Rekindled (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My e-Reader)

[goldkin]

I had originally been saving this post for three ideas from now, once I'd had time to test a full week of Calibre. But with klitaka's post on the concept of e-readers and the trailing rebuttal, I couldn't resist letting this out early.

I too had been skeptical of dedicated reading hardware, happily confined to the small screen of my iPod Touch and Nokia N810. Then, Amazon decided to drop the price on the Kindle 2 to $189, with a sale in the $150 range (after acquiring Woot.com).

I bought in at the $189 mark. Despite missing the subsequent deal, it's been my best purchase in recent memory.


What surprised me was how easy the Kindle factored into my reading habits. It's very lightweight, easy for me to carry to and from work (and read over lunch), and has the nice benefit of looking quite bookish with the cover I purchased for it. I've also made liberal use of its WhisperNet functionality, which -- as someone who lacks a data plan more out of choice than need -- is a nice bonus.

It's more than that, though. Feedbooks and Calibre have been terrific boons to my reading schedule, happily converting information previously lost in the bowels of my Google Reader account to beautiful, serifed PMN Caecilia font -- serialized daily. The result has been a tenfold increase in reading speed and comprehension, due to my recognition time for serifed over non-serifed fonts.

It's also allowed me to reclaim my time while driving, simply by plugging the device into my car audio, flipping on audiobook text-to-speech functionality, and listening to passages from Mort while making my daily commute. Or, if I'm feeling especially tired that day, adding audio to my experience, thereby helping me remember what was written.

And as an added bonus, the Kindle 2's generic appearance has saved me from having to justify my reading habits to complete strangers. More and more, this is leading me to purchase and read books in public that I would not have otherwise -- including passages of Sythyry's Vacation and several books on fictionally-rooted draconity and spirituality that I'd skipped entirely. I overlooked these through college, for fear of assumptions made by my less literate peers.


All this, and I agree with most of klitaka's points. I particularly agree with those on DRM and the object nature of a book, including a comment made in a previous post:

[T]he fewer books that are made, the more important those physical things become and the more power these objects lend to the ideas inside them.


Basically, I don't take my success with the Kindle as a strike against the physical nature of books. Rather, I find the best use of this device as a sampling mechanism for new reading (via WhisperNet and the Kindle Store), and to add a sense of permanence to media that otherwise would have none.

And with my newfound ability to carry my daily book, feeds, and reference material from place to place -- including what was originally taboo -- the experience has been strikingly positive.

--
Outtakes for this post include studies on reading speeds between physical books and e-readers and my thoughts on the Kindle's newspaper delivery service. I'll have to talk about these at length sometime.

In brief, while the Kindle improves my reading speed over digital media, it *doesn't* improve my speed over reading a physical book (the speed of text refresh and pagination make it slightly slower). The fact my Kindle is more accessible to me improves my reading diet significantly, however.

Likewise, the Seattle Times is definitely worth the delivery fee of under $10 per month. This surprises me, as I'm effectively buying into a paywall, paying the cover price and associated bandwidth fees. The survival of print media would be a great topic for a future post.

Also, a hat tip goes out to kistaro, whose evangelizing on xir own Kindle helped clarify the benefits of purchasing my own.

Comments

[sythyry]

(1) I just got a Kindle myself, and am quite delighted with it for various of the saem reasons.

(2) I am honored to be on yours!

[goldkin]

In previous response, I am pleased to approximately-meet you too, now on a somewhat more daily schedule!

[The reflective display truly does help in reading your daily posts. As far as my source goes, I'm quite happy to share.

As a secondary interest, the Kindle's text-to-speech software is quite compatible with your journal, as highlighted by "Investment Advice of Eitharheinen [19 Lage 4385]". The narrator does indeed pronounce the names, terms, and -- most humorously of all -- “Grackle grackle grargle grackle!” in perfect measure, much to the amusement of friends and I.]

[klitaka.livejournal.com]

Basically, I don't take my success with the Kindle as a strike against the physical nature of books. Rather, I find the best use of this device as a sampling mechanism for new reading (via WhisperNet and the Kindle Store), and to add a sense of permanence to media that otherwise would have none.

I do think a Kindle has object-ness. I also think that books and e-readers can exist side-by-side.

I'm still of limited means at the moment (or maybe I am stuck in the mindset), but judging from most peoples' opinions of Kindles (the reports are as glowing as those from iPhone owners), I think that might be my next big purchase.

Or I probably could ask for such a device for the anniversary of my birth (an event I forget about frequently, which could be bad, as I need to renew my driver's license).

[klitaka.livejournal.com]

Then again, I would state the case for print in an ever more digital world because I'm a graphic designer (it's a bit softer about the titles: I ca be a designer while I'm still going to school to learn more stuff about design — but life's a learning process too, and I have to start somewhere, so why not now?), and don't want the hours spent battling printers, money spent at print shops, and stacks of proofs to have been in vain.

But that's also why I work digitally, why some things are never printed, and why I know CSS for web design.

[goldkin]

I think the easiest summary is, the most "bookish" experience will win out in this niche.

The Kindle is very different from the iPad, as noted -- the latter of which seems better suited to your needs as a graphic designer. Though, if you intend to do any actual drawing with the thing, I'd recommend investing in a sausage.