To Kindle, or not to Kindle.

I’ve been thinking about getting a Kindle. The Kindle is expensive… $360ish. And after that, you still have to buy books at $10 a pop. I enjoy reading, but I get to the library very rarely. In fact, there are two books that I’ve been meaning to pick up from the library for probably two weeks now… and I just haven’t found time during regular Library hours. Also, I hate traveling with a monster book. My last trip to Ohio saw me carrying the 3inch thick ‘I Know this Much is True’ by Wally Lamb, and boy was it annoying. While it might cost a fair bit more, I think owning a Kindle will dramatically increase how much I read and the efficiency of my reading.

Additionally, I think I’m going through a change in my life where I’m no longer interested in saving every penny and far more interested in saving time and making life easier. My priorities have switched from a ‘save dollars for the future’ perspective to one that’s based more on the best utilization of time for self-improvement (guitar practice), fitness (kung fu), and fun (climbing, friends, and cooking). This concept also has me looking at more services like Peapod. Is it worth $7 to save an hour of grocery shopping on Sundays? Is it worth $10 to be able to get a book instantly? If you’d asked me these questions three years ago, my answer would be a definitive ‘NO’ but these days I’m thinking, yeah, it might be worth it.

Perhaps this change has come about as a response to the conclusion of my studies and my sudden acquisition of more free time. My utilization of time has changed so dramatically in the last two months.

I hope I never take free time for granted.

30 thoughts on “To Kindle, or not to Kindle.

  • 4/22/2009 at 12:36 pm
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    OMG!
    Emily wants a kindle as well. We played with Kurt’s a few weeks back and its pretty slick.

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  • 4/22/2009 at 12:51 pm
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    I think this one was one of my favorite xkcd’s ever.

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  • 4/22/2009 at 12:52 pm
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    My issue with a Kindle is that I hate reading large amounts of material off a computer screen. I just find it more enjoyable to have paper.

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  • 4/22/2009 at 12:52 pm
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    Your comment leads me to believe that you have not seen a Kindle in the flesh.

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  • 4/22/2009 at 1:13 pm
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    Also consider vendor lock-in. What are those books worth when something better than the Kindle comes out or when the Kindle is obsolete. Also what if Amazon tries to pull a similar stunt to what they tried with LGBTQ books in their regular listings a week or two ago? Maybe with an even broader selection of books this time?

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  • 4/22/2009 at 1:14 pm
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    Waste of money. Buy used books at book stores or Amazon instead.

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  • 4/22/2009 at 1:29 pm
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    I don’t think I’m willing to give up real books yet. I think they’re cool, but my points against it are:

    + Reading is the one thing which feels “disconnected” for me… having a book with wifi that needs to be charged seems like the opposite of that.
    + I buy books new, used, or borrow them from the library or friends. Paying $360 for something I pay $0 for now seems crazy to me, and you can’t lend the books to friends.
    + I really like going to the bookstore.
    + I like owning books.
    + When your kindle dies, or you want to switch to another newer (bigger, in color!) ereader that’s non-kindle down the road, you’re locked in to Amazon.
    + You don’t really OWN books that are DRM’d, much like music that is DRM’d… you can’t do what you want with it.

    Anyways, I’m choosing not to be an early adopter on this one… but I do think they’re nice.

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  • 4/22/2009 at 1:33 pm
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    I have one word for you, Mike D: library.

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  • 4/22/2009 at 1:35 pm
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    Your observation is correct. You’re my most electronics savvy friend. My other friends tend to prefer sticks, rocks and power saws.

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  • 4/22/2009 at 3:29 pm
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    I work at a library, and I still say, go for the Kindle. The new ones are incredible.

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  • 4/22/2009 at 3:52 pm
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    For someone who travels as much as you do, Mike D. I understand the Kindle desire. Having a device that can hold up to 1,500 books seems pretty much awesome. Convenience is the key.

    Also, to address some of the other points people have brought up, granted you don’t own the actual book, but you do own the Kindle and you will always own it. Just like I still own that tape of The Little Mermaid and if I wanted to watch it, I really still can. I think this analogy is more powerful with Kindle books. You should always be able to read it until the Kindle breaks down. Just like people who own the older iPods can and are still using them. Amazon is really not that bad to be locked into, they already have 260,000 books. It’s probably better to be locked into them than Sony, for example. Kindle and Amazon are very similar to iPod and iTunes. Of course, you can’t “rip” a book onto the Kindle, but sooner or later I think it will be possible to download Kindle-readable books from anywhere. Also you can read the up-to-date New York Times on it and Wikipedia, which for me is also a big pull because I love reading the NYT and it’s always nice to be able to look up stuff on Wiki. Apparently you can also share Kindle books among 6 people. Pretty nice. Books are also instantaneous whereas with the library you have to wait to pick it up, or wait in line after others. Not a big deal, but again, convenient.

