Product Review: The Amazon Kindle; the Ultimate Midlife Toy

Like many (all?) people in midlife, I have found myself with less and less opportunity to read books. I regularly read two newspapers and several magazines but over the past decade my book reading has gone to 2-3 a month to 2-3 a year. Sad. I've offset this in part by a subscription to Audible.com but I still miss reading books.

Then I got a Kindle--the ebook reader from Amazon as an early Christmas present for myself. If you don't know about Kindles, you soon will. They are paperback sized electronic devices created specially for reading electronic books. I was skeptical at first on whether or not I would adapt to the device and wondered if I would get over the loss of the feel of holding a book, magazine or newspaper. Surprisingly this was not an issue and I can now count myself amount the electronic book converts. Some of the features that helped make this transition include:

Sharp Display: I had initially worried that reading an electronic book would be like reading a book on a laptop and would lead to eye strain. The difference is that the Kindle's "electronic ink" is not backlit. In fact you can read it in direct sunlight without any glare the same way you can read a book or newspaper in the sun.

Long Battery Life: Despite near continuous use, I have been charging my Kindle just once a week.

Portability: I keep my Kindle with me at all times which means that I always have every unread book and magazine with me at all times. Even better is that the Kindle updates itself automatically over its own wireless network (no configuration necessary). This means that when I wake up in the morning my morning papers are already loaded up and ready to go. If I am driving I can use the "read-to-me" feature in which the book is read aloud while I drive. While I prefer reading over listening (notwithstanding my love of Audible.com's service), the read-to-me feature has been surprisingly useful in helping me work through my multi-year reading backlog.

Free Samples: Amazon has almost always offered sample pages on the books it sells but I never have wanted to take the time to read them online. With the Kindle I just download sections of every book that I am interested in reading and then read them at my leisure. When I find a book I like it is automatically downloaded to the Kindle. If I decide that I want to read a particular book I can do so right away. Even Amazon's overnight delivery now seems pokey when compared to the 60 second download time of the Kindle.

A book reader is only as good as the content that resides on it. Amazon reports having over 360,000 books available and with the torrent of current Kindle sales it is almost certain that this number will rise dramatically. There are also numerous magazines, newspapers and blogs available. In general the electronic versions are priced for less than their printed counterparts (not to mention the absence of shipping charges).

There are many other facets of electronic reading (bookmarking, automatic word look up, embedded links, to name a few) that improve the reading experience.

In short, I am very happy with my Kindle. Of course, I will still buy physical books but as it stands my default book reading will be on the Kindle.

Amazon Link to larger version: Kindle DX Wireless Reading Device (9.7" Display, U.S. Wireless, Latest Generation)