Sunday, July 5, 2009

Gadget fun - my rockin' Kindle 2

When one of my friends first started talking about an e-reader I thought, "No way would that be something I'm interested in.  I love books.  Who wants to read off a screen?"  And then she gave me a link the Amazon Kindle.  And I started to read the reviews and learn instead of dismissing it out of hand.

And now I'm in love with my Kindle 2!

I am a voracious reader and whip through books in a few hours. Our house is overflowing with books because I can't bear to get rid of them, no matter how bad they are or how many times I've read them. When I travel, I take a minimum of three books for a domestic flight and up to ten on an international jaunt...and I usually buy more along the way. I just can't stop myself and I'd be buying even more if I could afford it or had somewhere to stash them. I'm so bad about my book hoarding, my parents houses in the U.S. also have big collections of my books that I don't want to get rid of; I'm hopeless.

With the airlines cracking down on weight restrictions and charging ridiculous sums, I am always looking for a way to reduce what I carry. Books are a problem because they weigh so much and I take so many that they also eat up tons of room that should be used for other things. No more - my Kindle gave me back over 22" inches and at least 8 pounds of space.

But travel isn't the only time my Kindle gets used. Even I was surprised that I grab my Kindle almost every day - in my hammock, in bed, on the couch, in my bag when I go somewhere I might have to wait. Pretty much it comes everywhere now.

I love that there are tons of free and almost free books out there. The ebook community is awesome for finding deals and introducing new authors and books to try. A couple of my favourites are: The Kindle Boards forum, Books on the Knob blog and Mobileread forum. Books from virtually any author are available and they are way cheaper in the Kindle version than in paper versions - a very nice feature, indeed.

I won't stop buying paper books - just bought a new release two days ago, in fact - but more and more I'll be adding books to my Kindle so I can have my whole library ready in a wonderfully easy to read, lightweight, wafer-thin gadget.

And more room for camera gear (and shoes) is always a good thing!

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