Well, sorta. It's $100 off if you sign up for an Amazon Visa--assuming you don't already have one presumably (which I do). And there's been a promotion for signing up for one of these cards pretty much forever (but only about $30 credit normally).
I may still take the Kindle plunge one of these days but will probably wait and see what comes out of the next product refresh.
I really don't get what the attraction of these things is. I suppose if you spent a lot of time commuting on a train, they would be nice because you could take your book without getting it beat up. But, if you don't spend a lot of time on trains or airplanes, you really don't read much outside of your home.
More than that there is just something attractive and beautiful about a book. Books are permanent. You can keep them. Loan them to your friends, give them to your kids. My father has a home library of hundreds of books. He has read them all. I will be so happy to get them someday. Contrast that to my MP3 player. I have an old Nomad MP3 player that survived the war in Iraq but sadly I can't get the music off of because I switched computers and creative doesn't make the drivers anymore.
Yes books take up space. But, if you are not a poser and only own books you actually have read, they don't take up more than the walls of a single room, unless you just spend all of your time reading. I sincerely hope Kindel does not catch on with more than a few early adaptors.
They certainly have their niches. I just hope that they don't ever replace books. I would hate to have to look for books like you have to look for LP records.
I wonder if that last comment is a prediction that someday bibliophiles will insist that the subtleties of a particular novel can only really be appreciated on paper.
I doubt it alan. Yes, you do get better sound from LPs if they are in perfect condition and you have the right equipment. There is no comparison between LPs under the right conditions and digital. But who has the time or the effort to do that? Books, not so much.
I suppose if you spent a lot of time commuting on a train, they would be nice because you could take your book without getting it beat up.
I commute by train every day - a hideous, loathsome, soul-destroying experience, but that isn't the point - and have never had a problem with reading books. They don't get beat up or damaged any worse than if you read at home.
If I had a Kindle, I'd be much more concerned about damaging that.
Last fall I got detailed to a litigation project that required me to work downtown and commute by train. God it was awful. It is a hideus experience being shoved asshole to ellbow in a tin box with a bunch of strangers. How people can sing the praises of mass transit is beyond me. That is a good point about the Kindle. Also, what if you leave the damn thing behind? You are out like $300 versus at most $30 for a hardback book.
If you read Megan's linked post about the Kindle, it seems that the main attraction of it has to do with the ability to mark text and skip around and search the text. I would be curious to see a list of books Megan has read cover to cover on a Kindle versus just skimming or reading parts. If she is not actually reading the books, then the Kindle is pretty depressing development in that it makes it easier for people to just skim books and take what they like rather than actually read them. Skimming and searching has its place, but at some point you actually need to read something cover to cover if you want to know anything beyond superficial knoweldge.
I own a Kindle and also commute via bus to work, a 1 1/2 hour commute (1 hour on the bus) that is, as Peter describes, "a hideous, loathsome, soul-destroying experience." However, given the need to do what one must do in order to feed my family, I deal with it. One way to deal with it has been the Kindle. It's convenient, pretty sturdy and I'm glad to have it.
That said, I doubt it will replace books. If there is a book I really want to own, it's a book that I want to display. A book collection says much about the owner of the books. A kindle can never replace that. It's great for paper backs that you will read and discard, not so great for book to keep.
Things people in these comments are missing about the Kindle:
-Ability to carry many books while traveling, without worrying about luggage weight limits
-Ability to acquire books instantaneously, without trekking to a bookstore
-Lower per-book prices in many cases
-Permanent backup on Amazon servers
-Unlimited "bookcase" capacity, without taking up any wallspace
-Easier house moves, for those who have total book inventories in the 1000s
-Variable font sizes, for those whose eyes are getting older
It's not for everyone (I haven't made the jump yet, although my wife has.), but it's ridiculous to try to claim it has no lifecycle advantages over printed books.
I guess I should have expanded on it. My apologies.
