Why I bought a Kindle
21Nov2007 Filed under: materialNote: I have not actually received my Kindle yet. Another post will follow around Dec. 7 when I’ve had it for a day.
Seems like everyone wants to piss on the Kindle for not reading pdf. While that is something I would Really Like™ I looked at this thing and thought “I can get another book after I’m finished reading one any time, any where.”
For a serious text junkie like myself, that’s nirvana. Everything else that sucks - prophylactic encryption for scaredy-cat publishers and hyper-minimalist document formats - just pales by comparison.
The other factor is that I commute on the subway these days. When I was younger I was a serial monogamist with books; nowadays I am a dedicated polyamorist with at least three books going at once, one for code, one ‘fluff’ and one spiritual and/or sciency; and dear gods but weighty tomes are, well, weighty.
And the NYTimes and Crooked Little Vein is out on it. Basically, I looked at the page for CLV, and saw that Soon I Will Be Invincible, Halting State, and Spook Country are available for it as well. That’s at least four of the books I’d like to be reading, and without the hassle of remembering which one is in the bag at any given time.
Plus, has no-one heard of converting pdf to html?
The pay for RSS feed thing is one thing I might be cranky about; I sub to hundreds of feeds. I suppose I suddenly have a use for a meta-feed.
4 Responses to “Why I bought a Kindle”
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November 22nd, 2007 at 2:26 am
Just read this comparison of e-book readers, and I gotta say, both the comparison itself and some of the comments are pretty inspiring. There’s even someone saying it’s not nearly as ugly in person as it is in photos! :) And you’re right, you can’t beat the weight.
Being a slow reader, I can’t imagine wanting one before the iPho^H^H^H^H price comes down, but the way you go through books, I can see where this is very attractive. Here’s hoping it’s as sexy as it sounds.
November 22nd, 2007 at 1:24 pm
What?! you bought that thing?
Can you actually use the books for anything else than the kindle? what if you wanna copy and paste a paragraph? is there a computer reader too? heh
November 24th, 2007 at 1:12 am
No, the books are only readable in the kindle. From my perspective, that’s no different from a paper book. It does allow copying sections into an email to others.
I know it’s not very conceivable from your end, Sean … but you gotta remember, I finish a book every few days.
It has a pretty competent web browser and can read html files you copy to it, so … really, that’s good enough for me.
December 15th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you Idetrorce