I have now read five entire books on the Kindle—The Other, Anna Karenina, SuperCapitalism, My Sister’s Keeper, and Complications—a mix of short fiction, long (OK, very long) fiction, and nonfiction. I read at the beach, in bed, and everywhere else. It’s a wonderful tool. I loved being in the middle of nowhere and being able to read a little Adam Smith alongside Anna Karenina. I loved having a mini-library with me. And I really like using the device. For a first generation product, it’s a home run. My only challenge was the ability to dip in here and there. Having skimmed a chapter of SuperCapitalism, I wanted to go back to it. With a book I would have just picked it up. I found myself resisting on the Kindle. So for linear reading, it’s phenomenal.
Then I find out about this. I want one just to see it work. It’s beautiful. Its impact on my productivity is probably small. But I want one anyway just to admire it. So cool. I’m going to resist for now but isn’t it a wonderful achievement?
The next twenty years are going to be so amazing.
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Wow. Just, wow. If I had more than one semester left and that didn't cost quite so much, I would definitely get it. Maybe later, after the price drops a bit. Technology is getting amazing!
I have a similar device and, well, it's not as good as it's prepped up to be. The hand-writing recognition software is not really that good (and I have a terrible hand-writing to be honest..), and you end up wasting too much time correcting your notes…
I'm glad to hear the Kindle is worthwhile. How did you find the features for highlighting and bookmarking certain passages? I want a kindle solely for the ability of creating a database from stored passages I read and thought important, would would anyone recommend the kindle for something like that.
On the downside, I cannot impress my friends when they come over and see an empty bookshelf. The Kindle will force me to spend more money as I would have the e book as well as the hardcover!
Brian – why would you buy the hardcover?
Hmm… with a year to go, and then grad school (Pete Boettke, call me!) this could be handy.
I have to confess something that's been happening more frequently lately. I would say I'm a pretty tech savvy guy, I used to repair computers for Gateway. But occasionally now I check Woot.com, and they will have some technology product and I don't really understand exactly what it does. It sort of seems like an SNL joke commercial.
This pen… I didn't really get it, until I watched the video. Now I feel like I only slightly get it. These guys could use something like the 30 minute iPhone demo.
BTW, just got the 3G iPhone. It does walk on water.
I've been meaning to take the Kindle plunge but have hesitated because of the non-linear reading problem you mention.
I have another question- when I read (some) non-fiction, I like to be able to quickly skim through certain sections. How is skimming on the Kindle- is it significantly slower than hard copies?
I'll probably wouldn't get through Anna Karenina if Amazon could feed it to me intravenously, but something like the Kindle is definitely progress.
Like Mathieu, I'm more skeptical about the pen, and since I'm moving at the moment, I can testify to the post-gadgetal depression of seeing the many electronic toys I've accumulated and little used over the years all piled in a corner. I even have two earlier attempts at inventing the ebook, once sponsored in part by Barnes and Noble. That's how progress happens though. It's a lot like natural selection.
The Kindle seems to be succeeding where previous attempts failed, and I hope it does. My stack of dead tree books in the corner is higher still, even without a copy of Anna Karenina.
I'm very happy you liked the Kindle experience. I've read literally hundreds of books on my Windows Mobile smartphone. Now that I have an iPhone, I'm evaluating Stanza and eReader and still waiting for my favorite, MobiPocket. The more people like the Kindle and others, the more publishers will see the value of publishing ebook versions. When I can get "The Price of Everything" on my iPhone, I'll buy it!
As soon as the pen comes out for mac…
I love your enthusiasm and optimism about the future. It is very encouraging. Now, do you see a Kindle version of _The Price of Everything_ any time soon? (It appears that, wonderful though it is, you can't read your own book on the Kindle.)
The Kindle will force me to spend more money as I would have the e book as well as the hardcover!
Market opportunity! Bookshelf paper that displays book spines/titles.
I guess this is worth it for someone that buys books new, but I buy most of my books used. I wonder how long before you'll be able to "rip" your real books to it, I think that would give it a huge advantage. That or if you could buy a real book and get a code for it on Kindle.
I just can't see the value in it as it currently stands. If I could do as David suggested it'd go a long way towards giving it real value.
If I could read any book on it with an e-version if I already owned a copy of the book, and if I could loan the e-book to others. If I could copy and paste sections into notes (maybe it can do this?) as well as bookmarking and highlighting and searching the collection.
Oh, and if I actually OWNED the e-book, and knew that they couldn't do something horrible to me later, like cut off the service and have me lose the books I'd bought. Or impact my collection remotely. If I knew they didn't keep track of my reading, etc.
But frankly, most of the books I read are old books anyway, and probably half of them are available on google books.
It tends to hurt the value of a device like this.