I merely see this nostagia-like outpouring whenever a new technology comes out for what it has the potential to replace. Books are not that great. They are piles of paper. It's what is communicated in books that is wonderful and valuable. It seems that people prefer books, because they attach books with memories of reading great things, but that memory is no reason to love and desire piles of paper.
While I admittedly do use mass transit for commuting (To the person wondering how anyone can stand it: I don't have to own a car, and I can make vaguely productive use of my commuting time since I don't have to focus my attention on driving), I would hardly say that commuting is the only thing that makes the Kindle great.
I may be highly abnormal, but I tend to read wherever I am. If I have a doctor's appointment, I'll read in the waiting room. If I'm waiting for a friend to meet me (I'm perpetually early), I'll be reading. Occasionally I'll even just go someplace secluded for the sole purpose of reading without anything distracting me. And then there's the occasional bout of real travel.
I find the instant gratification aspect of the device to be one of my favorite parts - I think that I want to read something, and it can be available within minutes.
I also find it very useful for reference books and technical manuals, when they're available in ebook or pdf form. When you've carried around two or more textbook sized volumes in your bag at the same time as a laptop you VERY quickly appreciate the ability of the Kindle to reduce your load.
That said, it's not a full replacement for paper books for me. I have a comfort level with reading paper books that I haven't yet developed with my Kindle - and I've certainly run afoul of the inability to share a book I really liked. (I have, in fact, rebought one book that I read on my Kindle because I *really* wanted to share it)
On balance though, I'm really very happy with mine. Even if it isn't a complete replacement for paper books, it certainly is worthwhile - and will only become moreso as the price drops.
I find it odd that no one ever mentions my biggest objection to the Kindle. I rarely ever buy books. Instead I use my local public library. I do have to wait at times for books that I put on hold (especially new books) but I'm not really worried about that - I have a huge book backlog that I can be reading at any one time. A Kindle just doesn't provide access to this source of free reading material.
I do have a question though; how much print is visible on one Kindle screen? I have a slate style tablet computer which I thought might make a good reader (for text and pdf files) but I have been very dissapointed with the amount of text on screen. Somehow it feels like I am paging forwards much more often then I would with a book. I didn't think that would be a big deal but it keeps me from just "falling into" a work of fiction (it isn't a problem when reading scientific or work material).
The Kindle appeals to me, but I haven't taken the plunge after getting burned by buying an RCA Rocket ebook (the REB 1100). It was a pritive version of the kindle, and used a built-in modem instead of wireless, but otherwise substantially the same product.
I loved that REB 1100 and found I was reading a lot more with it. Not just in commutes but in general. I spent $300 on the device plus 100s of dollars on books.
Problem is, not enough people liked the device and it eventually went the way of the 8-track player.
So right now I'm waiting to see how the Kindle does. It it becomes as ubiquitous as the iPod, I'll surely buy it. Otherwise, I don't want to lead with my chin on this one.
Megan, just had to let you know that your shameless Kindle plugging got me to buy one of the things. I just ordered it yesterday, so I can't say whether it was a worthwhile investment or not yet, but I'm sure looking forward to it!
But, if you are not a poser and only own books you actually have read, they don't take up more than the walls of a single room, unless you just spend all of your time reading.
Um. I have one room , with Ikea bookcases that is just the science fiction and fantasy paperbacks my wife and I own. I'd estimate that I've read 90% of them, with the other 10% books my wife has read. Those cases are about 60% of our books.
As I have mentioned before, my wife bought me a Kindle. 50% of the reason was the explosion of books at the house, 50% was that I was on airplanes quite a bit for work.
I'll echo the positive comments in the thread above. It's easy to use, various kinds of ebooks and pdfs can transfer to it, and the price of books is good. One note: an early complaint was that the "Next Page" bar on the right is too easy to hit inadvertently. True if the Kindle is not in the provided cover. With the cover on, it's not a problem for me.
I find that the electronic ink is much more pleasant to the eye than a CPU monitor. More book-like, probably since it is a reflective surface rather than a light emitter.
