Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
Second, I see this as a comment on how lazy we have all become when it is too much effort to transfer a book from one's computer to one's reading device. No wonder obesity reigns.  I don't begrudge anyone the wireless access but I have to admit that with 150 books on my reader, in 1.5 years I have yet to have run out of options for reading material that made me lust for wireless access. |
I'm not a lazy (or obese) person and I'm a big fan of the wireless access. When I bought the Kindle I thought of it as a luxury I likely wouldn't use much. I figured it was more there for the tech-shy rather than the lazy, but I figured I'm more than capable of transfering stuff via USB so it was not a compelling addition. I was more interested in the content selection and reading-related features. I liked that wireless would improve the searching abilities but it wasn't a huge selling point to me.
Now I realize the benefit. It's just-in-time book buying. I don't buy books ahead of time then end up not wanting them. Yes, I have plenty of books I can read at any time on my Kindle thanks to PD and freebies, but books are not interchangeable. It's not like my goal is to engage in the process of reading and anything will do. For me, it's about having the book I want
right now. Maybe I'm just persnickety, but that's a huge deal to me. The Kindle lets me have what I want without having to buy a bunch of extra books to make sure. Since Sprint coverage is good most places I go, that means my shopping experience is one-click ordering the free sample of any book I think I may possibly want and then actually buying the book when I've read the sample and decided this is the book I actually do want to be reading now. I click on the link at the end of the sample and I have the book in under a minute. I can't even break to make myself a cup of tea in a minute. I'm not buying books I think I may want to read when I'm done with the next few on my list, which I may change my mind and forget about. Plus the samples are fairly large and I can read them on my Kindle at my leisure. I would not likely read nearly so much on my computer while shopping for books. This would lead to more mistaken purchases as well as a less convenient shopping experience. I've read dozens of samples and
not bought the book. Those are all books I likely would have bought if I hadn't been able to read so much of them first.