Reading has always been part of my life, since I was 3 if one believes my parents' stories. So it was with great trepidation that I observed the advent of paperless reading - first with books "online," and now with Amazon's Kindle.
It's been very difficult for me to separate from the feel, the kinesthetics - heck, the smell of the reading experience. I always thought that I would be like Sam Cogley, the fictional future attorney from classic Star Trek, that in the 23rd Century still surrounded himself with books. Books! Still the greatest technology mankind has ever invented.
And then the Kindle 3 came along. It's flat. It's thin. It holds thousands of books - it could hold my entire library if I ever chose. It has a battery that can easily last two weeks with the wireless function off.
And the reading experience? Surprisingly good, with a screen that, unlike a computer's, isn't backlit and so is actually best in bright light and full outdoor conditions. You can adjust font size, spacing between lines, and a (limited) set of font types (perhaps something for the Kindle 4).
And I've found I can get just as lost with my nose in a Kindle as I have all these years with my nose in a "tree killing" book.
Titles are usually a bit more than a paperback but less than a discount hardback - $11- $13 for a title is common. You download them via the wireless in the $139 version that I bought, or get them a bit faster via 3G connection in the $189 version - but the reading experience is exactly the same for each. I'm immersed in John Birmingham's After America, his sequel to his speculative fiction piece Without Warning. And I have selections in queue, as it were.
I'm looking forward to adding a leather cover for my Kindle - one that will allow me to stand the Kindle at an angle. I think then I'll have fully embraced this latest geegaw of the 21st Century. Now then - can I get a road atlas on my Kindle? (My family will certainly understand that question!)