I'm buying ephemeral reading material - current events, mysteries, SF&F I don't want to share, etc. in place of paperbacks. If I had a way to scan in and OCR many of my books, I'd convert 50% or so of them to ebooks and recycle them. (I'd keep the copyright page and title to show I properly owned them, though.)
One caveat: books with lots of pictures are not a good choice for Kindle, due to the pixel count of the display and the fact that it is limited grey-scale. Simple line art, woodcuts, some maps, etc. are fine, however.
Dave - The Kindle books might cost less in some, or even many cases, but they should cost a lot less. The costs are a lot less, and you get something that is in many ways more limited, for example if you have 10 books, you can read one, and lend out another two, if you have ten kindle books you can't do that.
Also you have to pay for things that you can get for free using normal internet access (newspapers, perhaps other things), and there are other issues.
OTOH it can be convenient. If books came down some, and the Kindle price went down a bit (or at least improved models came in at the same price point) I'd seriously consider it.
Ideally I'd like to borrow a Kindle for about a week so that I can get a feel for what using it is like, but I don't think anyone is going to offer me the experience.
It is easy to transfer e-books in Kindle format to the Kindle: you can do it over an included USB cable, or you can put files on an SD card and put the SD card in the Kindle. The only catch to transferring files is that you have to make sure to deposit them into the documents folder.
However, Kindles don't support all e-book formats: they support Mobipocket format, HTML, plain text, jpeg, and their own proprietary format which is basically mobipocket with a different DRM wrapper.
Books in PDF, Microsoft Word, and RTF can be emailed to Amazon for conversion: free if they email it back and you use the USB cable to put it on the Kindle; ten cents if you have them wirelessly deliver it to your Kindle. (Only one delivery; it doesn't stay on your Amazon account the way Amazon-purchased content does.)
Books in those formats, and several others, can be converted with software tools. There's a free one that Mobipocket puts out which does some common formats and is easy to use. There's a suite of Perl tools which convert from other formats.
At the smallest font, the Kindle screen displays about half the words an average-size paperback does per page. And there's a noticeable delay as it turns the pages: e-ink doesn't refresh quickly. However, if you time it right, reading just flows: hit the next page button when you're not quite at the end, finish the page, and bring your eyes up to the top while it's flashing and refreshing.
While it's true that you can't go to public libraries for Kindle content (some public libraries *do* let you check out e-books but those e-books use DRM which isn't compatible with the Kindle) you can freely download, and keep, e-books from a variety of sites. There are tens - perhaps hundreds, added up - of thousands of classics out of copyright, plus some books from authors (mostly science-fiction and fantasy) who've chosen to release samples, the first book in a series, etc.
If you like books published before 1923, you can find what to read for the rest of your life and not pay a cent for content.
Most of what's on my Kindle falls into that general category -- I have an issue with DRM.
My main complaint with the Kindle - and I say this as someone who's about to head to work with hers - is the DRM on the files.
When I buy a book, I want that book to still be mine in forty years. Amazon doesn't sell me that.
Oh sure, I can repeatedly download to up to six Kindles ... as long as Amazon's still making Kindles, I choose to own one, and Amazon's still supporting the downloads. For the next few years that's a really good bet: imo the Kindle is the best e-book reader on the market, and Amazon's core business is books. But it's *not* a good bet over the expected lifetime of my interest in a good book.
$359 is a big sale? *sigh* I'm still waiting.
-easy PDF reading
-better pictures
THEN you've got me sold!
Of course if I just bit the bullet and admitted how much fiction I'm reading lately it would probably work out.
Well, sorta. It's $100 off if you sign up for an Amazon Visa--assuming you don't already have one presumably (which I do). And there's been a promotion for signing up for one of these cards pretty much forever (but only about $30 credit normally).
I may still take the Kindle plunge one of these days but will probably wait and see what comes out of the next product refresh.
