I have given in to the Dark Side.
I am getting a Kindle.
A really good price (available through a friend) and the promise of instantly adjusting font size (to deal with my highly variable and massively annoying eyes) have lured me into a decision I was considering in only the vaguest and most distant sense of the word a week ago.
Having made this decision, I am now getting rather excited about it. Good things I expect to come from owning a Kindle include:
- Freedom from phone envy. I have the simplest, cheapest cell phone I could find in the entire store. I do not regret this decision -- it is all I need, and the monthly fee for a data plan would be far from worth it for the few times a month I might check my email in some random location during a moment of idleness. But there are times when, surrounded by playing children busy with their own society and 3G-phone-checking adults, I can get a bit of phone envy. Now I will have a small electronic device I can tuck in my purse and peruse at such times, without the extravegant monthly fees. The longer battery life is nice, too -- I don't like having to plug things in frequently.
- A wireless Wikipedia connection. The kids often ask weird random questions while we are away from home, and while promising to look it up when we get home will get me off the hook for an immediate answer, we usually all forget the question by the time we actually are home.
- A way to read at least some books, enough that I should always be able to find something I want to read that's available on it, that I can carry with me, on which I can adjust the font size. There should always be something around that's comfortable to read and worthwhile.
- A Bible with a font size I can read that is light enough for me to be willing to carry it everywhere in my purse.
Things I do not expect to happen include:
- This will not replace our adult paper book collection. This is partly a matter of replacement cost, partly a matter of availability -- Amazon has a stated goal of having available every book ever published, but they're pretty far from that still; those books that are available are mostly new or recent releases, or old books no longer under copyright -- and partly a matter of preference. I still like paper books.
- This will not touch our collection of children's books. From my perspective, they have not even started to touch the issues related to children's books. Illustrations are key in children's books, and they have not tackled the issues of color (although I'm sure there are a multitude of scientists and engineers slaving away on addressing this issue right now), screen size (most children's books are much larger, in the 9"x12" range, and the most visually enticing of them utilize a two-page spread in their illustrations), or replacement cost (no way am I handing my Kindle to J). This is not surprising -- text-only adult books, with the occasional grey-scale picture, are much easier to tackle, and so are a logical first step -- but it does mean that while the technology may get there some day, it simply hasn't done so yet.
Things about the Kindle I think are stupid:
- You cannot give a Kindle book as a gift. When you purchase an electronic product on Amazon, it becomes permanently and irrevocably tied to your Amazon account; it can thus be assigned to any Kindles associated with your account, but cannot be transferred onto an unrelated Kindle. This is silly. I can see making a rule that it can only be downloaded by the owner of one account -- no downloading something, and then deciding to give it as a gift -- but there ought to be some mechanism for gifting Kindle books. Giving books for Christmas and birthdays is a long-standing tradition in my family; the inability to carry this tradition over to the Kindle is disappointing.
- Similarly, you cannot loan a Kindle book.
Hopefully, they will fix the stupid things someday. In the meantime, I am not under any delusions that my fun new toy will be anything like a replacement for paper books, past, present, or future, but I still look forward to enjoying my new toy.
Newt
I am getting a Kindle.
A really good price (available through a friend) and the promise of instantly adjusting font size (to deal with my highly variable and massively annoying eyes) have lured me into a decision I was considering in only the vaguest and most distant sense of the word a week ago.
Having made this decision, I am now getting rather excited about it. Good things I expect to come from owning a Kindle include:
- Freedom from phone envy. I have the simplest, cheapest cell phone I could find in the entire store. I do not regret this decision -- it is all I need, and the monthly fee for a data plan would be far from worth it for the few times a month I might check my email in some random location during a moment of idleness. But there are times when, surrounded by playing children busy with their own society and 3G-phone-checking adults, I can get a bit of phone envy. Now I will have a small electronic device I can tuck in my purse and peruse at such times, without the extravegant monthly fees. The longer battery life is nice, too -- I don't like having to plug things in frequently.
- A wireless Wikipedia connection. The kids often ask weird random questions while we are away from home, and while promising to look it up when we get home will get me off the hook for an immediate answer, we usually all forget the question by the time we actually are home.
- A way to read at least some books, enough that I should always be able to find something I want to read that's available on it, that I can carry with me, on which I can adjust the font size. There should always be something around that's comfortable to read and worthwhile.
- A Bible with a font size I can read that is light enough for me to be willing to carry it everywhere in my purse.
Things I do not expect to happen include:
- This will not replace our adult paper book collection. This is partly a matter of replacement cost, partly a matter of availability -- Amazon has a stated goal of having available every book ever published, but they're pretty far from that still; those books that are available are mostly new or recent releases, or old books no longer under copyright -- and partly a matter of preference. I still like paper books.
- This will not touch our collection of children's books. From my perspective, they have not even started to touch the issues related to children's books. Illustrations are key in children's books, and they have not tackled the issues of color (although I'm sure there are a multitude of scientists and engineers slaving away on addressing this issue right now), screen size (most children's books are much larger, in the 9"x12" range, and the most visually enticing of them utilize a two-page spread in their illustrations), or replacement cost (no way am I handing my Kindle to J). This is not surprising -- text-only adult books, with the occasional grey-scale picture, are much easier to tackle, and so are a logical first step -- but it does mean that while the technology may get there some day, it simply hasn't done so yet.
Things about the Kindle I think are stupid:
- You cannot give a Kindle book as a gift. When you purchase an electronic product on Amazon, it becomes permanently and irrevocably tied to your Amazon account; it can thus be assigned to any Kindles associated with your account, but cannot be transferred onto an unrelated Kindle. This is silly. I can see making a rule that it can only be downloaded by the owner of one account -- no downloading something, and then deciding to give it as a gift -- but there ought to be some mechanism for gifting Kindle books. Giving books for Christmas and birthdays is a long-standing tradition in my family; the inability to carry this tradition over to the Kindle is disappointing.
- Similarly, you cannot loan a Kindle book.
Hopefully, they will fix the stupid things someday. In the meantime, I am not under any delusions that my fun new toy will be anything like a replacement for paper books, past, present, or future, but I still look forward to enjoying my new toy.
Newt
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