Last week, after a couple of months of using my hubby’s Kindle and the constant “where’s MY kindle?!” bursts, we decided I should get one too. After all, with books starting at $0.99, who can resist? Some books are even free…the complete works of Shakespeare, Dracula by Bram Stoker, Jungle Book from Kipling and many of my favorite fairy tales. Selected newspapers are delivered to your Kindle everyday and magazines like Times and Newsweek…all at a much discounted price from the print version and-and-and for those monitoring my ‘green’ actions…its paper-less! So of course I’m excited doubly so because I can begin to tackle the problem of buying books, reading it and shelving it which is mounting up to several shelves….and forgetting to bring it with me when I’m traveling or out and about leading to the purchase of another book. (I love reading several books at one time, which is a problem, I either forget to bring the books along with me or I misplaced it!)
Yep this is Good News. So, I started my order on Amazon. Since we already have one hanging around in the house, thought it would be a good idea to buy the white option. Yeah, I just like to be different. DOOING….’this product is not available in your current address’. With great disappointment I clicked the ‘Graphite’. No problem, I just have to buy skins or covers, y’know, so it doesn’t look the same as His. DOOOING….cool covers that complement the Kindle is NOT available my current address, neither are the cool skins which will transform my plain grey Kindle into a painted canvas. So, there you go, I’m stuck with ‘Graphite’, even the creators thought calling it grey, which is what it really is…is boring. Within the week, my Kindle arrived, plain Jane grey but loaded with my pre-downloaded books and magazines.
Am I happy with it?…oh YES. Battery was charged about a week ago, didn’t need any more even with constant tinkling. Its said to last a month. Page turning is seemless and fast. Its 3G and wifi so my magazines are updated and delivered weekly with a whisper.
Annotations and notes: I can place annotations and share it to the Kindle world. I can share it to the Facebook and Twitter world as well. It doesn’t have colours, or touch pads but I tell you what, Bindy, my 2-year old’s been using it too (or rather stole it from me) and its survived her TLC. Since its 3G, it has an internet browser option so I can read my emails, it plays MP3 and reads to me if I’m lazy (or audio books) and it can hold 3000 books. I have about 16 books now. Some of which comes free like 2 amazing dictionaries.
In the dark: I don’t have a problem with the fact that its not back lit so you can read it in the dark…so what…I usually fall asleep before I could finish the 2nd paragraph. So, pooh that.
Expensive? Hell no! Especially if you think about what its costing you in buying prints. The cost of purchasing the kindle = $189, kindle books so far = $35. If I were to buy the print versions of the books and magazine that I Kindled it would have cost more then $100 already because I subscribed to 2 magazines, downloaded several ‘free’ books (that are royalty free cos its copy write has expired ages ago and since its not printed, there is no cost, each of these books would have cost me RM15/A$5 if I were to have bought them) and bought novels at $5 Kindle price ($35 paperback). Its already paid itself back really.
Oh btw, if you already have an iPad or a Galaxie, you can read Kindle books on it. Just a little note, this one is a lot cheaper! I’ll bring this around with me to every where…like i do with my tiny cheapy Canon Powershot.
So, I didn’t get exactly what I wanted and I had to use a ‘special’ Australia Amazon Kindle site to purchase it which made me feel a little ‘prejudiced’ but in the end…it did exactly what I needed it to do….keep my library of books in one slim mama of a device.
And since I can send my stuff over to my device because it gives me a special k-mail i.e. kindle address, I now have my favorite recipes in it too ready to keep me from going bored in the kitchen! Of course I could also have connected it to my pc with a usb but heck, kmail is much cooler! LOL
Oh one other thing about Kindle-ing down other and not in the UK or USA….I can’t Kindle my blogs. If I were living in the UK or US..this blog would have been Kindle’d and you could opt to get it uploaded automatically to your Kindle device. Neat huh? But, I’m way down under. So I’ll have to settle to some of the idiosyncracies of being down under… 
A happy baby
Mr. Gobbles, a kiddie book on Kindle
The Kindle takes the 'TLC' of a 2 year old
We share a Kindle