I really don't get what the attraction of these things is. I suppose if you spent a lot of time commuting on a train, they would be nice because you could take your book without getting it beat up. But, if you don't spend a lot of time on trains or airplanes, you really don't read much outside of your home.
More than that there is just something attractive and beautiful about a book. Books are permanent. You can keep them. Loan them to your friends, give them to your kids. My father has a home library of hundreds of books. He has read them all. I will be so happy to get them someday. Contrast that to my MP3 player. I have an old Nomad MP3 player that survived the war in Iraq but sadly I can't get the music off of because I switched computers and creative doesn't make the drivers anymore.
Yes books take up space. But, if you are not a poser and only own books you actually have read, they don't take up more than the walls of a single room, unless you just spend all of your time reading. I sincerely hope Kindel does not catch on with more than a few early adaptors.
For a long backpacking trip, a kindle plus a solar charger would allow plenty of reading for the weight and volume of one smallish book.
Bambi,
They certainly have their niches. I just hope that they don't ever replace books. I would hate to have to look for books like you have to look for LP records.
I wonder if that last comment is a prediction that someday bibliophiles will insist that the subtleties of a particular novel can only really be appreciated on paper.
I doubt it alan. Yes, you do get better sound from LPs if they are in perfect condition and you have the right equipment. There is no comparison between LPs under the right conditions and digital. But who has the time or the effort to do that? Books, not so much.
I suppose if you spent a lot of time commuting on a train, they would be nice because you could take your book without getting it beat up.
I commute by train every day - a hideous, loathsome, soul-destroying experience, but that isn't the point - and have never had a problem with reading books. They don't get beat up or damaged any worse than if you read at home.
If I had a Kindle, I'd be much more concerned about damaging that.
Peter,
Last fall I got detailed to a litigation project that required me to work downtown and commute by train. God it was awful. It is a hideus experience being shoved asshole to ellbow in a tin box with a bunch of strangers. How people can sing the praises of mass transit is beyond me. That is a good point about the Kindle. Also, what if you leave the damn thing behind? You are out like $300 versus at most $30 for a hardback book.
Alan - you know it, and you don't even need to be a bibliophile.
Page design is important!!
If you read Megan's linked post about the Kindle, it seems that the main attraction of it has to do with the ability to mark text and skip around and search the text. I would be curious to see a list of books Megan has read cover to cover on a Kindle versus just skimming or reading parts. If she is not actually reading the books, then the Kindle is pretty depressing development in that it makes it easier for people to just skim books and take what they like rather than actually read them. Skimming and searching has its place, but at some point you actually need to read something cover to cover if you want to know anything beyond superficial knoweldge.
I own a Kindle and also commute via bus to work, a 1 1/2 hour commute (1 hour on the bus) that is, as Peter describes, "a hideous, loathsome, soul-destroying experience." However, given the need to do what one must do in order to feed my family, I deal with it. One way to deal with it has been the Kindle. It's convenient, pretty sturdy and I'm glad to have it.
That said, I doubt it will replace books. If there is a book I really want to own, it's a book that I want to display. A book collection says much about the owner of the books. A kindle can never replace that. It's great for paper backs that you will read and discard, not so great for book to keep.
How easy (I assume it is possible) is it to transfer e-books from my computer to the Kindle? Anyone know?
Also: To almost everyone who has commented above: Sometimes, nostalgia is a very dangerous thing.
"Also: To almost everyone who has commented above: Sometimes, nostalgia is a very dangerous thing."
What on earth is that suposed to mean?
Things people in these comments are missing about the Kindle:
-Ability to carry many books while traveling, without worrying about luggage weight limits
-Ability to acquire books instantaneously, without trekking to a bookstore
-Lower per-book prices in many cases
-Permanent backup on Amazon servers
-Unlimited "bookcase" capacity, without taking up any wallspace
-Easier house moves, for those who have total book inventories in the 1000s
-Variable font sizes, for those whose eyes are getting older
It's not for everyone (I haven't made the jump yet, although my wife has.), but it's ridiculous to try to claim it has no lifecycle advantages over printed books.
