Who's going to rush out and buy a Kindle?

[giedre]

My kindle will be arriving this Friday, and I can hardly wait! I have the older Sony so it will be interesting to be able to compare the two. What really sold me on the Kindle was the ability to buy and download books while not connected to my PC. To be able to do so just blew me away. Plus if I find a book I really want I'll just go and see who's is cheaper!

[Just4Fun]

I've purchased 2 Kindles on Nov. 25: one for myself and one as a Christmas present for my significant other (supposed to arrive Dec. 20).

One thing that I don't like about the Amazon newspaper marketing scheme is that the newspapers can't be shared among the devices like the books can. If I have a paper version of a newspaper, anyone in my house can read it. With the Kindle, I will have to swap machines with other family members in order to do that. That seems nonsensical to me. IMHO, all of my machines should have access to the books, periodicals, and magazines that I buy. This is especially true since when I use digital media, I give up the ability to lend a book to a friend or neighbor. Of course, I don't pay full price for the book so maybe that piece is fair...

I've followed ebook readers since their inception. I've read a few ebooks on various PDA devices that I've owned over the years and found them lacking. I've tried reading ebooks on the computer (Yuck). I've even purchased (and returned) a couple of dedicated readers (screen not book-like enough for me). I'll return the Kindles too if they don't fit the reading task, but I have to admit to having a feeling an excitement about this device that I haven't felt in years. It's a little akin to seeing my first Atari 400 computer back in the late 70's early 80's or maybe my excitement after driving all the way to Seattle to see one of the first Amiga 1000s displayed at the Bon. You know, it had an AMAZING 4092 colors and you wouldn't believe the rotating cube displayed on the screen! ;-D Anybody else that old here? <sigh>

The primary distaste that I had in the past for ebook readers was the arduous task of file conversion and/or the poor screen reading experience. My largest concern, though, was the availability of a good selection of book titles at a reasonable cost. My feeling has always been, if you offer a huge library of books, ebook readers will have a chance. If there are no books to read, then who needs one? The lack of books and ease of device use might also be one reason that some feel the necessity to pirate books. Make the books available, fairly priced, and easy to buy and I think most people will buy the book rather than searching the wilds of the Internet, but that is a whole 'other' issue... So, back to my comments at hand.

According to the reviews, the Kindle has done an excellent job addressing most of my previous concerns. I've been watching the Kindle store's book inventory grow every day and many of the books that I am interested in reading are being offered for a very fair price. I've also found some interesting titles that I didn't know about while browsing through the offerings. I am sold on the idea of being able to download sample chapters before purchasing a title. That is a great option. I don't generally take the time to read an entire first chapter while browsing through paper books at a bookstore so sometimes I end up buying a book that just isn't what I was hoping for. My dream for years has been to cut down on the book clutter that two people who read a lot can generate in a house. Sure there are some books that I want to display, but most of our books are read once. They lie around and become somewhat of a nuisance. I finally pass them on or sell them to half price books for a pittance. Some days, I feel that I live under an avalanche of paper materials. I am hoping that the Kindle will help reorganize that part of our lives.

If I could build my own reader, sure I'd like color and a larger screen (for pdfs and newspapers and magazines,old eyes), and maybe I'd like some kind of a built in light that could be used if necessary, but weight and battery life are also important so I'm not sure about the built in light. Someone here said why not use a couple of sheets of flexible paper and get rid of the casing. Since that is what eink is all about, that could be an interesting design concept. At least, make the epaper units seem more paper and book-like. In that case, I could imagine owning three thin sheet paper devices: One for magazines, one for newspapers and one for books.

Finally, one thing that I am VERY happy about is that the ebook reader market is finally heating up. Even if the Kindle isn't the perfect reader, it is bringing attention to the market and I'm sure that future generations of readers will only improve (I just hope that I can live long enough to see that evolution.) This really could be the beginning of a new approach to reading. We probably won't recognize the playing field in 10 years.

[Zoot]

Maybe it's time to un-sticky this thread?

Z.

[kpfeifle]

maybe my excitement after driving all the way to Seattle to see one of the first Amiga 1000s displayed at the Bon. You know, it had an AMAZING 4092 colors and you wouldn't believe the rotating cube displayed on the screen! ;-D Anybody else that old here? <sigh>

I am, I loved my Amiga.