I must say, I resisted for well over a year because I love books (love the feel, the smell, the pages, the artwork) but my mom and my sister… and even my dad later on, kept hitting me with all this “Kindle propaganda”! So, I think it was a year ago, I got sick. My mom felt bad for me so she loaned me her Kindle to read a book I was interested in (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo). It was a pretty good book and even though I didn’t like reading it without pages- I didn’t like the flicker between pages and I missed holding printed pages- I soon found that I forgot about the medium as soon as I got engrossed in the story. Hmm…

This led me to stage two: I was willing to give e-books a shot but I wasn’t willing to make the Kindle purchase just yet. My next experiment was reading books on my phone (droid). That didn’t last long. Then on a regular computer screen (not too fun). Then on an i-pad clone with an eye-burning screen (I actually almost finished a novel on that during a business trip but wouldn’t do it again). My experiments solidified a growing suspicion about the Kindle’s e-ink thing. It’s freaking GOOD! There was a reason why most of my family was pushing this contraption!

Anyway, after trying it and trying alternatives, I ended up buying the new (smaller)  Kindle
My mom already had the bigger Kindle DX version and told me that if I bought the smaller one she would trade (she was missing the smaller size of her first generation Kindle). That sounded like a good deal to me! And, 4 months later, I realize it was a great deal! I just wish I had waited for the Kindle Fire!

So, on to my personal top 10 reasons for becoming a Kindle convert.

  1. Storage (ability to take so much with so little space). Of course, this seems like a no-brainer but it’s hard to appreciate till you carry 2 or 3 big books on a business trip and then realize you’d rather be reading the one you left at home. With the Kindle I have a little, portable library… and I can add to it at any moment!
  2. E-ink. The display really is as easy to read as printed text. I’ve tried reading on a net-book, a cheap imported ipad knockoff and (gasp) a smart phone. Nothing has been able to even compare to the display on a Kindle.
  3. Battery Life. For real! I only have to plug it into the charger about once a month. Someone needs to get those Kindle developers working on electric cars pronto! I can’t even go a whole day without recharging my droid.
  4. Shared Registration. I would never have tried it if I wasn’t lured in by the fact that I could register it under my mom’s account and immediately have access to all the books she has already purchased. She buys a ton of books on the Kindle.
  5. Free Books. There are a lot of free books available. Amazon even lists the top 100 free books on their website (and there are some very good ones btw: Pride & Prejudice, The Brothers Karamozov, War And Peace, The Bible, etc.)
  6. Free 3G (along with wi-fi). Wi-fi is good but usually not good enough in many areas. I don’t know how Amazon worked out the free 3G but it’s extra cool for me. You can get a wi-fi only model for less but if you live in a fairly remote area (like I do) the 3G is worth it.
  7. Auto-Bookmark. Pretty simple- the Kindle saves your place… even when you switch between books. It doesn’t seem like much but it will spoil you.
  8. Reading Outside. This is where the Kindle really shines (or doesn’t, to be precise). Try reading an ipad on the beach… Sunlight is no problem for the Kindle.
  9. Cheap Books. I recently bought a couple of books (can’t rely on mom to get everything I want to read) and they were, literally, half the price I would’ve paid at the bookstore.
  10. Cool Additional Features. This is not true of all the Kindle models and, to be fair, I don’t use them that much but on the Kindle DX you can store and listen to mp3s while you read. You can also use a limited browser (black & white) to surf the internet with your free 3G connection.

Anyway, this kind of sums up my experience with the Kindle. All positive up to this point. Now if I can just keep from buying that new Kindle Fire… That’s money I could be using on books instead!