Arguments for the Kindle

[Erin]

Great post, debungsmere!

I bought a Kindle DX a few months ago and absoultey love it! Of course I love old fashioned books just as much as the next person (for example, today I will buy a hardback copy of King's new book for my collection) but the Kindle is just so handy for all the reasons mentioned already in this thread.

I've read so many more classics I probably never would have gotten around to in regular book form, because they were free on Kindle. And I love that you can sample a book before purchasing it.

[ELazansky]

I asked my wife for a Kindle for Christmas - I'm holding off buying some new books (King, Grisham, Cornwell, Baldacci) so I can read them using my new toy

[Hannah]

I used to be squarely in the "e-readers are evil" camp, but then I got a Nook for my birthday. I would have preferred a Kindle, but I'm not going to turn down an awesome birthday present from my fella, who got it at the last minute for me because he could not come up with anything else to get me. He bought it for me even though he knew my position on e-readers.

At first I looked at it in horror. Then I had to pretend I was slightly thrilled. Then I tried it and, well, I freaking love it. Like debungsmere, I've used it for several flights (I have to travel for work often), and nothing can beat being able to purchase a book without getting out of your seat at the airport. Not to mention being able to get the book you want to read right then in bed at night instantly.

It's also fine on my eyes. I love how it bookmarks everything so I just turn it on and boom my book is there at my last read point. My one and only gripe ... I miss real books a little bit AND I can't feel comfortable reading my Nook in the bathtub for fear of dropping it. Oh, and it sounds dirty when I say anything about "my nook."

[debungsmere]

I agree about the bath tub, thats my biggest gripe. I have an outdoor hot tub I like to read in, but its tricky with a Kindle.

Hannah do you have a cover for your Nook? I bought the Amazon one for my kindle and its nice because you can read it with the flap open or flip it back, makes it seem like reading a real book to me and helped me transition that part of it anyway. Now we just need a water proof cover, heh.

[LadyHitchhiker]

I work at a bookstore and so I must confess, kindles terrify me. I love the nostalgia, the warmth, the coziness of a book. I love the smell. I love the texture. I love the portability. Kindles threaten that. They threaten my business.

[ELazansky]

Here's your waterproof Kindle case - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B0027DET28

Not the most attractive thing - it would be nice if Otterbox made a waterproof case

[LadyHitchhiker]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hannah]

I agree about the bath tub, thats my biggest gripe. I have an outdoor hot tub I like to read in, but its tricky with a Kindle.

Hannah do you have a cover for your Nook? I bought the Amazon one for my kindle and its nice because you can read it with the flap open or flip it back, makes it seem like reading a real book to me and helped me transition that part of it anyway. Now we just need a water proof cover, heh.

I do have a cover for the Nook! It was the first thing I bought after I got it. I had to get one of the ones with the front and back cover so you could flip it open or around the back.

[LadyHitchhiker]

I love gadgets, but books are one thing I will never personally digitise. As has been said already, I just love books - it almost seems blasphemous to have ebooks, I can't help thinking it's one step towards a Farenheit 451 scenario. I know that's slightly over the top but y'know what I mean?

Not everything needs to be modernised and ultra convenienced.

I absolutely agree with everything in this statement. I'm all for Star Trek and all, having little pads and all, but I don't want them to take away from my books. It seems like sacrilege. I should think the kindles should be used for saving costs for people in school, etc.,. I'm perfectly happy with having a book.

[mae]

Oh, and it sounds dirty when I say anything about "my nook."

Liquid out the nose

[mae]

I work at a bookstore and so I must confess, kindles terrify me. I love the nostalgia, the warmth, the coziness of a book. I love the smell. I love the texture. I love the portability. Kindles threaten that. They threaten my business.

I'm not in the book business, but I'm in the business of reading and collecting books. Nothing on a screen can even approximate a printed page.

[Jean]

hear, hear

[ELazansky]

I work at a bookstore and so I must confess, kindles terrify me. I love the nostalgia, the warmth, the coziness of a book. I love the smell. I love the texture. I love the portability. Kindles threaten that. They threaten my business.

I'm not in the book business, but I'm in the business of reading and collecting books. Nothing on a screen can even approximate a printed page.

I think the "collecting" books line is what separates people who have/want a Kindle and those who don't. I used to have a library of about 500 books that I kept packing up and taking with me every time I moved. It just got to be too much, so I donated them. Now, I usually check out books from the library. Except for collecting SK, I don't feel the need to have shelves of books anymore. Collectors will never want a Kindle - casual readers will.

