Kindle? I love it!

I have a Kindle that I bought a couple of months ago. It's great; it goes everywhere

with me. I've read it sitting on mountaintops waiting for the wind to come around

before flying my hang glider, in my tent after flying, in restaurants and at home in

bed. It works just like a book.

I was just on a 10-day trip with my Kindle, reading it every day for several hours, and

didn't bring the charger. It was down a couple of bars on battery by the end of the

trip. I keep the wireless switched off unless I need to download something, and the

battery lasts for ages.

Content is available. There are thousands of free ebooks out there for download,

and still more through vendors other than Amazon. Yes, you can pay for content

through Amazon too, but you don't have to. The books I buy are DRM-free and

I'm happy to support authors who provide me with stuff to read.

My paperback collection is about 3000 volumes, accumulated over a 30-year

period. I read *a lot*. The collection takes up a lot of space in the various book

cases I've built around the house, but the hundred or so books in my Kindle

don't take up any room at all.

One thing I particularly like about the Kindle, vs a "regular book" is the page

turning. When I'm eating, I'm usually reading. With a paper book, it's hard to

keep the pages from flipping unless I find something to set on them to hold

them in place. With the Kindle, I just set it flat and tap the "next page" bar as

needed. There's one on each side so I can hit it whether I'm holding a sandwich

in my right hand, or holding the Kindle in my left. With the cover flipped back,

I can loop the elastic strap around one hand to hold it, and curl my fingers around

to hit the next page bar. It's very versatile in that regard, works great no matter

which way I'm holding it.

My one complaint was the cover, which it fitted into loosely. I fixed that with a

couple pieces of Velcro, which lock the Kindle into the cover so it won't fall out.

Now when I hand it to Mom and she flips it upside down, it doesn't take a dive

toward the floor. :-)

If Amazon came out with a larger-format version, I'd buy one. I'd particularly like

to have a full letter-size display with PDF support, for the piles of electronic

component datasheets that I currently print out on dead trees. It would be great

to have that material available for easy reference on an e-ink display.

It's not a web browser. It's not a PDA. It's a book, and it works just like one. As

for the moisture-proof aspect....just how dunk-resistant do you think a paper

book is? At least the Kindle can be wiped off, and it doesn't curl up its pages.

MGF

There's also the Bebook for £229,

http://mybebook.com/index.html. No Mobipocket support yet, but I've been told this will come in a free software upgrade in a few weeks.

Also a new machine ib November/December with RSS news feeds support and Wifi for more but not much more than the above price.

So I think I'll wait. Even if I don't bother with the WiFi version, the price of the current model should drop.

Mine's the one with 200 books in the pocket.