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I've been avoiding Kindles. I like to hold a book when I'm reading. I like to turn the pages. To have the experience of reading and not flipping pages in a browser. But they're so shiny and cool that I can't help but be intrigued by them. A few months ago, giving into some of the peer pressure, I downloaded and installed the Kindle app for The Shiny, as well.
I went through the list of free books and downloaded some. The Jungle Book, obviously. The Complete Sherlock Holmes, just because. Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice just because they're in public domain and I've never read them. A few others along the same lines. All free. I have yet to read word 1 of any of those books.
Then, recently, I got a new phone. A Droidx. On it was...the Kindle app.
A group of friends and I have a very loose, informal reading group. We've read several (six?) novels and gotten together to discuss them. I didn't finish the last three because I was just too busy and also not very interested in the novels once I started reading them. It happens.
So when we selected our latest book, I thought, "Do I really want to get yet another trade paperback book I might never read?"
And the thought popped into my head. "You should get it for the Kindle app!"
So I did, because I thought that if I really liked the book, I'd read it regardless. And if I really didn't, at least I'd have it digitally and not taking up another 3/4" of shelf-space on my already overflowing shelves. It costs less for the digital copy than for the trade paperback size or the hardback, and most of the books we've been reading have been recently published (the idea is that we're reading what's out now so we can learn about recent publishing trends and current writers), so $9.99 was a bargain.
One day at lunch, I forgot to bring anything to read. You know what's coming. I opened up the app and started reading the book on the tiny little 4.3" screen, thinking I would absolutely loathe it, but that I would at least start the novel.
I've now read just over half of the 304-page book and find that not only can't I put it down, I actually kind of like the interface. Reading it on the tiny screen actually kind of makes it easier to stop reading because I'm not seeing how far until the end of the chapter or the next page or whatever. There's no "flipping" to get the pages to turn—it's just a tap to the right to go forward or a tap to the left to go back.
So that's why the subject of this is what it is. Pass the salt; I have to eat my words or maybe some crow. :)
As an aside, I recommend the Kindle app for both the Droidx and the Macbook Pro. And the book The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia is just wonderful. I'm having no trouble getting engrossed in the story. The characters and world are so well-thought-out that you immerse from the get-go and quickly need to know what's going on. I'll post a review when I'm done. :)
The Skeptic Zone #115 - 31.Dec.2010 by Richard Saunders from The Skeptic Zone (Rating: 0)
I went through the list of free books and downloaded some. The Jungle Book, obviously. The Complete Sherlock Holmes, just because. Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice just because they're in public domain and I've never read them. A few others along the same lines. All free. I have yet to read word 1 of any of those books.
Then, recently, I got a new phone. A Droidx. On it was...the Kindle app.
A group of friends and I have a very loose, informal reading group. We've read several (six?) novels and gotten together to discuss them. I didn't finish the last three because I was just too busy and also not very interested in the novels once I started reading them. It happens.
So when we selected our latest book, I thought, "Do I really want to get yet another trade paperback book I might never read?"
And the thought popped into my head. "You should get it for the Kindle app!"
So I did, because I thought that if I really liked the book, I'd read it regardless. And if I really didn't, at least I'd have it digitally and not taking up another 3/4" of shelf-space on my already overflowing shelves. It costs less for the digital copy than for the trade paperback size or the hardback, and most of the books we've been reading have been recently published (the idea is that we're reading what's out now so we can learn about recent publishing trends and current writers), so $9.99 was a bargain.
One day at lunch, I forgot to bring anything to read. You know what's coming. I opened up the app and started reading the book on the tiny little 4.3" screen, thinking I would absolutely loathe it, but that I would at least start the novel.
I've now read just over half of the 304-page book and find that not only can't I put it down, I actually kind of like the interface. Reading it on the tiny screen actually kind of makes it easier to stop reading because I'm not seeing how far until the end of the chapter or the next page or whatever. There's no "flipping" to get the pages to turn—it's just a tap to the right to go forward or a tap to the left to go back.
So that's why the subject of this is what it is. Pass the salt; I have to eat my words or maybe some crow. :)
As an aside, I recommend the Kindle app for both the Droidx and the Macbook Pro. And the book The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia is just wonderful. I'm having no trouble getting engrossed in the story. The characters and world are so well-thought-out that you immerse from the get-go and quickly need to know what's going on. I'll post a review when I'm done. :)
The Skeptic Zone #115 - 31.Dec.2010 by Richard Saunders from The Skeptic Zone (Rating: 0)
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