This is one of those gadgets that I’ve been coveting for a long time, but am too frugal to buy for myself. On Christmas Eve I saw a link to a giveaway for an Amazon Kindle at Rich Christian, Poor Christian. I decided to enter, and on Christmas Day, I found out I had won! I should be receiving my Kindle in the next couple of weeks.
By the way, if you have never checked out the Rich Christian, Poor Christian blog, you should. The blog is new to me, but I like what I’ve seen so far. So my contest entry was a double win. I won a Kindle, and I found a great blog to follow!
Why I’ve Been Wanting a Kindle
I love the idea of a Kindle. If you have ever been to my house, you know why. I have two bookshelves in the entryway…both full. There are two bookshelves in the dining room…both full. And we have a bookshelf in our bedroom…full. Plus at the moment, there’s a stack of books on my bedroom floor that I moved to make way for Christmas decorations. I love books.
A Kindle Cuts Down Clutter. With a Kindle, you can store up to 1500 books with no book clutter! I know I’m geeky, but I’m thrilled with the idea of having a library that big at my fingertips!
A Kindle is a Great Travel Companion. Over the last year I’ve done a fair amount of traveling. I love to pack reading material, but I never know what I’m going to be in the mood to read. A Kindle allows you to pack a ton of books, without wasting precious carryon space. And if you need a new book while you’re waiting in the airport, you can just order one up on Amazon and get it before you board the plane!
I actually used the Kindle iPhone app a lot while traveling this year, but the iPhone screen is way too small for my aging eyes. I think I’m going to enjoy the bigger Kindle screen.
A Kindle Allows You to Adjust the Font Size. Like I said in the paragraph above, my eyes are getting older. I had to get my first pair of reading glasses this year. I like the idea that I can adjust the font size on my Kindle to make reading easier. You can’t do that with a regular book.
A Kindle Saves Paper. I’m not extremely green or anything, but I do like to be a good steward of the earth God has given us. Books use a lot of paper. A Kindle doesn’t.
Why I Haven’t Bought a Kindle
I know you’re wondering why I haven’t bought a Kindle before now, if I’m in love with the idea so much. Well, there are a few drawbacks to a Kindle.
You Can’t Borrow E-Books From the Library (unless you have a very hip library). I love to use the library. I have a stack of borrowed books sitting on my table right now, in fact. Yes, there are free books for the Kindle, mostly classics that are now in the public domain. But you can’t read the latest releases on the Kindle, unless you buy them. And I’m a pretty frugal person, so you can see how this doesn’t sit really well with me.
I Like the Smell of Traditional Books. Call me weird, but I love walking into a bookstore, because of the smell. There’s nothing like a brand new, freshly opened book. I’m sure a Kindle won’t give me that fresh book smell.
I Like Seeing How Much I’ve Read. When I pick up a traditional book with a bookmark marking my place, I can see how much of the book I’ve read and how much I have left. If the Kindle is anything like the iPhone app, it’s hard to gauge how much I’ve read.
I Like Sharing My Books. Have you ever heard a friend mention a book she’d like to read and realize that you own the book? And then the natural thing to do is to say, “Oh, I have that book! Would you like to borrow it?” That doesn’t work really well on a Kindle. You’d have to let your friend borrow your Kindle, which would pretty much involve letting her borrow your whole library.
That’s the gist of my feelings about the Kindle. Yes, I’m thrilled I won, and I’m looking forward to holding that Kindle in my hot little hands. And I know I’m going to enjoy it a lot. A LOT!!! Just ask my brother, who was on the phone with me when I read the email that I had won. I think I screamed!
But if I had not won, I wouldn’t rush out to buy one. There are just too many cons to justify the expense right now, especially for a frugal person like me.
What do you think of the Kindle and other electronic book readers? Are they worth the expense? If you have one, have you used it a lot?
Photo by CarbonNYC.
{ 30 comments }
It’s interesting that you used the word covet in the first sentence.
That’s just wonderful! Congrats to you and I hope you enjoy every little bit of it. I would love one as well but I do love the feel books and they are way out of my budget. Enjoy!
Happy Day!
No interest. There are very few books I am willing to pay for, to be honest. I own a few cookbooks that I use regularly, a few food preservation books that I use regularly, a few craft books that I refer to often for stitch patterns, and a couple of breastfeeding and nutrition reference books. I also own a few statistics / epidemiology books directly related to my profession that I refer to on occasion because that info is not readily available on the internet. In all, I own about 30 books. Everything else, I can get for free at the library or borrow from a friend.