[ChristineB]

I think the "collecting" books line is what separates people who have/want a Kindle and those who don't. I used to have a library of about 500 books that I kept packing up and taking with me every time I moved. It just got to be too much, so I donated them. Now, I usually check out books from the library. Except for collecting SK, I don't feel the need to have shelves of books anymore. Collectors will never want a Kindle - casual readers will.

Sorry to dissappiont you but I collect books and I love my Kindle. The screen is just so easy to read and if the font is not the size I want I can change it.

The thing fits much better in my purse then even a pb copy of the small books does, no getting the pages all mashed up and folded funny from other things in there. And the Kindle now has like 15 books on it instead of just one. I will never give up my collection of real books (they can pry them out of my cold dead hands), but this thing is great for those on the go or even just sitting around at home. When I am done with a book and want to read something I don't have in a real book atm I just pop onto Amazon.com and buy the e-version while I sit on my couch. I have already bought books on it that I would never have bought a real copy of, cause I don't collect that author, but now I get to read the book without cluttering up my shelves more with books I may never touch again.

As to the bathtub, well I guess I am different then most cause I read my Kindle in the tub with no more worries then I would have if I had a real book in my hand. I wouldn't want to drop a real book in the tub any more then I would want to drop my Kindle in it. I may end up puttting it in a plastic bag at some point so in the unlikely event it does get dropped (yet to drop a book in the tub) it won't be an issue.

I am acutally reading more now then I used to due to the sheer convienence of the thing. I most likely never would have read Andre Agassi's bio if I didn't have my Kindle.

Bottom line, I love it, it's not replacing my real books it's just adding to my reading experience. I understand how some would see it as the end of real books but for me that is just not going to happen. I will be up in arms if/when real books are not published of SK's work, but for now I am content to read, on my Kindle, those books I never would have read in book form.

[ELazansky]

I think the "collecting" books line is what separates people who have/want a Kindle and those who don't. I used to have a library of about 500 books that I kept packing up and taking with me every time I moved. It just got to be too much, so I donated them. Now, I usually check out books from the library. Except for collecting SK, I don't feel the need to have shelves of books anymore. Collectors will never want a Kindle - casual readers will.

Sorry to dissappiont you but I collect books and I love my Kindle. The screen is just so easy to read and if the font is not the size I want I can change it.

The thing fits much better in my purse then even a pb copy of the small books does, no getting the pages all mashed up and folded funny from other things in there. And the Kindle now has like 15 books on it instead of just one. I will never give up my collection of real books (they can pry them out of my cold dead hands), but this thing is great for those on the go or even just sitting around at home. When I am done with a book and want to read something I don't have in a real book atm I just pop onto Amazon.com and buy the e-version while I sit on my couch. I have already bought books on it that I would never have bought a real copy of, cause I don't collect that author, but now I get to read the book without cluttering up my shelves more with books I may never touch again.

As to the bathtub, well I guess I am different then most cause I read my Kindle in the tub with no more worries then I would have if I had a real book in my hand. I wouldn't want to drop a real book in the tub any more then I would want to drop my Kindle in it. I may end up puttting it in a plastic bag at some point so in the unlikely event it does get dropped (yet to drop a book in the tub) it won't be an issue.

I am acutally reading more now then I used to due to the sheer convienence of the thing. I most likely never would have read Andre Agassi's bio if I didn't have my Kindle.

Bottom line, I love it, it's not replacing my real books it's just adding to my reading experience. I understand how some would see it as the end of real books but for me that is just not going to happen. I will be up in arms if/when real books are not published of SK's work, but for now I am content to read, on my Kindle, those books I never would have read in book form.

So, the the authors you collect, you buy their books. For the ones you don't, you buy them on the Kindle for casual reading - that was exactly my point. This is what I want a Kindle for. I will still buy and collect the authors I want, but for my casual reading, I'll go with the eBook. When I said "Collectors will never want a Kindle", I should have clarified that a little more.

[debungsmere]

I thought of one more advantage. I actually read a lot quicker on my Kindle than I do a book. It sounds silly, but you dont realize how much time it takes to turn pages until you dont have to. For me, every page turn gives your brain a second to day dream, or a good time to put a book down and dog ear teh page or whatever. With the Kindle you just keep going, no stopping, no pausing, constant story.

