more than once. I'm fairly confident now. I'm also very pleased to have found a really useful program called 'calibre' - a free download though if you enjoy it they'd love donations - which organises your e-library (well, OK, you have to do a bit of work alongside them) and converts things into the format your e-reader likes. This means I'm not tied to Amazon and can continue to buy from independent publishers. I can also read fanfic provided I create a .pdf version for calibre to play with though I think they accept some other formats. Calibre keeps your book in its files so you can delete it from your Kindle to save on Kindle memory space.
Kindle does accept .pdfs, grudgingly. To read a .pdf on Kindle without conversion you have to choose landscape mode instead of portrait, which makes it harder to turn pages and isn't quite as like reading a book. It is also harder to alter the font size. Kindle allows you to send them .pdf files to convert, so that you can put your own documents onto the reader but it does say it isn't intended for commercial stuff so they might not like too many e-books! Fanfic would probably be OK.
It's a wonderful way to take dozens of books travelling all over the place with you. It's also a much pleasanter way to read e-books anywhere. As well as being green!! You can buy most books at slightly below the paperback price in Kindle format from Amazon and there are loads of e-book publishers out there with formats that Calibre can convert. Fanfic is easy to convert for Calibre - you just copy/paste it to Word or Open Office and export as a .pdf to the folder you want it in, and you can even add illustrations e.g. using icons (I always have dozens of gorgeous icons I can’t really use on LJ). For short fics I usually create an anthology of half a dozen.
Then you have a hand-held device about the size of a slim paperback, which slips into a handbag or can be read in bed. The battery lasts ages and ages. It is odd, at first, reading on only one side of the page. You need a cover, to protect your investment, but also to make it more comfortable to hold. The cover opens like a book but the Kindle is only on the right hand side. Or, if you’re left handed you could have it only on the left hand side. No more carting heavy laptops around, and no printing of long fanfic using up all those trees. Besides, I hate reading on A4 almost as much as some people hate reading on a laptop.
I'd recommend splashing out on the cover with an inbuilt light (works off the Kindle battery) because whilst the e-ink technology is lovely to read in bright sunshine it isn't that good in poorly lit rooms (like the piano bar on a ferry (!) or in bed if you don’t want to disturb your partner). The screen really does look like paper and there’s no glare. You don't need the 3G wi-fi unless you can't wait to buy books till you get home.
About the only drawback is the lack of colour. You just have to admire the cover art on your laptop before you start reading. And one of my Christmas presents was a field guide to Mediterranean flowers and I wouldn't want that on the Kindle, though a friend is considering taking a travel guide on holiday on hers. I find the search function doesn’t work as well on non-Kindle books but as I have them on my laptop anyway I’m not too bothered. The Kindle does display art - just in black and white. It has a nice set of default pictures that appear when you’ve left it idle for a while. I’m aware that there are expensive colour e-readers available now but they’re still not the standard and anyway, for most ordinary reading you don’t need colour.
Amazon have just said that the sale of e-books has passed that of printed ones for the first time. In UK there was a scathing comment in the media about how only 7% of the population had e-readers yet. I suspect that the 7% overlap pretty much with the percentage of the population who are avid book buyers. And there are those who can't afford an e-reader yet but who read on their laptops or netbooks. So the future seems to be the Kindle and the various other e-readers. I can recommend the Kindle and it’s one of the cheapest for the features you get.
Hope somebody somewhere finds this helpful! I’ve unlocked it in case you have a friend who’s considering taking the plunge.