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

How to Ruin the United States

I just finished reading this book and I have to say that many of the other reviews I have read on the internet are terribly unfair to Mr. Stein and Mr. DeMuth. They are accused of being overly critical of the democrats while praising republicans. I find it highly unlikely that these people read the entire book, as they very openly criticize the current administration about their spending, economic policies and specifically their lack of a strong military while engaging in conflicts around the world.

My favorite chapter was the last chapter that strongly defended the oil companies and mocked those who are in favor of a windfall tax on these companies by asking if we propose a rebate when they are unable to generate as much revenue as they are making now. They also explain a lot about the Oil and Gas market, enough that anyone could understand that oil companies do not set prices. They also made the point that the people that are profiting from the high Oil prices are teachers and retired government employees who are invested substantially in companies like Exxon-Mobil.

Read it if you are interested. Don't read it if you are looking for solutions to our problems. Stein and DeMuth lay out the problems very nicely as well as the facts, but offer no solutions to any of them.

Political Correctnessy

I am reading a book right now on politics and life and such, and while there is a lot from this book, and the previous book I read about Zombies that I plan to write about here, I have to share this one now:

This is on the topic of politically correct terminology and the evolution of phrases.

Illegal Aliens becomes,
Illegal Immigrants becomes,
Undocumented Workers becomes,
migrant Workers becomes,
Guest Workers becomes,
Imported low-Wage Earners becomes,
Temporary U.S. Citizens becomes,
MixAmeriCanadians which finally becomes,
BOB.

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.