    A friend of mine who lives in NYC has the first Kindle and loves it. He can just whip it out anytime on the subway, waiting in line, anytime. CONVENIENT. I also know lots of people in NYC who Peapod. Nothing wrong with that either.

    The Kindle is a fun toy that happens to be pretty darn functional. If you have the $$ set aside for it, then I say go for it and don’t look back.

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  • 4/22/2009 at 4:00 pm
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    vendor lock in is a legitimate concern but the “amazonfail” lgbtq book delisting was a mistake and was shortly corrected.

    old timey books in the public domain can easily be copied onto the kindle as well, so that’s slick.

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  • 4/22/2009 at 4:51 pm
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    Take an overhead transparency, put it over top of a piece of news print, that’s roughly what the screen on the Kindle looks like. In other words, nothing like a computer screen.

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  • 4/22/2009 at 6:40 pm
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    We in the publishing industry have mixed feelings about the Kindle. While we cringe at the idea of our precious print items being waylaid by Technology, we recognize that people don’t operate the same way they did 50 years ago (or 10 years ago, or last week). I was at a conference session last year where the speaker polled the publishers in the audience to see if anyone owned a Kindle. One person timidly raised her hand and was promptly hissed at by a couple people in the back. For reals.

    We’ve got a couple Kindles in the office for testing (we’re working on converting some of journals to Kindleness) and I have to say, they’re pretty rad.

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  • 4/23/2009 at 8:45 am
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    I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again. Just like Dyson-vacuum-haters, the vast majority of Kindle-haters I’ve known have never seen or used one in person.

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  • 4/23/2009 at 9:40 am
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    Now as it seems that I’m the only one who actually owns a Kindle (Version 2), I may be wrong here correct me if I am, let me tell you my thoughts on the device.
    I read alot. Not even kidding, I’m on my third book this week. 3 books in a week. The kindle has picked up my voracious reading so much I can’t beleive I’m flying through books.

    Now as you said, it is expensive. That is for the newest model, but if you are ok with buying a refurbished model, you will be looking to spend about 100 bucks less. Also not all books are 10 bucks. Thats just the newer more popular books. There are plenty of books in the 5 buck range. Also there are tons of books that are available since their copyright ran out. Island of Dr. Moreu (sp?), Frankenstein 20k leagues under the sea all are free. And there are more out there. there are also websites devoted to bringing E-book readers free literature. It may not be mainstream NY Times bestseller books but they are free and good reads (most of the time). And I’m sure people remember the hey day of Napster and other P2P free MP3 software we all used in college. Well replace MP3 with Ebooks in this day and age and you can litterally find anything you want for free if you don’t care about that kind of thing. So books are out there on the cheap (if not always legal means) as well as the kindle itself.

    The Kindle itself is very nice. It has variable font sizes that I’ve found sharp and crisp and reads just like a regular book. Now I’ve heard the argument “I like the paper feel/smell/look/weight/etc.. of a ‘Real’ book”. Thats a good argument if its the first time you’ve thought about e-books. I recently finished an actual paper book and when I found myself looking for the button to click to turn the page I knew I’d been turned. I think peoples propensity to say “real book > digital book” is their inability to seperate the art of the book from the physical method of showing the book. Examples. Music…you know what it is artistically, but it comes in many forms of media (cassettes, CD, 8-Track and now MP3s). When people say Books they think of the art written on the pages as the physical Book itself in the same context when that isn’t actually true. Once people are able to seperate the art that is the literature from the physical book people will become more welcome to the idea of e-book readers.

    I would list all the reasons why the kindle is great but you can read all about them on the amazon website. from my personal experience with the device it has quite a few positives that I really like. Having the ability to have multiple books but still only have the one device is a great space saver and with all your travelling mike D it would be great. Yes the battery dies out, but i’ve gotten on average about 12 days out of it before needing to be charged with the wireless off. Wireless on makes the battery go away like a cupcake in front of sander but there is really no need to have the wireless on 24/7 unless you are buying books 24/7. turn it on, buy the book you want download it wirelessly, turn it off. Takes a grand total of 1.5 minutes.

