You Save

Sometimes the Kindle doesn't save you money.

Paperback

Kindle Edition

But notice it still says, "You Save"

Amazon Kindle

Because the new Kindle will likely be release tomorrow or in the next couple of days, I thought it would be an appropriate time to tell everyone what I think of the first Kindle after about 5 months of heavy use.

I really enjoy reading, but it became a huge pain in the butt when I moved because book stores here don't carry a lot of the things that I want to read and shipping from Amazon is expensive. Also, the cost of a book here is pretty high considering that once I am done with it, I am just looking to give it away or toss it so that I don't have yet another thing to bring home. It was even kind of a pain when I lived at home because I just never felt comfortable trying to read in bed or sitting on the couch.

When I bought the Kindle I read through a couple of books really quick and I thought, well that is just the excitement of having a new device lying around and wanting to get the most out of it. As it turns out though, I have been using it a lot and actually reading more than I normally would have, which I think is a direct result of the Kindle. It is easier to hold than a book, it is more comfortable to hold than a book. Reading on the plane you don't have to figure out the best position to hold the book so as not to get into the personal space of other people. Reading in bed, you don't need to move around based on if you are reading an even or odd page.

There is a pretty good selection of books available and I am hopeful that it will just get better as time goes on.

Here is a list of books I have read since buying the Kindle:
1984
An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems
Bringing Down the House
The Bro Code (not really as funny as I had hoped)
Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less: A Handbook for Slashing Gas Prices and Solving Our Energy Crisis
How To Ruin The United States of America
Just How Stupid Are We?: Facing the Truth about the American Voter
The Federalist Papers
The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Yes, You Can Get a Financial Life
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA

The Zombie Survival Guide

I read this book in the first couple weeks after I got my Kindle and it was thoroughly entertaining. If you enjoy reading and could tolerate a couple hundred pages on a subject that really doesn't exist, then I recommend reading it. There are so many things that can be shared to those out there that are afraid of Zombies. For instance:

". . . a sever disadvantage to the undead. For example, every time we physically exert ourselves, we tear our muscles. With time, these muscles rebuild to a stronger state than before. A ghoul's muscle mass will remain damage, reducing its effectiveness every time it is used . . ."

Basically, the "Zombies" from 28 Days Later were not zombies at all. They were something else because they were able to run for extended periods of time. Zombies ultimately get slower and slower due to muscles damage from just normal exertion.

"Home-defense books are designed to counter a human adversary with human skills and human intelligence. Many of the tactics and strategies featured in these books, such as employing elaborate alarm systems, booby traps, and painful, but nonlethal devices such as mace canisters or nail heads in the carpet, would be useless against an undead intruder."

What you need to learn from this is that zombies are after what they are after and the won't be persuaded against it by injuring them.

Anyway, it was a really entertaining book. I have just finished another book, An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems, and am most of the way through Bringing Down the House. I have also been reading the Federalist Papers on and off to take a break from other reading.

A Month With a Kindle

I am a gadget person. I love having gadgety type things, but I also have to justify them. Even if I just rationalize them for myself, I will typically go out and buy the new gadget thing. When the Kindle was released, I looked at it and kind of blew it off because there was no way that I could rationalize it with the amount of reading that I was doing.

But then in February, I moved to Dubai. Since I have been here I have been reading a lot more than I was. On top of that, I am flying a lot and always take a book with me for the trip. Sometimes I would be carrying 800 page books and trying to read them in economy class and that got uncomfortable at times.

A friend of mine had bought one, because he is a bit more gadget loving than I am, and somehow justified it. He has only completed one book on the Kindle in about a year of use. But with the amount that I had been reading and the amount of time I spend in airports and planes and sitting in hotel rooms by myself, I still decided to buy one.

So far I am pleased with its performance. I am pleased with the type face and how easy on the eyes it is. The buttons are all in very comfortable places (less the next page button on the right side, I can't seem to not touch this one when I pick it up). I really like that I can highlight things and take notes as it is giving me some new post material that I can jump to in a flash by looking at "my clippings" which tells me everything that I have highlighted or noted on. The battery lasts forever, unless you mistakenly leave on the the wireless.

Now the bad part is that it runs on the Sprint network. When I was in Midland it did ok, but apparently if you are on the Sprint network, you can't make calls at the George Bush International Airport in Houston. In addition to a few books that I found for free and a few books that I downloaded, I also subscribed to the Denver Post. I wanted to download the last couple of days newspapers to read on the plane, but there is no signal there. I knew that once I got back to Dubai I would have to connect to the computer to download all of my content, but I was hoping that while I was in a major US city that I could use the wireless.

My feelings on it right now are that it is great. The Kindle makes it far more comfortable to read anywhere. It allows you to find a comfortable sitting position anywhere and stick with it because you don't have to adjust yourself depending on if you are on an even/odd page or based on how far through the book you are.

If you are a reader, I would suggest this.

Reading

I am reading a pretty good book right now that I would like to recommend for my friend Sara. The name of the book is The Zombie Survival Guide. Right now it is just explaining why zombies act like they do, and it explains all kinds of differences between the undead and like voodoo zombies. I think this might make Sara more comfortable watching zombie movies.

The book is written by Mel Brooks' son Max.