I has Kindle. Specifically, a Kindle 2. I was seized by an overpowering urge to buy one yesterday and squeaked in under the deadline to have it shipped to me today. I'd been using a Palm Tungsten T3 as an eBook reader, and it's okay for that, but it can't compete with the Kindle - much smaller screen, much lower battery life, trickier to load full of books and of course it's unreadable in direct sunlight. Admittedly, it does have two advantages in that it's pocket-sized and backlit, so I could still see using it under certain circumstances.
But meanwhile, the Kindle is dead sexy, especially that free 3G cellular internet access. I haven't actually bought any Kindle books for it yet, and I'm not sure if I ever will - the selection (300,000 books or no) is kind of spotty in places and the price point is mostly not low enough for the limitations of the format, especially for someone who's used to buying used, like me. But I found that not only is there an extensive free library of public domain books on Amazon (along with a few dozen other sites), publishers are temporarily putting some genuinely interesting commercial titles up for free. For example, right at the moment there's the first of Naomi Novik's Temeraire books, the first Farseer book from Robin Hobb, the first Manifold book by Stephen Baxter, the first Landover book by Terry Brooks, and several others. Looking back, it sounds like there's been at least five or six new free titles of interest each month and very well might continue to be in future. Of course, I see perfectly well what the idea is - get me hooked on a series with the first book and hope that I'll buy the others. But free is still free. It's not like I -have- to buy the others to get to read them.
Mostly, I intend to convert the PDF ebooks I was using on the Palm to a Kindle-friendly format and read those. The formatting gets a bit fucked up in the process but it's eminently readable and I've already got 'em lying around. I did consider the Kindle DX, which has native PDF support, but it's currently $190 more and that, the larger size, and the ability to rotate into landscape mode seem to be its only additional selling points. Just didn't seem worth it. Besides, the extra size is at least as much a drawback as a plus, and there are apparently some control layout issues.
A final note: when you sleep the Kindle, it displays a random piece of classical art or portrait of a famous author such as Mark Twain or Harriet Beecher Stowe. (The e-ink doesn't draw power to remain in place, only to be moved into a new configuration.) I heartily approve.
But meanwhile, the Kindle is dead sexy, especially that free 3G cellular internet access. I haven't actually bought any Kindle books for it yet, and I'm not sure if I ever will - the selection (300,000 books or no) is kind of spotty in places and the price point is mostly not low enough for the limitations of the format, especially for someone who's used to buying used, like me. But I found that not only is there an extensive free library of public domain books on Amazon (along with a few dozen other sites), publishers are temporarily putting some genuinely interesting commercial titles up for free. For example, right at the moment there's the first of Naomi Novik's Temeraire books, the first Farseer book from Robin Hobb, the first Manifold book by Stephen Baxter, the first Landover book by Terry Brooks, and several others. Looking back, it sounds like there's been at least five or six new free titles of interest each month and very well might continue to be in future. Of course, I see perfectly well what the idea is - get me hooked on a series with the first book and hope that I'll buy the others. But free is still free. It's not like I -have- to buy the others to get to read them.
Mostly, I intend to convert the PDF ebooks I was using on the Palm to a Kindle-friendly format and read those. The formatting gets a bit fucked up in the process but it's eminently readable and I've already got 'em lying around. I did consider the Kindle DX, which has native PDF support, but it's currently $190 more and that, the larger size, and the ability to rotate into landscape mode seem to be its only additional selling points. Just didn't seem worth it. Besides, the extra size is at least as much a drawback as a plus, and there are apparently some control layout issues.
A final note: when you sleep the Kindle, it displays a random piece of classical art or portrait of a famous author such as Mark Twain or Harriet Beecher Stowe. (The e-ink doesn't draw power to remain in place, only to be moved into a new configuration.) I heartily approve.
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
That gaming group sounds really fun. I'm kind of jealous. I wish I had something like that to go to.
Hopefully my brother and I will figure out how to play it soon.