Reading with Rupert: Week 1 with my Kindle [TSS]

The Rupert of my title is my new Amazon Kindle 2, which is named after Rupert Giles, über-sexy high school librarian and Buffy's Watcher on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's now been just under a week since I got the Kindle. I wrote about my initial impresions in "My Kindle Come! Initial Thoughts...." Since then I've finished two books on it and I've read parts of two others.

The books I read this week on the Kindle are:

Richard Stark, Nobody Runs Forever (finished)
Janet Evanovich, One For the Money (finished)
Janet Evanovich, Two For the Dough (started last night)
Chris Anderson, Free (not quite halfway through, and I probably won't bother finishing it as it's boring me)

My thoughts, after six days of ownership:

I find reading on the screen completely comfortable. In fact, it's arguably more comfortable than reading some books because I can adjust the font size. I do this relatively often, once or twice a day, depending on the position I'm in and whether I'm reading with my glasses or not. There are some books these days in which the font size really just doesn't work well for me. But at any rate there is no trouble with adjusting to reading on the screen rather than on paper. The screen so closely resembles paper that you quickly forget it's not.

Apart from the font issue, I find reading on the Kindle often more comfortable than reading books because you don't have to continually keep the book open. I like to read when I eat, and this is always an issue with books. You can weigh the pages down, of course, but it doesn't work perfectly. With the Kindle, you prop it up and your problems are solved. You can read with no hands. Related to this, it can be inconvenient when you're reading a book, particularly in bed, to change from the left page to the right. Sometimes you have to change position because of the available light. You have to hold your hands differently. This problem too is solved by the Kindle.

I had thought that I would not be comfortable with the fact that you don't know what page you're on when reading on a Kindle. Instead of page numbers there are location numbers. I believe a location usually corresponds to a sentence. There is also a progress bar at the bottom of the screen that shows you how far along you are, and you're told what percentage of the book you've finished. After six days of reading, I'm actually not missing page numbers. The progress bar is sufficient for giving you a sense of your movement through a book, just as the pages left in a book tells you at a glance where you are. And interestingly, the percentage of the book finished is, at least so far, acting as a sort of goad for me. Well, if I've already finished 20% of the book, surely I can read another 10% I think I've read more this week than I would have otherwise in part because of this stimulus. The one thing I would like to have indicated is the location of chapter beginnings. Ideally, there might be notches on the progress bar to show you how close you are to finishing your current chapter. Perhaps also there could be a quick way to move forward or back by chapters.

I have spent more money on books this week than I would have without the Kindle. I'm surrounded by unread physical books here that I should be reading, but because of the pleasure of Kindle reading and also the ease of buying books on it, well, let's just say that Amazon has made buying books on the Kindle as easy as buying iTunes songs, or iPod apps.

It would almost be better if the Kindle didn't have a web browser on it, because it doesn't do web surfing well. So if you think of it as an always-on internet device, it fails. If you think of it as only a reading device, then it does very well. (I'm pleased with it, but I confess I haven't had experience with the other ereaders out there, so I don't know how the experience compares.)

So, negatives:

• The web browser is too clunky to be of much use. It will definitely not be your go-to appliance for web browsing. But if you're out and about and really need access to the web, it's better than nothing.
• Navigating the menu is a little cumbersome.
• Typing on the device is slow and frustrating. You can type notes to yourself, attached to any place in the book you specify, and I will if there's no paper on hand, but I can't see myself taking notes on this regularly.
• The read-to-me feature is okay, but I can't see myself using it much. In part, it's because I find it hard to concentrate on what I'm hearing while doing anything else. I did have this one reading some of Chris Anderson's book to me. Mostly it was okay, but sometimes the pronunciation was off enough that I had to glance at the book to see what was being said. Not terrible, though, and others may find it more useful. (Certainly, nobody should be up in arms over the idea that this could replace published audio books, which are much higher in quality.)
• I'm a little worried because of the problem some people have had with the casing of their Kindles cracking where it's connected to the Amazon case. I love the case, which is really elegant and attractive. But I'm very careful not to open it backwards. That's not so hard to be careful about, but sometimes even opening it the correct way, the Kindle wants to separate from the back cover a bit, if you're not being very careful. I wish Amazon would devise a way to keep the right side of the Kindle attached to the jacket as well, so I wouldn't have to worry about this so much.
  

Wants, apart from addressing the above:

• Add cover art to the home page.

Comments

[Clare D]

1.

Excellent post! Really thoughtful and illuminating. I find myself hankering after one more and more. Those sound like great advantages. Looks like Kindle will not detract from the publishing business at all - in fact may add to it.

[Debra Hamel]

2.

Well, thank you, Clare! I forgot another advantage, related to the comfort I mentioned earlier. You can read with just one hand, and either hand, because there's a next page on either side of the machine. This turns out to be very comfortable. I guess I really wasn't expecting it to be ergonomically so pleasing.