    I’m writing this from work so I’m not covering everything I know, but post questions here and I’ll do my best to answer them. And if you’re in the boston area and would like to hold one and fiddle around with it please let me know and perhaps we can meet up so I can turn you to the Dark Side of Books.

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  • 4/23/2009 at 9:44 am
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    Wow. Excellent write up Kurt.

    Question: Have you tried receiving any periodicals or blogs with the Kindle 2?

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  • 4/23/2009 at 9:53 am
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    Yup! I got the Boston Globe. It would get ‘delivered’ to the kindle every morning if the wireless was on. Or which is what usually happened I had the wireless off, realised I didn’t have the paper, turn it on get it in 40 seconds or so, tthen turn it off then read away. You didn’t get any of the garbage ads or personals, just the stories. I ended up cancelling my subscription just cause I wasn’t reading it due to the number of books I was reading.
    I ahven’t gotten of the magzines, just cause there aren’t any there that I would want to get. As for blogs I haven’t gotten any of them cause why pay money for something I can read online for free.

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  • 4/23/2009 at 10:40 am
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    Have you tried any of the ‘hacked’ website conversions? I’ve read about a few sites that will automatically convert a website to Kindle format and then e-mail it to your kindle. Granted it costs 0.10 to receive it, but I’d be curious if it works.

    I ask because I’ve been receiving the Economist, and it’d help me further justify the cost of the Kindle if I could cancel my real subscription and replace it with a 10 cents e-mail that contains their RSS content.

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  • 4/23/2009 at 10:41 am
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    AND!

    What success rate would you say you’ve had with finding the book you want available at Amazon?

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  • 4/23/2009 at 11:05 am
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    I have not had them email me websites to me on the kindle. Again, why pay the ten cents if you can read for free. If its a matter of a subscription thing like your economist thing perhaps it would be worth it. I’m not sure.

    I would say I have a 90% success rate finding what I need at amazon. But then again I have a 100% success rate finding things using other methods that were mentioned in an earlier post. i try to support the author first, but if they are stubborn and stupid like JK Rowling then i have no sympathy for them.

    They (amazon) acutally has a little link that says “I would like to read this on my kindle” if its not available on the kindle. And so far every book I’ve requested has been converted to Kindle format. sometimes its been fast (1 week turnaround) others its been about a month. They tend to update their Kindle book library once a week. But there is no method for them to tell you your book is available, you just have to keep checking.

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  • 4/23/2009 at 11:10 am
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    Whoa! I didn’t know you could request Kindleification. That’s awesome.

    JK Rowling isn’t Kindle friendly? LOSAH!

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  • 4/23/2009 at 12:01 pm
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    You can also email PDFs to Amazon and they will Kindlize it and send it back to you or directly to your Kindle

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  • 4/23/2009 at 12:44 pm
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    Or you can do a little computer magic and convert PDF’s as well as other formats to a format that is supported by the Kindle and not pay the 10 cent fee.

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  • 4/23/2009 at 2:00 pm
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    If they email it back to you it’s free, it’s only 10c to send it over the air. I’ve also heard that A) they don’t start changing until you get to $3 and B) nobody has every been changed, though I don’t know how correct that is..

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  • 4/23/2009 at 2:05 pm
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    I was looking into this recently, I have a bunch of reference PDFs that I’d love to put on an e-book reader. This was my thought process:
    Kindle 1) pretty good but had limited file support
    Kindle 2) even better & still with limited supprt.. plus $$
    Sony PRS-505 – kick ass but doesn’t deal with native PDFs that well (you can convert them though and it has an SD slot (as does Kindle1, not sure about Kindle2)
    Sony PRS-700 – absolutely amazing except for the screen. A lot of people said the screen didn’t phase them but the 505/Kindle is much nicer (the touchscreen functions are kickass though). The UI is great, the file support is great, the thing looks great. the touchscreen overlay does effect the screen contrast though and it was a deal breaker for me @ that price.

    I bought a great book light for $12 from amazon.. I just have to find an e-book reader to go with it now.

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  • 4/23/2009 at 2:33 pm
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    K2 does not have an SD card support, but it does have larger native memory than K1.

    I’ve found with transfering PDFs to kindle friendly format, if there is alot of Text with minial Pics its great, but once you get to Pic heavy documents then it starts to get wonky. Its not a problem with the Kindle its the problem in the conversion process. I’m working on ways to remedy that, but so far I’ve had no luck.

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  • 4/23/2009 at 2:38 pm
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    JK Rowling is anti-Ebook overall, not just Kindle

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