Child's Kindle was delivered today as a slightly belated birthday present, and oh.

Now I get why people like these.

I didn't make the connection for some weird reason--this is instant no-wait access to books. I mean, it's like, the pieces just came together all of a sudden. Ebooks. Instant. Access. Books.

And I'll be honest; I'm kind of running out of space for mine.

I don't mean like, literally. Of course there's space. I mean, for the practical purposes of keeping up with them and finding them when I want, and I still tape paperbacks together that I can't locate anywhere else (Sydney van Scyoc, for one), but the fog has lifted.

How did I not get this on a gut level I have no idea. I think I'm suffering from a great deal of envy now. He's stupidly excited, and I feel his book budget is going to get a workout. It's adorable.
telesilla: a woman reading in bed--by edward gorey (gorey reader)

From: [personal profile] telesilla Date: 2011-02-02 11:44 pm (UTC)
That's a huge part of the appeal, yes. And it can be really dangerous to the budget, let me tell you. The other main appeal for me is the portability. I'm going away for a few days next week and even though the main point of the trip is to hang out with friends and write, I'll still do some reading. Before I'd have had to pack up several books because who knows what I'll be interested in reading. Now? I can just toss my kindle in my purse and I'm good.

We were SO glad we had them when we traveled last summer.
aella_irene: (Default)

From: [personal profile] aella_irene Date: 2011-02-02 11:52 pm (UTC)
The instant access thing is actually rather dangerous. I mean, you start this interesting series, and then the next thing you know all six of them are on your e-reader, and you've just spent ridiculous amounts of money...
beachlass: woman knitting with red yarn (knitting)

From: [personal profile] beachlass Date: 2011-02-03 12:09 am (UTC)
*nods at the above comments*

I love my ereader. And apart from all the instant access, I can load all kinds of fanfic on it.
zvi: self-portrait: short, fat, black dyke in bunny slippers (Default)

From: [personal profile] zvi Date: 2011-02-03 12:22 am (UTC)
Don't you have an extremely smart phone? You can put the Kindle app on your phone, if you're not ready to shell out for another Kindle app.
akacat: A cute cat holding a computer mice by the cord. (Default)

From: [personal profile] akacat Date: 2011-02-03 01:12 am (UTC)
You might want to try an iPad, or one of the medium sized tablets. It's pricier than a plain ebook, but you can load the kindle and nook apps for free, use it for a dozen other things and (my personal favorite) the "pages" can turn instantly.

I tried the nook, and the lag of the screen refresh drove me nuts.
dreamatdrew: An orange leopard gecko half hiding behind the leaf of a 'lucky bamboo' plant, looking directly at you. (Default)

From: [personal profile] dreamatdrew Date: 2011-02-03 01:25 am (UTC)
As far as the eyestrain bit goes, a Kindle or other e-ink based device is going to be easier on your eyes.
Now someone just needs to make an e-ink android based device, and I will do possibly illegal sexual favors for them in public.
avendya: blue-green picture of a woman's face (Default)

From: [personal profile] avendya Date: 2011-02-03 03:59 pm (UTC)
The Nook Color (from Barnes & Noble) is Android based.

(hi! here via network & insomnia!)
dreamatdrew: (Ragabash)

From: [personal profile] dreamatdrew Date: 2011-02-03 06:06 pm (UTC)
Nook color is an LCD device though, not e-ink.
avendya: blue-green picture of a woman's face (Default)

From: [personal profile] avendya Date: 2011-02-03 06:08 pm (UTC)
You're right; sorry, I wasn't thinking.
dreamatdrew: An orange leopard gecko half hiding behind the leaf of a 'lucky bamboo' plant, looking directly at you. (Default)

From: [personal profile] dreamatdrew Date: 2011-02-03 06:10 pm (UTC)
Is ok. I'll be happy when they get color e-ink working.
zvi: self-portrait: short, fat, black dyke in bunny slippers (Default)

From: [personal profile] zvi Date: 2011-02-03 01:39 am (UTC)
Gotta say, I ♥ my Evo, it is very literally a palmtop computer, and a ridiculously large phone. I've read several books on it, and I enjoy the convenience of being able to whip it out of my pocket for two minutes between activities.
norabombay: (Default)

From: [personal profile] norabombay Date: 2011-02-03 04:34 am (UTC)
You can play sudoku on the kindle. FYI
fyrdrakken: (Sherlock - texting)

From: [personal profile] fyrdrakken Date: 2011-02-03 09:26 pm (UTC)
Oddly, my Blackberry screen hits in this weird middle ground where I'm fine reading it with my glasses on -- but lying in bed and picking up the phone first thing in the morning to check on e-mail and Twitter and stuff while I'm trying to wake up and delay having to actually get out of the bed yet, I can bring it close enough to my nose to read without my glasses, comfortably.

