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Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Kindling for my mind


My Kindle arrived yesterday and I feel like it's Christmas. Or my birthday!

One of the folks I am privileged so serve as "Spiritual Director" 'gifted' me with it as a token of appreciation.

I am so excited I can hardly stand it!

My Kindle all fired up and now all I have to do is register her and start picking out what I want to read from the more than a quarter million selections - most of which are under $10.

I've been wanting to read the 'Twilight' series (my daughter say they are excellent), and the first in the series is only $5.99.

What's Really Great is that, eventually, I'll be walking around with the entire series in my Kindle, so I can refer to previous editions without having to lug my entire library around with me. The system even lets you highlight and write your own comments in the corners, so I'll have access to all that, too.

Except, of course, I will have the library with me - I just won't have to 'lug'.

This will be great to take with me to Anaheim. Trying to decide which books to pack when I travel is always such a hassle. Now, I can take whatever I want.

How spoiled will I be? I know. It's a frightening thought.

I'm not so pleased that the NY Times is $13.99 per month and there's even a monthly charge to view blogs like The Onion. When I think about it, however, I pay $30 per month for WiFi so I don't exactly get those publications for "free".

I guess there's some logic in a monthly fee for a particular item. The good news is that there's a daily rate, so if I'm spending a day at the beach where I'll have limited access to my computer, and want to read the paper, all I have to do is sign up for the day and not have to worry about schlepping it to the recyclable bin at the end of the day.

And, if I'm too lazy to read it, the Kindle will read it to me while I lounge.

I'm soooo excited I can hardly sit still.

This is like an iPod for books - a little kindling to fire my mind.

I've already told Ms. Conroy that she can borrow it. We can share.

Thank you, Joyce. You can't possibly know how grateful I am.

4 comments:

Gary Harke said...

Good luck with the Kindle. I've had mine for a couple of months and have been reading Dickens (mostly) plus a few airplane-type books. My biggest adjustment is that I can no longer flip around in a book. I have to start at the beginning and progress in a linear manner--not the way I prefer to read, especially non-fiction. Nick Knisely is my Kindle guru; as an early adaptor, he's the one who convinced me to take the leap.

DeanB said...

I saw one of those for the first time ten days ago. Someone was reading the NYTimes on it at a break between classes. She likes being able to get the Timess wherever she is.

KJ said...

I'm not sure that I can do it. I like my hardcover books, and I like them on a shelf. I don't think it's an "anti-techie" thin, 'cuz I love my laptop, and I love it everywhere I go.

"Twilight" is sitting on the night stand, but will not be read until I finish Spong's autobiography. :-)

Anonymous said...

I've kept a good part of my library on a Palm PDA for years and I love it. But it must be a real individual thing, I raved about how great this was about 10 years ago and every member of my family (mother, father, sister, brother) got a Palm and bought books. And I am the only one of us who reads e-books when I'm not on vacation. We all love taking EVERYTHING on vacation on the Palm. My sister says she forgets about it, my brother says he just likes holding a book. My mother says it's good for the hospital and vacations but she doesn't like looking at the little screen for everyday. And my dad says that he doesn't have time to read on the Palm, because my mother keeps his reading list full with her books that she wants him to read.

Palm doesn't make a PDA anymore. And mine broke last week. I can read on my phone, I have a Palm-OS based smart phone, but that thing sucks battery life so that's really not that good an option for me. I went to the computer store and they were sympathetic about the Palms, and were suggesting the Sony or Kindle (actually practically the same machine except the Kindle is way better). So report back in a few weeks, Because soon I've got to decide on the new Palm Pre phone OR a Kindle.