I have been seriously considering one of these for my husband – he drives truck and listens to audiobooks pretty frequently. They are actually becoming a rarity in our area due to the devices such as a Kindle. I was only able to find one audiobook at a used book store and no new ones at all at the local Walden’s. I did find one at Walmart…
With the cost of a new audiobook versus what one pays for a download to a Kindle I figure we can get our money back for the Kindle fairly quickly.
So you’re the one who stole my kindle! :) Seriously though – congrats on your new gadget! Should be fun to play with and you can’t go wrong winning something and getting it for free!
I have considered buying a Kindle, but right now, it is not in our budget. Like you, I enjoy the feel of a book in my hands, and I also love the smell of a bookstore. I rarely loan books now, because I have loaned so many that have not been returned. Congratulations! Let us know how it is to use the Kindle.
Congratulations on the Kindle! I enjoy reading your blog. I feel the same way about reading real books that I can hold in my hand, but I also like the idea of the Kindle and its portability. However, I don’t like having to pay for every book I read. As a former library director, let me recommend the Sony eBook reader. With this reader, you CAN download ebooks for free from libraries which have collections. Our system (Clevnet) has loads of them available. They “check out” for 3 weeks just like regular books and “disappear” after the date due. With the Sony you can also enjoy free books from the Google “library.” It’s a solution for getting free books AND using an eBook reader. Enjoy the Kindle! One more thing, my Sony eBook reader has a lighted screen and can be read in the dark, too, another nice bonus.
That’s really cool! I’m interested to see how libraries will respond to reading devices like the Kindle and the Sony eBook reader. I live in a small area, so not surprisingly, there are no options to check out e-books yet.
Congrats!
Opinion on e-readers: I like holding my books – and holding my library books is free – I don’t have to charge the paper – and there is less eye strain with paper.
The Kindle uses a technology that is similar to reading from paper. It is much more gentle on the eyes than a computer screen. I love mine and I still use the library too.
I’m no good at returning library books, so I end up with a late fee every time. We also have a very small library so new books are rarely available. These two things considered, I got a Kindle for Christmas. I have already purchased and read I, Alex Cross which is currently only out in hardcover, costing almost 30 dollars. I paid 10 for it and my mom is reading it right now. To me, it’s worth the five dollars a book it’s really going to cost, because my mom owns a kindle too so we share her Amazon account to order books and take turn ordering them. It works out nicely.
Congrats! I have been wanting an Amazon Kindle for a long time and finally broke down and purchased one yesterday. I had been given Christmas money and told to “spend it on something I wanted for myself, but that wouldn’t be something I would normally purchase.” The Kindle definitely fit in this category! I love that every month there are new books that Amazon offers for free. I’ve already downloaded a ton of these since I have the Kindle for iPhone app, but the screen is a little too small on the iphone to read for an extended amount of time! Anyway…enough of my ramblings! Congrats!!!
I am impatiently awaiting my Nook from Barnes and Noble. It should be here tomorrow. It was a b-day present from my hubby who knows how much I love to read. As we are both military and move every few years, it will be nice to not have to get rid of so many books. We try to keep our collection culled because we only get so much weight to move.
I chose the Nook over the Kindle because, it allows you to lend a book to a friend with a reader, ipod, iphone, PC or Mac for up to 14 days. It has expandable memory thanks to an SD card so you can store up to 17,000 books on it. You can get free public domain books (just like the kindle). You can also get free books while in a brick and mortar BN (which I hope to live near in about 6 months). It has wifi as well as 3G capability.
I completely understand…
I like real books and have several bookshelves full also – and I am at the library a couple times a week to borrow others, or order them up thru the library online.
Even if I had a kindle, I would be too cheap to download anything I had to pay for :) And I go along with the rest of your reasons also. And there is ALWAYS room in my carryon for two books :) Priorities!
About audio books scarcity – try your local library – that’s where I get mine – and there are a lot of free downloadable audio books thru the library also.
Now that’s one thing we do have…audiobooks. I’ve already used that service extensively!
Bible Money Matters said what I was going to say, since both of us entered the giveaway, but congratulations to you! I’ve also been wanting a Kindle for quite awhile now, but like you, I’m not willing to pay the price of one.
