UPDATE: 9/15/09: I have my Kindle 2!!!! It arrived yesterday and I love it so far!!! My first book downloaded was the free “The Legends of King Arthur” by Sir James Knowles. My first *purchase* was Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol” – yay!!! So excited – doing the happy dance! :)
I’ve been thinking about getting an e-reader for awhile now. I love reading. It’s been one of my favorite past times since I was a kid. When I was about 12, my best friend’s Mom loved me because she was a voracious reader and saw it in me too. So she gave me tons of classics to read. Both of her kids weren’t readers so she sort of adopted me. And I discovered reading War and Peace at the age of 12 is not as common as I thought.
And I’ve been reading ever since. I always seem to have a crazy busy schedule but definitely need to find “me” time to read. In the summer I love to read out in the sun for a couple hours on the weekends. In the winter I love to curl up in my chair in front of the fireplace when the snow is coming down in Tahoe.
I love having nice books fill up my bookshelves. I would love a whole room in my house dedicated as a library with built-in bookshelves and the ladder you roll across to get up to the highest shelves. Darker wood than in “Atonement” but that was a great library (great book, great movie, great actors, GREAT dress!) :)
At the same time, not all of the books I read need to be kept on my bookshelves. I keep all of my leather bound classics there. My Greek and Roman mythology is there. All of my Arthurian tales. My Ayn Rand, my philosophy books, books about wolves & nature are there. My Siberian Husky training books have a spot (they are…ahem…dusty.) My husband’s Porsche and surfing books occupy the bottom shelf :) But I don’t need to keep my James Patterson, Janet Evanovich or Candace Bushnell books up. I do love to read them but I usually pass them on to others or trade them in at a used bookstore. The Twilight series…well..yes, I believe those will go up too :)
So I thought an e-reader would be great for books like this. Silly to waste the trees on me. But I have put it off so far because:
a. They are all fairly pricey
b. Something newer and “better” comes out a month later
c. I have 3 stacks of real-life bound books on my nightstand calling my name each night.
d. What I *really* want is a reader with a color screen that has comic book downloading/reading ability
And yet…I go to the Amazon homepage every day to see if they have lowered the Kindle 2 price. With the Kindle DX out, Sony’s readers shipping 8/26 (2 of them priced at or lower than the current K2 price point of $299), Barnes and Noble releasing their e-reader soon AND school starting any day now (isn’t that a reason to lower prices on everything!!) I keep hoping I might just open the AMZN home page one morning and see it for $249 (or less!) Wishing and hoping and thinking and praying….come on Jeff…
BUT…I am now reading about the other e-readers and am thoroughly confuzzled as to what I should buy. There are actually a few of them available (I had no clue) but I am only considering the Kindle, Sony or BKS ones as I want it to be seamless and easy with the e-bookstore associated with it. My take on these 3:
Kindle 2:
a. I love AMZN. And I am an extremely brand loyal girl if I like you.
b. Wireless purchasing. I will use this feature. I hate having to sync my iPod and iPhone with my home computer so having another gadget I’d have to sync is NOT what I’m looking for. BUT – is it worth the extra $100 compared to Sony’s Pocket Reader? Hmmm….
c. iPhone app. The idea that I can read a few pages while sitting at the vet, or getting my oil changed or waiting for my husband somewhere sounds awesome. B&N has a nifty app too though. Not sure about Sony. The touch screen function of turning pages is very nice..Kindle 2 does not offer this.
d. The screen/glare. I do a lot of my summertime reading outdoors so I need to know I can read the screen with NO glare. None. I tested a friend’s DX in the sun and it was perfect. From what I’ve read online, this is not entirely true of Sony’s (although this applies to the touch screen ones only & not the Pocket Reader.) This is actually one of the larger decision-making factors for me.
e. Built-in dictionary. I refuse to go past words I don’t understand so I need a dictionary handy. Kindle has it built-in. Sony Pocket reader does not. B&N has a downloadable Merriam-Webster dictionary for free for the iPhone app. Not sure on their planned Plastic Logic e-reader. Another large factor.
f. Can hold up to 1500 books. The DX can hold 3500 but by the time I read the 1500, my color one capable of comic book reading should be out for me to purchase :) The Sony holds 350.
g. Large e-book selection. And let’s be real, even if B&N’s offering is larger when their e-reader comes out – I feel AMZN will catch up quickly. Every new book that gets published for e-reading will go to all 3 (or whoever lives.)
h. It’s Whisper-Sync operates on Sprint. But this is built in to your reader cost. No monthly subscription fees. I believe the larger Sony reader coming out will be on AT&T but with a monthly fee. The Pocket Reader has no wireless at all. Not sure about the new B&N one.
i. CON – is kinda ugly…(ummm..why is that AMZN?)
Sony:
a. It’s CUTE! And I can get a pink one :)
b. Much sleeker and prettier design over all – even in basic black or silver (but yes I’d get pink.) Metal (not plastic) and still very light – under 8oz! Kindle 2 is 10.2 oz.
c. I assume Sony will make a great product and I base this on past performance overall. I wouldn’t buy a brand I didn’t know for this reason but trust Sony to be fine.
d. Did I mention it’s cute and comes in pink?
e. They have a full-ish bookstore. And thumbs up for giving Star Wars and Star Trek their own categories but I think they will have to make a deal to have access to either Amazon or B&N eventually. A Sony bookstore just isn’t their market (much like hardware isn’t your market AMZN…..AHEM….)
Barnes & Noble:
a. You can download the iPhone e-Reader app and read books you buy online right away. I tested out their iPhone app with a sample book. Pretty nifty. With AMZN you have to own the Kindle for the iPhone app to work with it/your e-books account. Clearly this was so you had to buy their Kindle hardware and not just use your iPhone for their content. But AMZN is all about content sales anyway so this seemed like a silly road to take IMO…
b. Really no solid reason I can see I’d choose this one over the first 2 other than the larger store content which I feel is a non-issue. Now if it comes out quickly, is less expensive than the Kindle 2 but as feature-filled and yet cuter than the Sony….but good luck with that…
I have blogged about my desire for the Kindle before: https://a99kitten.com/?p=877 and I’m still sure that I don’t want the Apple $600-$800 one with a monthly subscription, but thanks for asking…unless someone was going to donate it to me that is ;-)
At the end of the day – I will buy 1 of these 3 soon to use and love until someone comes out with the color screen version that will offer comic book and graphic novel reading. And if I can subscribe to my comic titles with it – I will buy it as soon as it comes out and sell my KindleSonyBarnes e-reader on eBay faster than you can say “Wonder Twin Power Activate”…
