Tag: Kindle

Reading on Kindle

Published on by Margaret16 Comments

There are many advantages to reading on a Kindle – mainly because it’s easy to use:

  • because of instant purchase. I can see a book I’d like to read and have it within seconds. That can also be a disadvantage because it’s so easy to get yet more books, without considering whether I do really want them.
  • because of ease of handling and enlarging the the font size. This is a big plus!
  • because I can pop it in to a bag to take with me anywhere and have a book on hand ready to read. It was perfect for taking to the hospital and reading whilst waiting for radiography, etc.
  • because I can highlight text without spoiling the book and make notes without using a separate notebook. Another great feature.
  • because I can organise the books into different collections, or in any other order – A-Z, recent additions and so on.
No doubt there are other advantages too that haven’t come to my mind right now, because there is one major disadvantage and that is that
  • I can’t see the books in front of me as I can with physical books on actual bookshelves.This means that it’s so easy to forget what I’ve downloaded.
  • It doesn’t help me that I am disorganised. I’ve said that it’s an advantage to be able to categorise the books and put them into collections- but it would help if I actually did that on a consistent basis. I don’t!
  • And I’ve downloaded over 100 samples – I don’t know how many because after I reached 104 samples I stopped recording them. It’s the ease of adding samples that messes it all up – once I’ve downloaded them, I forget all about them!! I might as well not bother.
  • I was reading on it this morning and it kept freezing. That’s another downside –
  • that and having to stop reading to recharge the battery when you’re in an exciting part of a book and just want to know what happens next.
Still, I wouldn’t want to be without it.

Sunday Salon – the First Books of 2011

Published on by Margaret4 Comments

My reading this year has been from books I’d started in December and I’ve now finished these – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and Just Me, Sheila Hancock’s autobiography. I borrowed Just Me from my local library. It interested me, not because Sheila is a ‘celebrity’ but because it’s about her life as a 75 year old woman, recently a widow and I wondered what she had to say. She comes across as a down-to-earth person, feisty and open about her views on life and her beliefs.

I’m still reading Eden’s Outcasts: the Story of Lousia May Alcott and her Father by John Matteson and I’m also reading a crime fiction book, Payment Deferred by Joyce Holms.

Much of my reading time this week, however, has been on my new Kindle. I’ve spent  hours learning how to use it, loading in free books, mainly classics and starting to read quite a few of them. I’ve bought one book – Ink in the Blood by Hilary Mantel and I’ll write a separate post about this remarkable little memoir in a few days’ time.

I’m enjoying the experience of reading on my Kindle but it certainly won’t replace reading printed books. For one thing I have plenty of those still waiting to be read and for another it still hasn’t got the feel of a ‘real’ book for me. That may come but for now the Kindle is another source of reading material and not a substitute.

I do like a number of things about it – the weight and ease of handling it is obvious. I also like being able to look up the meanings of words so easily – just a click and up pops a definition. I like being able to go immediately to where I’m up to and also find locations when I’ve highlighted passages. I haven’t tried making notes yet or using pdfs. I like the ease of acquiring books – too easy maybe for a bookworm like me, but so far I have been restrained – and of downloading samples. I like the customer reviews and the quick links to wikipedia and Google.

I can only think of a couple of downsides to using it and that is that the page size is a little on the small side for me – I’m ‘turning’ the pages too quickly on a larger font size and the smallest size is a bit too small for me. And it’s going to add to my TBR list very quickly!

Next up on my blog tomorrow –  Kerrie’s Crime Fiction Alphabet begins with the letter A.

ABC Wednesday – K

Published on by Margaret20 Comments

This week in ABC Wednesday the featured letter is:

A number of Ks, came to mind when I was wondering which K to illustrate. My difficulty is which ones to keep and which to kick out?

Should it be kaleidoscope, a toy which fascinated me as a child, or knitting, although I haven’t made anything for ages.  I thought of picking a place €“ a town, like Kelso, or Kendal, maybe  food €“ kippers, or kedgeree, or a bird such as kingfisher or kittiwake. Perhaps I should pick an author such as Barbara Kingsolver, the author of The Poisonwood Bible, one of my favourite books. So many to choose from €¦

But in the end it has to be KINDLE, because I’ve been wondering about getting an e-reader for such a long time.

I’ve hesitated because, apart from the cost, I do like the physicality of reading – the feel of a book in my hands. I like having a pile of books waiting to be read, browsing my bookshelves, the smell of books and so on. These days I don’t travel so much so I’m not sure that I’d get that much use from it. I can see the advantages of having several books loaded ready to read if I was going on holiday for example – but would I use it at any other time?

Then I realised from reading Bernadette’s post that it could save me space, which would be a great bonus. Currently my bookshelves are all full, most of them double shelved, and I have piles of books in different rooms. I’d be able to weed out books and have more space as apparently a Kindle can store up to 3,500 books, which is more than I own! It’s also much lighter than any paperback book so it would be easier to read in bed. And, although I do like the feel of a book, it would mean I wouldn’t have to struggle with those books that are bound too tightly so that you can’t open them fully.

I’d still have lots of books, but maybe I should ask Father Christmas for a Kindle?