Thoughts on Kindle, is it a worthwhile purchase?
by admin on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 | 6 Comments
I’ve done alot of research and read many reviews on the Kindle but would like to hear current pros and cons from real Kindle users. I know there are knock offs out there but I’m interested in the real Kindle.
Your comments would be appreciated.
My wife loves hers. It’s not given her one bit of trouble, but it doesn’t seem to hold its charge as advertised. Be sure to buy the wall charger and car charger, as it’s not always convenient to be near a computer for USB charging.
Disads: The money is only justified (to my penny-pinching mind!) if you read A LOT! You save about $2-3 per paperbacks and maybe $10 per hardcover. At $400 or so for the whole system (incl. accessories) that’s quite a few books (40 hardcovers or 150 paperbacks!). The urge to impulse buy is quite high, too.
Ads: It’s nice not to have stacks of books cluttering up the house (I can’t bear to throw them away and there aren’t any used bookstores that will buy them within 150 miles of us). We only have one book store in town that doesn’t always have anything we like, and we don’t have to wait 5 – 7 days for a book to come in the mail.
I have a relative whose work involves a lot of travel, and he finds it much easier to load the Kindle and take along plenty of reading material (and a current converter for the charger, I assume) than to travel with many books. He’s trying to convince his wife she’d enjoy one, because she reads away from home (the train or subway, coffee houses, etc.) and the Kindle is smaller than many books.
For me, a person who does nearly all her reading at home anyway, it doesn’t make much sense.
I would be hesitant, because bear in mind that just because you pay for a “book”, you don’t necessarily own it the way you would a novel. They can come in and take it whenever it so pleases them. Sure, it’s easier and more convenient, but it doesn’t have the same satisfaction of a book.
YES! I got a Kindle 2 and LOVE it… Here’s an article that tells you about what Kindle can do, plus (if I’m not mistaken) you can get discounts by going under resources, above the comments. I think they just did a price cut.
I own the Kindle 2 and I’m an avid reader too, so let me give you some of my opinions. I’ve to say I love it! I think I’ve read over 30 books with my Kindle, no glitches so far!
One of the reasons I love my Kindle is that it has helped me improve a lot on my efficiency and utilize my time. Before I have the Kindle, waiting time like when I’m waiting for friends or waiting for shuttle bus or some thing like that is simply wasted. Now I just need to bring the Kindle 2 along with me, and all my favorite books are inside it. Another thing I like the most is the text-to-speech function, which means I can “read” books without even holding or looking at the Kindle. Now I like to use this function when I’ve myself busy on some boring things, say when I’m on the step machine or doing some housework…
I like reading and at the beginning I did miss a bit on the feeling of reading books. But now I love to hold the Kindle, the e-ink seems to work very well, it is really like reading books… Now I often read with the Kindle for several hours but I don’t feel tired… And I now prefer to manage all books inside the Kindle rather than my never big enough bookshelf…
And just in case you don’t know, Kindle books, magazines and newspapers are cheaper than the actual paper version. Amazon also provides quite a lot free or very cheap books. I remember I read these reviews about the benefits of the Kindle when I decided to buy it:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Freview%2FR2DUM7S4XW06QN%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ASIN%3DB00154JDAI%26nodeID%3D%26ref%255F%3Dcm%255Fcr%255Fpr%255Fcmt&tag=moreinfo-po-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957
http://www.speedreaderxreview.com/is-kindle-2-worth-the-price
Finally, a good news for you that Amazon has just put a price slash on the Kindle 2, and it is now selling $100 cheaper than the price I got my Kindle… So take the chance if you want it.
Hope it helps
I love my Kindle 2 very much. If you are thinking of getting a Kindle, I’ll say get it and you won’t regret. Since Amazon provide books for the Kindle cheaper than actual books, it has saved me quite a lot of money. Right now I’ve read over 10 books with the Kindle, and I really like the idea that I can bring and store all the books with the handy device. Besides, it uses the e-ink technology, it is really clear like reading books; and even I read with the device for long hours, I don’t feel tired. My only complaint is the white case, right now all the Kindles are in white color… I think it will be cool if I can have a black or deep blue color Kindle
I suggest you to read this review from a top reviewer who is also a book lover, it outlines quite a lot of benefits of the Kindle and also why it is worth especially at the end of the review:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Freview%2FR9J54TZ1541OR%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ref%255F%3Dcm%255Fcr%255Frdp%255Fperm&tag=more_info-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957
BTW, there are some website like this one, where you can find more than 20,000 free books for the Kindle. So no need to go to library to borrow them, you can actually own them:
http://manybooks.net/
Hope this helps.