I'm not going to kid you, my reviews often lack the polish of the "mighty reviewer pens" here on Amazon. But I like this Christmas present well enough to stick my neck out to say so and say why.
I am an avid reader. I've read all my life. I've actually read over living sometimes but that's not the scope of this. The feel of paper, books, type means more to me than I can say. And again no one cares about that. I treasure first edition Rimbaud's, Hughes, Dickens, Steinbeck's among the books that sit in my first edition selves. But you can't take them with you, and the massive book stock will soon just hamper my kids with unnecessary junk to dispose of. In short I own way too many books trapped in a storage place awaiting book shelves I haven't and now never will see built. When we moved or packed, or now if I go on a trip I cannot box, lift, move or deal with my books. Why is this relevant? This is why I bought myself the Kindle and partially why I bought my daughter hers today. Maybe in some form that applies to you. You might be weighing the cost. I had too.
I have severe spinal issues. In fact I'm losing my feeling in arms, legs, walking, fingers, arms, feet....my spine is gone. Well going. I have a syrnix. (If you ever have a severe one drop me a line.)If you don't and don't care perhaps you might out of some drop of empathy just save telling me in the comments you don't care. I understand that perspective you never will care. It was a part of getting the Kindle, for me. Anyway that said I cannot lug books anymore. Maybe all my lugging them so far did more damage. I can't clean them, I can't log them and keep track of them. Heck I even struggle holding onto them now. So I thought about it after seeing a man in the airport using his Kindle. He kindly let me try it and showed me all the features the way a proud techno-file will do.
And I ordered myself an early present in November.
I've read maybe thirty books since. At least.
I still love paper and books but, I'm changing.
And this bookreader is lovely. I got a blue leather case. I wish I'd gotten one with a light. I gave that kind of case and another Kindle to my daughter for Christmas. She seems thrilled saying reading Richard iii on line was a pleasure for her-an assignment in her senior year at CalTech. I'll soon get another for my other daughter. I know it's right for them because I know that especially for Syl she'll still love and have books but now we both have options. As she gets to grad school ( or so we both hope) I know this will be an asset for her. That's the biggest reason I decided to write a review. A parent thinking about it for a college age child should go for it. Absolutely. All three of my children will get it as I can buy them.
I can decide if I want to then order a book after reading it if I want it. Sometimes I do.
Some pluses:
I mentioned the weight. I have my books in it in a new way so I can read anywhere without carrying all my library. I carry this in my purse. The many hours at Dr. or before a CAT scan or MRI are better spent, I can slip it in my hand at lunch and read at school. That's my work. I've used it to pull up a book and deal with issues at work in meetings where research was mis quoted. That was satisfying in an unwired school where I can't get on-line in our meetings. I can take it out virtually anywhere and order something I want to read.
That includes reading papers.
It is easily held.
I have such extreme pain it's hard to find a way to sit or lie down to read, this works, the page turning button is simple. It's lovely. Small, thin.
Pluses. I'm having no difficulty seeing the screen of course I can change fonts.
I find it easy to see.
And given glaucoma and eye issues that's a concern.
I love you can upload a chapter of a book. I do it all the time. Awesome.
Some things that are worth noting:
It has features I haven't figured out to mark quotes or text that are "meaningful." In books I put a post-it, dog ear or otherwise feel and sense my way back to what I need. Something I can't replicate with this medium. So far I'm fumbling with this. I think I may just carry a small notepad. I'm a Luddite. That feature to accommodate this need isn't easy for me. I find it unbelievably annoying that places in a book others noted get underlined and pointed out. As if the book were somehow telling you "here's important lines." A kind of highlighter thing. No way do I want to read highlighted books others read. I may be able to turn that off and haven't figured it out yet. I don't want to read the Patti Smith bio and note that 654 people underscored certain lines. Unlike many of this age- that's superfluous to me. It doesn't make it mean more for me to shout out to the crowd. I'd shudder to think what the "group" might find worthy to note at the moment. That very thing may well enchant many.
Be aware it exists. Hoping you like it.
When the light is too low you need the cover with the light. That's why I got that for my daughter.
I so miss reading in the bathtub.
And forget pictures.
That rules it out for A lot.
I looked at the Nook. I looked at other ideas, ipad for instance. And I just one day rather impulsively did it. I'm okay with my choice. Very happy for another way to read.
It's used everyday for me, so far, so I know that it will be a part of my going through the awful next bit as I face the loss of my mobility and limbs. At some point I'm sure I'll not even be able to run this, but for now I am glad to have it.
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A Hop, a Leap, and a Bound from the Kindle 1!
