The estimated reading time for this post is 5 minutes
Are you considering getting a Kindle but are not sure if you would like it or how you would use it? Maybe this will help with your decision:
- Picture this: your daughter has a paper to write on Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice that’s due tomorrow. She forgot the book at school and it’s late enough that the school is locked up tight as a drum. Your local Borders store closed last week and the closest Barnes & Noble is over 45 minutes away. All of her classmates need their books to write their papers and the library is closed, so borrowing a copy is out of the question.
What to do? - Imagine this: your mother’s eyesight has been fading for years, to the point where she has difficulty with her favorite pastime – reading books. Large print books are too heavy for her and she has dropped out of her book club. You miss seeing the light in her eyes when she talks about her new favorite book.
How can you help? - Consider this: your son was assigned A Tale of Two Cities in English class but there are a lot of new vocabulary words for him in that book. He slogs through the book, spending more time with the dictionary than with Dickens. He loses his place repeatedly as he is stopping too often to look up words, failing to appreciate the novel or get immersed in the plot.
How can he improve his reading? - Another scenario: you are packing for a weeklong trip and you are close to the weight limit on your luggage. You have a choice of packing either another outfit or the novel you want to read, the 1000+ page book Under the Dome, by Stephen King.
Which to choose?
A Kindle eReader ($139 for the Wi-Fi model on Amazon) solves all of these problems. How can Kindle help?
- You whip out your Kindle and download Pride and Prejudice for free. That’s right, $0. The book is on your Kindle within seconds from when you go to the Kindle Store on your device (Go to Menu, Shop in the Kindle Store, Search for the book and press Buy). Your daughter can even search for terms on the Kindle by typing words on the Kindle’s keyboard. No late night trips to the bookstore only to find the book is sold out. Easy, instant and free!
- You give your mom a Kindle and help her increase the font size to where she can read the words easily. (This is easily done by clicking on the AA button on the keyboard and selecting the font size that works best for her). You show her how easy it is to find the book she wants to read on her Kindle, no computer necessary, and download it for her. You smile with delight a week later as she excitedly tells you about her new favorite book, The House at Sugar Beach, by Helene Cooper, and that she has re-joined her book club.
- You hand your son your Kindle with A Tale of Two Cities ready for him on the screen (this book is also free on the Kindle). He moves the cursor to a word he doesn’t know and sees the dictionary definition pop up on the screen. He finishes the book before the due date and gets an A on his English test.
- You tuck your Kindle into your purse (or man-purse/murse), as it only weighs 8.5oz (240g) and is small in size, 7.5″ x 4.8″ x 0.335″ (19cm x 12cm x 0.85cm). You pack your extra outfit in your suitcase plus have room leftover for souvenirs. No need to pack the power cord as the charge on the Kindle will last a month. You smile as you read Under the Dome on the beach while sipping your piña colada, knowing that the money you saved on buying the Kindle version of the book paid for your drink!
Plenty of other reasons exist to get a Kindle, including having the ability to highlight your favorite passages and share them on Facebook and Twitter, or the ability to share your books with, and borrow books from, other Kindle users. You can browse the web with the Kindle and check email. You can even read the Kindle in the bathtub or swimming pool with the help of a gallon-sized Ziplock bag. With the money you save on buying eBooks, the Kindle might even pay for itself.
Many people ask me why I have a Kindle if I have an iPad (the iPad has a Kindle app available so you can read your Kindle books on your iPad). I still enjoy reading on my Kindle over my iPad because my Kindle is lighter weight and easier on the eyes (see, Tech-Knowledgy) as the Kindle uses E Ink on its screen while the iPad has a backlit screen. I compare it to having a camera when you have a cell phone with a camera. The cell phone camera is fine for everyday pictures, but for more important pictures, I still want to use my camera.
People tell me they don’t want to read eBooks because they like the feel of a book in their hands and they enjoy the smell of books. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to take books away from anyone. You can still read paper books (the tech world calls them DTB, Dead Tree Books) even if you have a Kindle. But you may find many instances in your life when having a Kindle can be wonderful.
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Breaking Amazon News
Have you ever considered becoming an Amazon Prime member only to balk at the $79 yearly fee? A $79 Amazon Prime membership buys you free two-day shipping on many items on Amazon with no minimum purchase requirement. Great deal for last minute shoppers or for those of you who are tired of adding items to your order to get up to the $25 minimum for free shipping.
Beginning today, Amazon is offering to its Amazon Prime members free unlimited streaming of over 5,000 movies and TV shows. Suddenly that $79 fee seems to be a bargain. The selection isn’t nearly as extensive as Netflix, but you may not need it to be. If you like shopping on Amazon and streaming tv shows and movies, sign up for Amazon Prime and start streaming from Amazon on your Roku!
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Do you have a Kindle? Has it ever come to your rescue, getting you out of a bind? Do you still read paper books even though you have a Kindle? Let us know in the Comments section!
* Picture by Frantisek Fuka
Is it only in black & white?
Hi Dave, Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech! Good question. E Ink is only available in black and white so color is not available for the Kindle yet. Nook, an eReader sold by Barnes & Noble, is available in color but has a backlit screen which could cause eye strain.
I have to say nook is better. It has expandable memory, replaceable battery (on nook1 at least) and supports more formats.
Hi Matt, There are many people who prefer the Nook, but I prefer the Kindle as I find the Kindle more intuitive and I like how I can sync my books between my devices.
The Kindle battery is replaceable. I’ve done it.
The Kindle has enough storage for 3,500 books so it’s difficult to imagine needing expandable space on the device.