But if I'm doing a lot of reading on it, I have to make a conscious effort to switch hands periodically, or I start getting carpal tunnel twinges from repetitively hitting the space bar to page down.
laurajv: Holmes & Watson's car is as cool as Batman's (Default)

From: [personal profile] laurajv Date: 2011-02-03 01:26 am (UTC)
instant book gratification is SO awesome. I actually get resentful when I have to wait for books now! N. and I used to take an entire small duffle bag of books on vacation, plus laptops, and now we take...our ipads. With, you know, a zillion books on each. It is AWESOME.
amalthia: (Default)

From: [personal profile] amalthia Date: 2011-02-03 05:01 am (UTC)
I have zero self control so it's good that I got the Sony instead. :) Well that and I read a ton of fan fiction.
nafs: red dragon on lavendar background - welsh or celtic style (Default)

From: [personal profile] nafs Date: 2011-02-03 06:07 am (UTC)
Among other reasons, I got the eReader because I can download books from the library for 21 days at a go which is v. helpful in a budgetary way.
supermouse: Simple blue linedrawing of a stylised superhero mouse facing left (Default)

From: [personal profile] supermouse Date: 2011-02-03 06:47 pm (UTC)
I'm getting more inclined towards one because of instant books. I've got the app for my laptop.

The real expense is going to be the books that are 70, 80, 90 pence each. Under a quid. Nothing. Until I own five hundred of them...
fyrdrakken: (Frodo - book)

From: [personal profile] fyrdrakken Date: 2011-02-03 09:19 pm (UTC)
I learned the true magic when I was sitting in a jury assembly room on the day the most recent Temeraire book came out and was able to finish reading the last chapters in the previous book (in my pre-Kindle-app paperback copy) and then calmly purchase and download the new one and start reading it. And then there was when the latest Gail Carriger book came out the day I was leaving for my drive to Dragon*Con and I made a special point of buying and downloading it before I left just in case I was sitting somewhere with a crappy connection when I wanted to sit and start reading on my lunch break.

Used to be I'd be making the decision during the first book of a new series whether to buy the rest of the series or not -- because I'd have to physically go out and acquire the other books (assuming I could find them on the shelves in a local bookstore) and try to make a point of having done so before finishing the first book so there wouldn't be an unpleasant gap in my reading. And I'd generally go ahead and buy all of them in that pass, so if the series fell off in quality I was stuck with already having bought it anyway. (One of my strongest memories of a previous Dragon*Con was being in the first book of a series, discovered I loved it, and being completely unable to acquire the rest of the books until I'd gotten home from the con. Learning I wasted money on four mediocre books is a minor irritation by comparison.)

And we're not even touching the issue of the collapsing bug-infested cardboard boxes of books out in the garage that I have to rummage through when a new book is published in a favorite series and I want to go back and reread the previous installments. Assuming I can find the older books at all. There are definitely some favorites I'm going to be rebuying in Kindle format in the coming years. (I already rebought most of the Miles Vorkosigan series.) And no more waiting for the paperback of a book I'm dying to get my hands on because I just can't justify the storage space for hardcover -- or being so desperate I get the hardcover after all and then have to wedge it into a box after reading. No more vast stacks of books I've read and need to find boxes for, competing for space with the stacks of books I purchased or borrowed and have yet to read. I can hold off on actually buying until I'm ready to read them right now -- which in and of itself has done grand things in terms of paring my book-buying budget.

From: [personal profile] xenelle Date: 2011-02-04 11:29 am (UTC)
Yep - that's why I want one! I got the kindle app for my phone and my laptop (and probably the netbook) but I want the actual kindle too - if only cause the app for the phone drains the battery like no-one's business. Am planning on getting one in 2mths time - providing that no more unexpected payments come up, and trying very hard not to actually buy any of the books from the marketplace - but the free section and PG are getting a work-out. I really wish they'd stop playing the ad for it on telly all the time though.
strina: text mostly "people say that life is the thing but i prefer reading" over pile of books (prefer reading)

From: [personal profile] strina Date: 2011-02-10 11:07 pm (UTC)
I love my Kindle so much. Books and fanfiction and background music! It's been glued to my side basically since I got it in October.
ext_1890: (Default)

From: [identity profile] svmadelyn.livejournal.com Date: 2011-02-02 11:40 pm (UTC)
Isn't it freaking awesome? Of course, me and Sidney are OTP but I like the way the kindle feels and it's just nice knowing that if you're stuck in a bus for 9 hours 'cause of a blizzard, at least you will have backup.

