Kindle 3, one month and counting

[ironymaiden]

the Kindle is awesome. my fears about e-ink and sekrit eye-strain are unfounded (the computer hurts my eyes how can this electronic gizmo not hurt my eyes) and it's pretty easy to get not-Amazon content on it.

important tools so far:

• Calibre - it gets mentioned often when people write about using ereaders, and for good reason. Calibre offers a useful management interface for transferring content from the computer over USB - conversion, metadata editing, tracking what is and isn't on the device. there's even a third-party plugin that passes your credentials so that you can use library ePub books. it's cross-platform and free.



• Project Gutenberg Magic Catalog - what it says on the tin. it's an ebook that consists of links to download free books directly onto the device. for books without illustrations it just works, as smoothly as making an Amazon purchase. (with an internet connection. i have the 3G, so i don't think about that much.)



• Instapaper - i've only used this for a couple days, but it is rapidly replacing two of my uses for del.icio.us - marking something i want to read later, and checking out stuff that other people found noteworthy. basically, you create an account, get a "Read Later" bookmarklet, and click the button whenever you visit a web page that you would like to read later. the service extracts the text and wraps it up into a nicely formatted ebook that you can read on the go.



• one-quart ziploc freezer bag - a splashproof cover for rainy bus waits and reading in the tub.

i think i'm reading a bit more than i would be otherwise. when i finish a book on the bus, i simply start the next one. or if for some reason i'm not feeling the one i'm looking at, i can just read a different one without leaving my bed. if i'm interested in purchasing something specific, i can just have it, no matter what time of day. (a dangerous thing, that. i have a gift certificate from My Corporate Masters on the account right now, but soon i will have to think about making it a budget item.)

right now i'm getting ebooks from the library much more often than regular books.

the size brings me joy. it fits in a much smaller bag than most books - my shoulder and back are grateful.

yesterday i finished reading a book and lended it to mimerki - while we were in our respective homes in our respective towns. (it's not available for many titles yet, but it's there.)

the one sadness is that i'm actually on my second Kindle. the first one was a lemon - the screen just went plaid one day. but calling customer service was easy - i got right through, i got someone in North America, and they overnighted a replacement. as painless as it could be, under the circumstances. ("i have to fly home and i am out of book!" fortunately, this led me to buy a paperback of The Swan Thieves in the airport. the replacement was waiting for me when i got home. for future reference, Kindle + emergency backup book is the way to travel.)

Comments

hooAHH eBooks, I think

[the-same-andrew.livejournal.com]

amerald has a Kobo, about which I had similar trepidation(s), but she seems to still like it, this long after her bday. I'd get one myself, if I read books.

Re: hooAHH eBooks, I think

[ironymaiden]

but you do read articles and reference manuals. one of the great things (that i failed to mention) is the search feature. it's not good for something with a lot of illustrations, but for finding a certain bit in a sea of text it works quite well.

[lilac-wine.livejournal.com]

I have a nook and I love it. I love the flexibility of ebooks and, I can't lie, the immediate gratification of being able to finish a book and grab the next one right away.

Publishers are the ones who have really been against the lending features, and I think yet again, they fail to understand how reading community works. Lending from person to person the way Nook and Kindle both do it is pretty nifty. It's what people do with paper books too. It builds author word of mouth and buzz. It's what people do and why people read, they want to share that with others.

Now if they'd only all use the same freaking format instead of all these device exclusive formats things would be even better.