[Hannah]

I have a cookbook on mine. It's fun because I can electronically bookmark the recipes I like and then just bring my nook (heh) to the kitchen with me and cook.

[alkanto]

I think the "collecting" books line is what separates people who have/want a Kindle and those who don't. I used to have a library of about 500 books that I kept packing up and taking with me every time I moved. It just got to be too much, so I donated them. Now, I usually check out books from the library. Except for collecting SK, I don't feel the need to have shelves of books anymore. Collectors will never want a Kindle - casual readers will.

That will probably hold true for most people, but I do not collect, nor do I ever plan on getting any sort of E-Reader.

If I do, it will be only for textbooks. I just really love my books too much! Not even from a collecting or career standpoint...there's just something a nice, thick hard cover that makes me feel happy. I dunno...I'll probably never be able to explain it.

[ELazansky]

I think it is fair to say that everyone has their opinion, and there are certainly no wrong answers here. I also love the feel of a good book in my hands, but when the book is 1200 pages, carrying it around trying to read it in public is sometime annoying. Having all 1200 pages in a small lightweight tablet is appealing.

[mae]

I find this sad:

http://mashable.com/2010/07/19/amazon-kindle-sales/

Amazon: Kindle Books Now Outselling Hardcovers

E-books have hit a significant milestone. In each of the last three months, Amazon reports that sales of books for Kindle have outpaced the sale of hardcover books, and that growth is only accelerating.

In a statement, Amazon says, “over the past three months, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 143 Kindle books. Over the past month, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 180 Kindle books.”

That’s impressive, especially considering it was only back in December that Amazon was celebrating Kindle books outselling the real thing on Christmas Day. Six months later, the shift has apparently become the norm.

While part of that shift has to do with reading trends in general — Amazon notes that e-book sales grew 163% in the month of May and 207% year-to-date through May — Kindle book sales (and other devices like Barnes & Noble’s Nook) has been aided in recent months by price cuts getting e-readers into the hands of more consumers. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says, “the growth rate of Kindle device unit sales has tripled since we lowered the price from $259 to $189.”

Those price reductions, of course, have been triggered in large part by new competition in the form of iPad. As much as anything else, Amazon is once again reminding us that Kindle is far from dead in the wake of Apple’s tablet, although with Kindle now offering apps for Windows (Windows), Mac and most mobile operating systems, its long-term success may ultimately be much more dependent on its e-book store across platforms as opposed to physical device sales.

[ICry4Oy]

I work at a bookstore and so I must confess, kindles terrify me. I love the nostalgia, the warmth, the coziness of a book. I love the smell. I love the texture. I love the portability. Kindles threaten that. They threaten my business.

ILU! My life's work has always been technology. I was involved with computers when all we had were trays and trays of punch cards and when a Univac was a big deal and when it took four people to carry a 68MB hard drive and when Sanyo made the 12-inch floppy and I played on the ARPANET before there was an internet. Maybe I resisted technology in my private life because it consumed my work life? I may use my cell phone about 3 minutes a year. I resisted getting a PC until about four years ago - I was missing too much porn.


But I prefer reading something on paper as opposed to something on a screen. Even now when I have to read an online manual I'll print it out and read it off the paper.

The only Kindling (sic) I'll ever do will involve starting fires.

[Yeah Sure Whatever]

I'm finally getting my Sony Reader Touch (should be here today) and I'm super excited. SJ has already set me up with a bunch of books she knew I would like. My husband isnt really sold on it, but I think he'll like having all the books he wants in one place.

When I have time I'll have to crochet a cover for it, cant have it getting scratched up now!

[haunted.lunchbox]

I think they should put college texts and things of that nature on the kindle. I am toying with the idea about getting one. I also like the fact that they are probably saving a few trees.

[ChristineB]

I think they should put college texts and things of that nature on the kindle. I am toying with the idea about getting one. I also like the fact that they are probably saving a few trees.

I just looked at the Amazon.com ebook store and it has around 30K textbooks...

[haunted.lunchbox]

I just looked up the e text books and I just have to say it's CRAP! To charge $130 for an electronic text is bullshit. It's disgusting how much money a college text cost, and on top of that you can only sell them back if they continue with the edition. I'm all for capitalism, but this is ridiculous.

EDIT: It's $130 for the ebook that you CAN'T sell back. Not happy.