I know that many more books are being added to those that will work with a Kindle, but even that is not enough for me to spend the money right now, since we’re doing everything necessary to get out of debt once and for all. Perhaps once we’ve accomplished our financial goals of being debt-free, then maybe I’ll look at buying a Kindle – depending on how much it costs at the time. Congratulations! I’ll try to be Christian and not be jealous. ;)
Congratulations. Yahoo for you. I, on the other hand, barely understand what a Kindle is. I have many books and a library so I am sittin purdy.
Enjoy every book you read.
Thank you for telling me about this site…….it is a good one and I am all over it.
Well I don’t think it’s worth the expense for me, or for you as you’ve already decided LOL, but for free? Fabulous! In fact I have downloaded kindle for iphone [which was a gift from last christmas I find I love more than I expected to by far!] as well as kindle for pc – and all those free classic books are mine for the taking, and reading, at will. How wonderful!
But I would never be any more comfortable buying books for my kindle than I would be buying books just to read them – we too have zillions on our shelves but mostly use the library – at this point a book must have serious re-reading potential to warrant a purchase point above a couple days late fees at the library!
I too prefer to read a real book, but for free I’d be screaming in my brother’s ear too!
Congratulations! I have to admit I can see both the positives and negatives you’ve listed for e-book readers. We also love books. My husband has boxes and boxes of books he’s loved, and loves sharing them with our boys as they grow. Though we often use the library now, there are a few books we have that we still use often — remodeling books and cook books mostly. Then there are those special books by authors we just LOVE. They do take up a LOT of room! I can see a place for ebooks, mostly for one-time reads. We’re not ready to take the plunge though, due to the initial price. When we do, our City library has ebooks available.
Antiques… I have books over 100 years old…. what are the odds one will still be able to read or use for research a kindle book in 100 years?
Way to go, Lynnae!! I’d be screaming in my brother’s ear, too, for winning ANYTHING! Congratulations to you!
Way to go!!!! I am trying very hard not to be jealous. haha
Enjoy!
Congrats on winning the Kindle !
I’ve used one for several months, and I carry it just about everywhere I go. The Kindle is really good – especially for reference material.
There’s no way I would physically carry the TNIV, KJV, Spanish Bible, or the Koine Greek NT, in addition to the works of Josephus, Cicero, Tacitus, Suetonius, Herodotus, Tolstoy, Homer and others. The Kindle enables me to carry a lot of books and have them available whenever I want them.
Having said that, I have not entirely left paper books. I enjoy checking out good novels from the public library.
JP
Yay you! That’s awesome! I wanted to win one for hubby!
I think he would get tons of use out of it.
Congrats!
I realize its not the same thing as a stand alone Kindle..but there is a free version of the Kindle you can download to your computer. I did just that a few weeks ago.
I really don’t want a Kindle. I have a problem with paying that much money, only to pay more. Granted, they’re cheaper than regular books. Then again, you can sell or donate regular books. Once you’ve bought the book on Kindle, I imagine that’s not an option.
Personally, I just prefer to use the library. (Both Phoenix and Seattle libraries have e-books, though it’s not as portable as a Kindle.) I rarely buy books, so the utility of the device is somewhat moot.
And if it makes you feel any better, I am totally with you on the smell of books. Secondhand bookstores tend to smell better to me than regular ones, though, because (for whatever reason) used books have a more powerful scent when housed together.
My sister got one for Christmas and I was very jealous, but I do enjoy borrowing from the library to save money. Congrats!
I splurged this year and bought an iPod touch. My favorite and most used feature is the Kindle app. I absolutely love it.
One tip for finding free books on Amazon is to go to the Kindle books section and click on the top sellers list. You will find a lot of their free books on there. Of course a lot are classics but I also found a few “first in series” books for free (in the SciFi/fantasy genres which I tend to read the most). Helped me discover a few new authors.
Have FUN! It’s an addicting toy!!!
Congrats! I love my Kindle but beware: it is delicate. I wouldn’t recommend travelling with it.
I adore my Kindle! And don’t worry, it does show you your reading progress. Along the bottom of the screen, there is a bar that shows how much of the book you have read, and it gives you the percent of how much you’ve read. Also, it automatically bookmarks where you leave off on any book. You are right, they are AMAZING travel companions! Just get a sturdy case — Kelley is right that they are quite delicate (especially the new ones — I just got a new one but I had the older version, and it was a lot thicker/sturdier).
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