I guess I should have expanded on it. My apologies.
I merely see this nostagia-like outpouring whenever a new technology comes out for what it has the potential to replace. Books are not that great. They are piles of paper. It's what is communicated in books that is wonderful and valuable. It seems that people prefer books, because they attach books with memories of reading great things, but that memory is no reason to love and desire piles of paper.
While I admittedly do use mass transit for commuting (To the person wondering how anyone can stand it: I don't have to own a car, and I can make vaguely productive use of my commuting time since I don't have to focus my attention on driving), I would hardly say that commuting is the only thing that makes the Kindle great.
I may be highly abnormal, but I tend to read wherever I am. If I have a doctor's appointment, I'll read in the waiting room. If I'm waiting for a friend to meet me (I'm perpetually early), I'll be reading. Occasionally I'll even just go someplace secluded for the sole purpose of reading without anything distracting me. And then there's the occasional bout of real travel.
I find the instant gratification aspect of the device to be one of my favorite parts - I think that I want to read something, and it can be available within minutes.
I also find it very useful for reference books and technical manuals, when they're available in ebook or pdf form. When you've carried around two or more textbook sized volumes in your bag at the same time as a laptop you VERY quickly appreciate the ability of the Kindle to reduce your load.
That said, it's not a full replacement for paper books for me. I have a comfort level with reading paper books that I haven't yet developed with my Kindle - and I've certainly run afoul of the inability to share a book I really liked. (I have, in fact, rebought one book that I read on my Kindle because I *really* wanted to share it)
On balance though, I'm really very happy with mine. Even if it isn't a complete replacement for paper books, it certainly is worthwhile - and will only become moreso as the price drops.
I find it odd that no one ever mentions my biggest objection to the Kindle. I rarely ever buy books. Instead I use my local public library. I do have to wait at times for books that I put on hold (especially new books) but I'm not really worried about that - I have a huge book backlog that I can be reading at any one time. A Kindle just doesn't provide access to this source of free reading material.
I do have a question though; how much print is visible on one Kindle screen? I have a slate style tablet computer which I thought might make a good reader (for text and pdf files) but I have been very dissapointed with the amount of text on screen. Somehow it feels like I am paging forwards much more often then I would with a book. I didn't think that would be a big deal but it keeps me from just "falling into" a work of fiction (it isn't a problem when reading scientific or work material).
The Kindle appeals to me, but I haven't taken the plunge after getting burned by buying an RCA Rocket ebook (the REB 1100). It was a pritive version of the kindle, and used a built-in modem instead of wireless, but otherwise substantially the same product.
I loved that REB 1100 and found I was reading a lot more with it. Not just in commutes but in general. I spent $300 on the device plus 100s of dollars on books.
Problem is, not enough people liked the device and it eventually went the way of the 8-track player.
So right now I'm waiting to see how the Kindle does. It it becomes as ubiquitous as the iPod, I'll surely buy it. Otherwise, I don't want to lead with my chin on this one.
Megan, just had to let you know that your shameless Kindle plugging got me to buy one of the things. I just ordered it yesterday, so I can't say whether it was a worthwhile investment or not yet, but I'm sure looking forward to it!
But, if you are not a poser and only own books you actually have read, they don't take up more than the walls of a single room, unless you just spend all of your time reading.
Um. I have one room , with Ikea bookcases that is just the science fiction and fantasy paperbacks my wife and I own. I'd estimate that I've read 90% of them, with the other 10% books my wife has read. Those cases are about 60% of our books.
As I have mentioned before, my wife bought me a Kindle. 50% of the reason was the explosion of books at the house, 50% was that I was on airplanes quite a bit for work.
I'll echo the positive comments in the thread above. It's easy to use, various kinds of ebooks and pdfs can transfer to it, and the price of books is good. One note: an early complaint was that the "Next Page" bar on the right is too easy to hit inadvertently. True if the Kindle is not in the provided cover. With the cover on, it's not a problem for me.
