Book Lovers Should Love Ereaders - Right?
I'm a voracious reader. Maybe you know one too? Maybe you think that the best gift you could buy for the book lover in your life is a Kindle? Maybe a Wifi or 3G or even a brand new Kindle Fire? Do think again (at least about the Wifi or 3G - the Kindle Fire might be okay, but you'll need to read on to find out why...)
My husband had the same bright idea of buying me a Kindle Wifi since I am so obviously a book lover, but he couldn't have been more wrong with this gift! Having noted that my head is often engrossed in a book my dear husband logically thought that an e-book reader would create whoops of joy, smiles and happiness all round - yet it has only made me feel guilty, and him disappointed.
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Amazon Price: $69.00
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The Story of My Kindle Wifi
This (very) short story begins with a man armed with an idea, his credit card, and a laptop. Off he went to Amazon to buy me a Kindle - the most perfect gift that I could ever have, he thought. Having wrapped it lovingly it was presented it to me on the morning of our anniversary.
Unwrapping the gift was exciting and even seeing what was inside was exciting....for a while. I'd never seen an ereader in real life, never held one in my hands, never touched the cold hard plastic of such a device.
Seeing that I had a smile on my face a look of satisfaction crossed his face. Happy that he had indeed bought the ideal gift for a book lover such as myself, he left me to play with my new toy....and that's when the "fun" began.
My Kindle Wifi is Just Plain Ugly
Playing, Setting Up & Navigating Was OK
Turning the Kindle around in my hands, my initial reaction was that it felt odd, strange in some way I couldn't put my finger on. However, I continued with an open mind and spent some time getting used to the navigation system (which is pretty much like the same as an old style mobile phone), and it was surprisingly intuitive. Very, very easy - I'm sure even the technologically challenged would soon be zipping their way around the device without any problems.
I set up my Kindle Wifi (which was easy to do BTW, since we have an internet wifi connection at home), and after connecting to my Amazon account I downloaded my first "book". Sitting down to read from my new device I quickly got used to using the buttons that turn the "pages" and even quite liked the fact that there was no licking of fingers involved. All well and good, but I still couldn't shake the oddness of holding this thing in my hands. It just didn't feel right.
Then My Kindle Wifi Became Very Annoying...
Not only was I simply missing the feel of a real book in my hands, it's lack of "real book" functionality started to really irk me. Why oh why do people love these Kindle things so much?
Cross Referencing. No Go.
The first thing that annoyed me about my Kindle Wifi was that flipping back and forth to find specific pages is not quick or easy. The e-book I'd happened to buy was a reference book related to my work. I wanted to go back and re-read something which would be easy peasy with a real paper book. Not so with the Kindle - it took me ages to find the right page and by the time I had found it, I'd forgotten what I wanted it for. No easy cross referencing here!
Where Are My Images?
I don't know if this was simply a formatting error on the part of the author of my Kindle book, but it kept referencing various figures (images) in the text but - they were nowhere to be found! This got me quite irate since the images were integral to what I was trying to learn. Urrgh. Novels don't need images, but reference books often do so I definitely will not be downloading that type of book onto my Kindle again.
No Sharing Allowed On My Kindle (Unless I Pay for it)
One of the great joys for me is sharing books. I share with friends and family the wonderful and not so wonderful books that I've read and there's a real thrill when two of you both absolutely love a book and can spend hours talking about it. It's something those book lovers in my immediate circle all enjoy and it's something we treasure. Sadly, if I want to share books I have to pay for Amazon Prime and even then I'm only allowed to "borrow" one book a month, making for a very lonely book reading experience.
And if You Must Buy a Kindle...Buy a Kindle Fire
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Amazon Price: $159.00
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If I can't sway you from buying your beloved book lover the gift of a Kindle then at least buy them the Kindle Fire. For one it has a color screen. Unlike the Kindle I have, images can be displayed which means that when my book says take a look a figure 8, I can actually see figure 8!
Choosing this option means if they don't like using the device for reading ebooks, they can still use it to browse the internet, check email, play games and anything else that a tablet computer can do.
If it Don't Feel Like a Book or Smell Like a Book it's Not a Book!
I tried to like my Kindle, I really did but I missed the smell of a book, the weight of a book, the tactile nature of a book's pages. I wanted my images and I wanted to share. Unfortunately my Kindle just couldn't provide. Give me a real book any day!
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