Matt and
Brad DeLong complain that you can't read ebooks in the bathtub. Au contraire, ma frere--simply apply one (1) Zip-Loc baggie, and Bob's your uncle. Indeed, it's actually better, because the Kindle doesn't get all soggy. My
Kindle remains one of my favorite pieces of equipment.
I wouldn't dare trust my Kindle to just one baggy, but I find that two baggies zipped in opposition to one another works just fine.
I do agree that it's better in the bathtub, though. I never used to read in there precisely because I didn't want to ruin my oh-so-absorbent paper books.
Megan,
You need a 72 inch Kindle to attach to the ceiling in your bathroom.
Maybe this is sexist but Matt and Brad are probably much less familiar with the limitless utility of ziplock bags than most women. They are a great way to keep things neat.
PS c'est mon frère pas ma frère
Couldn't agree more about the awesomeness of the Kindle. I've read more books and newspapers on that thing in the past 6 months than I have in the previous 5 years, at least.
Still wouldn't give it an unqualified "buy" though . . book inventory system still sucks, and it's WAY overpriced. My biggest fear is I leave the stupid thing on an airplane and there goes $350.
Ma frere? First of all, frère is masculine, so it's mon frère. And second of all, there's the accent mark over the e.
Tip when using phrases you aren't sure of (such as foreign ones): search for it with quotes around it in Google. If it only gets a few hits, it's probably spelled wrong.
frère is masculine
Yes, but are guys who take long baths while reading a Kindle and saying "Calgon, take me away!" masculine?
Sorry, but the baggy makes the idea of getting a Kindle (let alone reading it over a tub of water) less attractive, not more. And anyway, where's the fun in not having at least one or two water-stained books around the house as a result of bathtub reading mishaps?
Dammit. I just posted on Barbara Wallraff's blog that I'd never seen an American actually use the phrase, "Bob's your uncle" and now Megan goes and makes a liar out of me.
The Kindle Rules!
It makes the DC Metro ride to and from work fly by.
We need kindle in Canada.
"We need kindle in Canada."
Have you asked the government for it yet?
"Dammit. I just posted on Barbara Wallraff's blog that I'd never seen an American actually use the phrase, "Bob's your uncle" and now Megan goes and makes a liar out of me."
I actually read (on a US motorcycle site, no less), something along the lines of 'Robert is then your mother's brother.'
Which must have made no sense at all to a bunch of readers.
I'm a Sony eReader man, myself. Do you still need to get a cell phone contract to own the Kindle?
Rob Lyman wrote:
Yes, for certain values of "masculine" that is.
I'm almost there with the Kindle. I just want the price to drop by 100 bucks. I also wish that Amazon would convert the entirety of Project Gutenberg to the .AZW format, sans DRM, that the Kindle uses. I think that this would be a brilliant marketing move because it would mean that you could buy a Kindle and have access to thousands of books without paying another dime. I know that you can convert various formats to .AZW but from what I've heard the results are mixed and it can be a pain in the ass. If the Kindle had easy access to all of the famous works of literature that are in the public domain Amazon would probably be able to sell one to every single college student who has to take a literature course as part of their humanities distribution requirement.
So, I tried this. The bag made it so hard to breath that I dropped the Kindle in the water.
+1 on the baggie, no problems.
And you never needed a cell phone contract to own, use, or download books on the Kindle. The cost of the "whispernet" is built into the cost of the device and the books. The only download fees are if you want to convert your own documents and then only if you don't want to plug into your own computer (i.e. Amazon will convert and download wirelessly to the Kindle for I think $0.04/document.
Gee, Megan. I hope we don't have to read your obit sometime soon.
"Death by Kindle"...kind of a pointless way to go, hm?
please be careful.
"If the Kindle had easy access to all of the famous works of literature that are in the public domain Amazon would probably be able to sell one to every single college student who has to take a literature course as part of their humanities distribution requirement."
Free Kindle Books
About 75% of my Kindle reading is from free public-domain sources. As an aside, one problem of the humanities course issue is that many courses (mine included) require students to all have the same edition for following along in class. The search feature of the Kindle might alleviate that problem for the intrepid student.
I'd love to get a Kindle, but money's a bit tight now, so I'll probably wait for the next version. I've been wondering about the newspaper subscriptions, though - if you subscribe to the NYT, do you get the crossword? Could you even do a crossword puzzle on a Kindle? And what about things like comics and photos - do they come through?
I loved the Kindle while it was working - and enjoyed both shopping for books from Amazon and reading free items from Project Gutenberg - I was on the complete works of Shakespeare when my second Kindle broke.
The first was replaced free of charge, but when the second went the same way (segment of the screen no longer updating - I am guessing from having it flexed in my pocket) I didn't even try .... the Kindle just doesn't stand up to the rigors of karaoke. Books can take far more abuse.
I miss it, though.
I’m shocked, just shocked I tell you to learn that the people who complain about how other people’s habits impact the Earth are the ones using more energy and water taking a long bath rather than a quick shower.
I prefer hiring people to read to me in great discomfort as I bathe.
"I’m shocked, just shocked I tell you to learn that the people who complain about how other people’s habits impact the Earth are the ones using more energy and water taking a long bath rather than a quick shower. "
I have a tub in which I maintain a perfectly balanced ecosystem that is dependent upon periodic infusions of soap and my own personal grime.