I find that the electronic ink is much more pleasant to the eye than a CPU monitor. More book-like, probably since it is a reflective surface rather than a light emitter.
I'm buying ephemeral reading material - current events, mysteries, SF&F I don't want to share, etc. in place of paperbacks. If I had a way to scan in and OCR many of my books, I'd convert 50% or so of them to ebooks and recycle them. (I'd keep the copyright page and title to show I properly owned them, though.)
One caveat: books with lots of pictures are not a good choice for Kindle, due to the pixel count of the display and the fact that it is limited grey-scale. Simple line art, woodcuts, some maps, etc. are fine, however.
There are two new Kindle models coming out this fall, so it might be wise to wait for those if you are not dying for a Kindle right now.
Dave - The Kindle books might cost less in some, or even many cases, but they should cost a lot less. The costs are a lot less, and you get something that is in many ways more limited, for example if you have 10 books, you can read one, and lend out another two, if you have ten kindle books you can't do that.
Also you have to pay for things that you can get for free using normal internet access (newspapers, perhaps other things), and there are other issues.
OTOH it can be convenient. If books came down some, and the Kindle price went down a bit (or at least improved models came in at the same price point) I'd seriously consider it.
Ideally I'd like to borrow a Kindle for about a week so that I can get a feel for what using it is like, but I don't think anyone is going to offer me the experience.
Things to skip on mm: recipes, tech/gadget recommendations, and posts about clothing.
It is easy to transfer e-books in Kindle format to the Kindle: you can do it over an included USB cable, or you can put files on an SD card and put the SD card in the Kindle. The only catch to transferring files is that you have to make sure to deposit them into the documents folder.
However, Kindles don't support all e-book formats: they support Mobipocket format, HTML, plain text, jpeg, and their own proprietary format which is basically mobipocket with a different DRM wrapper.
Books in PDF, Microsoft Word, and RTF can be emailed to Amazon for conversion: free if they email it back and you use the USB cable to put it on the Kindle; ten cents if you have them wirelessly deliver it to your Kindle. (Only one delivery; it doesn't stay on your Amazon account the way Amazon-purchased content does.)
Books in those formats, and several others, can be converted with software tools. There's a free one that Mobipocket puts out which does some common formats and is easy to use. There's a suite of Perl tools which convert from other formats.
At the smallest font, the Kindle screen displays about half the words an average-size paperback does per page. And there's a noticeable delay as it turns the pages: e-ink doesn't refresh quickly. However, if you time it right, reading just flows: hit the next page button when you're not quite at the end, finish the page, and bring your eyes up to the top while it's flashing and refreshing.
While it's true that you can't go to public libraries for Kindle content (some public libraries *do* let you check out e-books but those e-books use DRM which isn't compatible with the Kindle) you can freely download, and keep, e-books from a variety of sites. There are tens - perhaps hundreds, added up - of thousands of classics out of copyright, plus some books from authors (mostly science-fiction and fantasy) who've chosen to release samples, the first book in a series, etc.
If you like books published before 1923, you can find what to read for the rest of your life and not pay a cent for content.
Most of what's on my Kindle falls into that general category -- I have an issue with DRM.
Thanks for the answer Elizabeth. It was very helpful.
My main complaint with the Kindle - and I say this as someone who's about to head to work with hers - is the DRM on the files.
When I buy a book, I want that book to still be mine in forty years. Amazon doesn't sell me that.
Oh sure, I can repeatedly download to up to six Kindles ... as long as Amazon's still making Kindles, I choose to own one, and Amazon's still supporting the downloads. For the next few years that's a really good bet: imo the Kindle is the best e-book reader on the market, and Amazon's core business is books. But it's *not* a good bet over the expected lifetime of my interest in a good book.
Perhaps you should point out that the link you have is an affiliate, so a commission will go to someone.
Not conflict of interest though, I'm sure.