From: [identity profile] lurkerlynne.livejournal.com Date: 2011-02-03 01:42 am (UTC)
I nearly got a Kindle but ultimately decided I needed something pocket-sized and capable of running games.

But yeah, ebooks ruin the budget like whoa.

From: [identity profile] tazlet.livejournal.com Date: 2011-02-03 02:35 am (UTC)
But best of all..freeeeeee classics!

From: [identity profile] crown-of-ice.livejournal.com Date: 2011-02-03 03:16 am (UTC)
I ended up with a Nook Color. Which is my tiny wee portable electronic god. Seriously. It owns my SOUL.

From: [identity profile] raveninthewind.livejournal.com Date: 2011-02-09 05:30 am (UTC)
I love my Nook Color so much.

From: [identity profile] bathsweaver.livejournal.com Date: 2011-02-03 03:53 am (UTC)
YAAAAAAY.

Instant. Access. Books.

I do not understand why the naysayers don't get this. ALL OF THE BOOKS. INSTANTLY. For all those who dreamed of one day being able to cart the entire Library of Congress around in their backback, that day is here.

From: [identity profile] jamesinboots.livejournal.com Date: 2011-02-03 04:06 am (UTC)
The instant part is why I'm thinking of giving in to the desire to get one. :P

From: [identity profile] piplover.livejournal.com Date: 2011-02-03 04:26 am (UTC)
I love my Kindle. And! I can put fanfiction on it and read it wherever I am!
thornsilver: (cat)

From: [personal profile] thornsilver Date: 2011-02-03 06:08 pm (UTC)
I use mine to read the fanfiction by using the internet feature, when I am too lazy to boot up my computer. That is in addition to having books on it. I call it Ubi. :P
fyrdrakken: (Sherlock - texting)

From: [personal profile] fyrdrakken Date: 2011-02-03 09:21 pm (UTC)
Really, it's having the ability to read fanfic away from the computer with the exact same interface and ease of access as I would be using for reading professional fiction that's led to me finally whittling down the backlog of saved-but-unread fanfic. And paring back the amount I've been spending on new books.

From: [identity profile] sinclair-furie.livejournal.com Date: 2011-02-03 05:34 am (UTC)
Yeah, it's pretty much the most amazing thing ever. It's really hard to resist impulse purchases when you don't have to bike to the bookstore or wait a week for shipping.

From: [identity profile] emgeetrek.livejournal.com Date: 2011-02-04 12:52 pm (UTC)
I love my Kindle 3G. And I agree with my best friend, who also owns one, and who says, it's not instead of traditional books, it's in addition to them. Like, if I want to read in the bathtub I won't be using my Kindle there. I won't be ditching everything I already own in ink-on-paper form (a terrifyingly large collection), though I did weed out all of the classics I can get for free. And, of course, some titles simply aren't available for Kindle.

But, seriously, I am stupidly in love with the thing. Instant books. Lighter travel (no more packing three big volumes in my tote bag for a day trip because I'm not sure which one I'll want to read). Internet access for free, wherever I am (no Flash, but the basics are covered). One-handed reading without fatigue. I will admit that I find the wonky formatting of ebooks a little annoying (strange line breaks, occasional hyphenation problems), but I'm hoping that either I'll become inured to it, or the publishers will be able to clean things up eventually.

From: [identity profile] arby-m.livejournal.com Date: 2011-02-06 12:14 pm (UTC)
I finally gave in and got a Kindle late last year, and now I'm kicking myself for not getting one sooner. I converted several people to the gospel of the Kindle on my trip to visit the fam for the holidays. Everyone kept asking me about it and I could not help but wax rhapsodic.

1) You need a good case. I like this one because it's armor-like and has a stand:

http://www.ipearl-inc.com/kindle3.html

2) You may not have to blow the entire book budget, because two words:

FREE. EBOOKS.

http://tinyurl.com/3xyrpns

http://freekindlebooks.org

http://www.retroread.com

3) Also! You can email your Kindle ANY PDF and Amazon will convert it automagically and send it to your Kindle.

http://amzn.to/b9y5FV

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