I had a very good relationship with my Kindle 1 and was unsure if a newer generation Kindle would ever win me over. Sure the K1 had its quirks but the thing had stolen my heart so much so that its grievances hardly bothered me. It was not until I realized how many hoops the Amazon team jumped through to get the K3 ready for the dog and pony show that I was convinced. I then did the very hard thing of looking at my K1 with a critical eye and recognizing the innovations that had been made on its new cousin. Below is a summary of the highlights and the lowlights of Amazon's efforts with the K3...(To skip to the main points, simply read the headers of each section.)THE GOODS:Text as Crisp and Pristine as Ever-Book readers and K1 veterans alike will notice the sharpness of the K3's text. One side effect of the K1 text was the fact that the edges of letters had a slight fuzziness to them and were a little on the skinny side. This is certainly not the case with the K3's text...its big, its bold, and its beautiful. Funny enough, I even encounter the mythical "read faster" effect on the K3 because the font is so easy on the eyes.Ferrari Page Turn and Interface Speeds-The K1's speed could be best compared to that of turning a page on an actual book. Sure that may be decent but it is only natural to expect our technology to be more responsive than their real life counterparts. The duration of the classic e-reader flash is incredibly short on the K3 and should jar those who disliked it on the K1 much less. However, the star of the speed category should not only be awarded to the page turns, but the interface speed itself. I hardly notice any delay when moving the cursor around or using the menus on the K3.From a Respectable Middleweight to a Light as Air Featherweight-The K1 was hardly a brick in the hand even after outfitting it with a cover. However, the minute you popped the thing in your pack you would feel that you added on some undesired weight. The K3 has gone on quite the diet and rests like a feather on the hand. Covered or uncovered, you will not notice it at all in your carrying case. I swear one of these days I'll have forgotten which bag I put it in heh...Still the Same Great Selection-The Amazon store always manages to stock any book I'm looking for. While there will be a few select instances where one obscure novel or another has not had the Kindle treatment, pretty much any mainstream book in existence is still 60 seconds away. Also the great thing to keep in mind is all the free books at your finger tips. You're guaranteed to find almost any 100 year old public domain classic either within the Amazon catalogue or other great sources. The only irksome quality about the store itself is that it only sells the Kindle proprietary format, as that is the only type of ebook that can be read by the Kindle...I will cover more on this later.Wonderful Wi-Fi-While I did chuck up the extra dough to get the free 3G coverage, I knew I would primarily start utilizing the Wi-Fi feature. Hooking up to the home wireless was a breeze and many out there who settled for the $139 Wi-Fi only Kindle will not be disappointed. So far it doesn't seem to suck up the battery like the 3G might and the connection is as reliable as the Wi-Fi on my laptops. Enjoying Wi-Fi on your K3 may take a bit of tech-savviness though, especially if someone other than you set up your router and put a password on your network. Other than that, you should be hooked up fairly quickly after a simple brushing up on the basics of wireless connectivity.THE BADS:Memory Card Slot Axed-Some ebook/media hoarders will be angry that the memory card slot was axed. 3,500 books is more than enough for me but I can certainly understand that my needs do not reflect everyone else's needs. Memory cards also serve as a nice physical backup of content as well. I even know of some folks who categorized their K1 books via memory card to compensate for the lack of the K2/K3 collections feature. While those who took the plunge to purchase the K2 got over the demolition of this nice feature, I still believe in the future Kindle generations to come, a memory card slot should return.Lackluster Web Browser-The web browser on the K3 is still on the sluggish side unlike the other speedy interfaces on the device. I never bought the K3 thinking I'd use it for web browsing but several people still desire a Swiss Army knife quality to their gadgets. Those who are picturing their decent Blackberry browsers, neat Iphone/Ipad browsers, or similar things will probably be disappointed upon looking at this. As I said earlier though, this was never a biggie to me and at the end of the day the most use the browser on the K3 will get from me is for emergency internet access.PDF Viewing Still Leaves Alot to Be Desired-While I do appreciate Amazon's efforts to correct PDF viewing on the Kindle, its still not simple and snappy enough to leave me satisfied. The zoom feature is utterly essential and does great in a pinch but the fact still remains, that if a PDF is not properly formatted for the Kindle, it will look terrible. Thankfully I am aware of the techniques to easily accomplish this task or if I'm lazy can email a file to Amazon to let them have a go at it. However, many out there who simply want a device where they can pop a file on it and be done with it, will be quite disappointed. Another grievance regarding PDF viewing is that auto-rotation, while present on the Kindle DX, is not included on the K3...meaning that you have to open up another menu when you want to view something in landscape.Still No ePub Support-Though there are several programs which can correct the pitfall of no ePub support on Kindles (Calibre or Mobipocket Creator for example), the fact still remains that there is no native support for ePub. Even with software solutions, DRMs can get in the way in which case there is no chance at all for you to convert your favorite ebook to Kindle format (legally that is). However, it may not be fair to point the finger at Amazon regarding this issue. Most of the e-readers on the market are limiting the format of books they can recognize to their own proprietary formats. At the end of the day, this "bad" can pretty much apply to most of the e-readers on the market in general.Unfortunately there is only so much that can be covered in a review and the K3 bears other numerous improvements that I did not mention (TTS integration, quieter page turns, longer battery life, etc.) At the end of the day, the breakdown above should generally give you an idea of what was done successfully or unsuccessfully on Amazon's newest Kindle. Whether you are still an eternal lover of the printed page or a K1 oldie hesitant to give up on a good thing, the K3 will improve your reading experience and then some.