I do wish the Kindle natively supported more formats. There are ways to convert ePub books to get them on the Kindle, but I’m not a big fan of jumping through hoops when I don’t have to. The Nook definitely has an advantage there. I hope some day the Kindle will support other formats but for now the Kindle’s extensive selection of books is keeping me happy.
Our son loves his kindle and it surely gave him that extra push to learn to love reading. It also helps that it can read to him when he is tired and also he fallows along while it does so. He also loves the dictionary mode. It is also so portable and techie for him and he loves that aspect of it. It makes him look cool.
Hi Yvonne, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech. I’m glad your son loves the Kindle and I’m sure he looks very cool to his friends by having a tech gadget.
Text to Speech is another great feature of the Kindle. Available for many books, Text to Speech means the Kindle will read the book aloud to you, though in a computer voice, not like the narration of an audiobook. This can be very handy if you have just gotten to a good part of a Kindle book, but need to drive somewhere.
Hmmm. OK, let’s say, for instance, that I ordered a DTB or two as birthday presents for my Kindle-wielding daughter-in-law. Will she be disappointed?
Hi Gramps, Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech! I am certain your daughter-in-law would appreciate any gift from you, as it is the thought that counts. But if she enjoys her Kindle, why not get her the books as Kindle books, saving time, money and trees?
How do you get a Kindle book for someone else?
Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech, Amy! It’s very easy to buy a Kindle book for someone. Go to Amazon.com and search for the Kindle book you want. On the right, where it says “Add to Cart” there is also a button that says “Give as a Gift.” Click on that and you will be asked for the person’s email address. You can include a gift message with the order as well.
Hi Carolyn,
I love my Kindle; it’s my new best friend. I’m married to a former librarian and whenever we traveled (pre kindle days) books took up way too space in our suitcases. Also have a Roku and have been downloading movies from Netflick. but will check out how competitive they are with Netflick. Wish you the best.
Riley
Hi Riley, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m glad you love your Kindle. Does your wife enjoy it too? I would be interested in hearing what a former librarian thinks of the Kindle.
Amazon is definitely taking on Netflix by offering unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows for Amazon Prime customers. But Amazon’s offerings are limited to about 5,000 while Netflix has 11,500+ movies and TV shows available. Here is a great analysis of the differences between the Netflix and Amazon plans: Amazon v. Netflix. To summarize the article, Amazon isn’t all that competitive with Netflix yet, but if you do a lot of Amazon shopping, then the $79 Prime membership just became a lot more attractive.
Nice one! I’ve never heard of this great gadget before. I guess it can be use to write blogpost?. Thanks so much for sharing. Have fun.
Hi Samuel, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m glad you learned about the Kindle from the blog. It’s a great device for reading, though it’s not really well-suited for writing blog posts. But it does make a great topic for a blog because there are so many ways the Kindle can be useful to readers.
I wasn’t aware Kindle was available as an app. I downloaded it this morning. Voila! It’s pretty easy to use/get used to. It also let me sample some books I was interested in, but were only available in a Kindle version.
Very cool. Thanks for the heads up on this.
Do you think libraries will offer Kindle books?
Hi Cho Cho, Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, there is a Kindle app available for many devices. I will be covering the Kindle app in a future blog.
Good question about libraries offering Kindle books. The lending feature of Kindle books is still quite new. So far, a Kindle book can only be lent once and for 14 days maximum. So it wouldn’t make sense for libraries to buy a Kindle book that they could only lend once. If Amazon loosens the lending restrictions for Kindle books then libraries might start to invest in Kindle books.
Good blog. I really liked what you said about the Kindle but when I went to buy one, there were two choices, wifi and wifi plus 3G. What’s the difference and what do you recommend I get? The 3G is $50 more, do I need to spend the extra money? Thanks, Mark
Hi Mark, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m glad you like the blog and find it helpful.
You’re right, there are two choices for the Kindle, Wi-Fi only or Wi-Fi plus 3G. The 3G model is $189 and gives you the ability to connect your Kindle to the internet when you can’t access a Wi-Fi network.
Is the 3G worth the extra $50 to you? That depends on how much you travel. If you generally use the Kindle at home and have W-Fi there, you don’t need the 3G model. But if you travel a lot and often can’t access Wi-Fi, the extra $50 may be worth it.
One important factor to consider is that Amazon does not charge an extra monthly fee for internet access over 3G for the Kindle. This is very different from the iPad where, if you pay extra to get 3G on the device, you still have to pay an extra monthly fee to AT&T to access the internet over their 3G network.
I hope you enjoy your Kindle!
Too late, the order is in. But for her 39th birthday next year, I’ll follow your advice.
No worries, Gramps, your daughter-in-law is fortunate to have such a thoughtful father-in-law!
I ordered a Kindle yesterday, it’s my first and I have no idea what to expect. But I read a lot, and I am going to travel a lot this year, so I thought I’d give it a try. I ordered the one with WiFi and 3G.
What’s your experience with it? Do you still read regular books?
Hi Jens, I predict you will really enjoy your Kindle. The device is perfect for readers who travel a lot. You never have to run out of reading material, you can always download another book, no matter where you are.
If a book is available on the Kindle, I will almost always buy the Kindle version. The only exception is a cookbook I ordered recently. I find it much easier to read a book on the Kindle because I always have my Kindle or iPad with me. Since Kindle syncs between the two devices, it doesn’t matter which one I have, I can continue reading from where I left off.
Please let us know how you enjoy reading on the Kindle. By the way, earlier this week, Amazon US had a link to Audible on its homepage that you can now wirelessly download Audible books to your Kindle. But for your 45 minutes walks to and from work (that you mentioned in an earlier comment), your iPhone would probably be a better choice for listening to audiobooks.