January 20, 2012

Reflections on Kindle So Far

I recently finished my first full book on the Kindle Fire I got for Christmas. It wasn't as different from reading a paper book as I'd expected, but there were several parts of the experience that were odd enough worth mentioning.

1) The book I read was "Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman" by Robert Massie. It was excellent, as all the reviews suggested. It was also loooooooooong. I toted that puppy with me everywhere and it wasn't a bother. Toting a thick hardcover from the library would have been significantly more cumbersome and honestly would have discouraged me from reading in certain situations, like when I went to get an oil change.

2) Reading for more than an hour or so did hurt my eyes. I suspect this is because the Fire, unlike other Kindle models, is backlit. Do those of you with an E-ink screen find that your eyes hurt after an hour or so? Or is it comparable to print? I often read for stretches of two plus hours at a time and with print it has never been a problem.

3) I did not have a problem being immersed in the book for the most part. Flipping pages is easy (yay touch screen. I would feel very differently if I had to use buttons to navigate.) and mimicked "real" reading to the point that it grew to feel very natural to swipe. The smaller page size did mean I was flicking pages a lot more often, but it was a small price to pay for having a much much lighter version of the book. However, I did find that small things that you do unconsciously while reading a print book were impossible. For example, I apparently rub the page that I am about to turn. This was pointed out to me by my friend and roommate Emily in college. It is something I never noticed until she pointed it out--and then I realized I do it EVERY TIME. With ebooks, I soon realized I was drumming my fingers on the back of the device. Most likely far annoying for anyone around me than simple page rubbing. (Sorry everyone in the library staff lounge.) In addition, not knowing how far I was in the book was super annoying. Yes, you just tap the bottom of the page and a little bar comes up showing your progression and percentage of the book read. Guess what, I have to choose to do this! When reading in print, I can feel the heft in my hands and see, without even consciously thinking to check, how much of the book is left. No, I won't know an exact percentage, but a rough idea is all I need. This may have been the single most annoying thing.

4) I dropped it! AH! PANIC. Seriously, when you live with a small, fast animal and are kind of a slob/klutz, you're gonna drop things. Dropping an expensive piece of electronics is scary.

Okay, the number one thing I love about the Kindle Fire:

INSTANT ACCESS!!! Last weekend I was really really bored and having a bad day. I was lonely and whatnot, and sick of all the books I had to read. So what did I do? I went online, even though the library was closed, and got new books! This is by far my most favorite thing about it. I just loaded my Fire up with two new ones in anticipation of a few train rides this weekend. (The other result of my boredom/loneliness/panic attacks was a lingering idea of a day trip, which resulted in a last minute, very fast trip being planned for tomorrow. Yikes!)

I still feel odd about buying books on my Fire; I don't feel like I actually own them. I mean, technically I really don't own them and the evil Amazon empire can snatch them away (like it did with "1984" a few years ago...really? You had to magically erase copies of a book, and you chose to do it with "1984"??? Amazon, you asked for it with that one.) But as for borrowing books from Overdrive-- I'm into it!

2 comments:

  1. I go through phases with my Kindle. Sometimes it's all I want to read on & I go nuts with it. But other times, like right now, I want the physical book. And I've, for the first time in my life, fallen in love with the library. So I've got a pile of books from the library now & only touch my Kindle 2-3 times a week. I've got the older version of the regular guy & I don't have any eye straining issues... like I do now typing this on my laptop.

    I <3 your page rubbing. Miss it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. E-ink on the regular Kindle is so great. I love my Fire for all of its various abilities, but the e-ink would have been great.

    ReplyDelete