Kindle Review – the first 24 hours

I received my Kindle over the weekend and I thought I would share my first impressions over the last 24 hours.  I’m currently reading Must Love Hellhounds via the Kindle and I have to say I am loving it.  Jesse was right, it is really nice to have.

The one thing that was turning me off of ereaders was the idea that curling up with a machine wouldn’t be the same as a book.  Quite honestly, I have to say I was right.  The two are totally different experiences, but not necessarily bad, just different.  With a book, you have to keep a hand on it otherwise it’ll close and you need two hands to turn the page.  With the Kindle, it lays flat regardless of how I’m sitting and it’s just a push of a button to turn the page. I’m still able to curl up with either.

Speaking of turning pages, I haven’t timed it or anything, but turning a page in the Kindle seems to take just as much time as turning a page in a printed book.  I haven’t really noticed any differences in that aspect.

One thing I am really liking is how easy it is to keep my page.  With a book, you have to be careful how you put it down otherwise the book might close or a page could be flipped – either way resulting in losing your page.  With the Kindle, it remembers where I was at and takes me right back there whenever I turn it on.  I especially like this detail around Ian.  I don’t have to worry about losing my page if I have to jump up quickly or he needs my attention – I know my page is saved.  That’s not always true with a book.

I do have a cover for my Kindle and I found a feature for it that I hadn’t thought of.  The material on the inside is skidproof.  Well, as skidproof as one can get.  It’s soft so it protects the screen on the Kindle, yet I can also flip the cover behind the Kindle, set it on my lap and it won’t move.  I had my legs crossed last night and had it resting on my knee and it didn’t slide or anything.  I was able to use both of my hands and still continue to read without worrying about the book sliding.  That’s not something I’ve been able to do with a book, at east not without a table and a hardcover.

Now, this isn’t to say that I haven’t found anything I dislike, because I have.  One thing that kind of annoyed me is the wireless connection to the Kindle Store.  I was able to get to the store and order a new book, but as it was “purchasing” The Summoning and downloading it to my Kindle, it kind of froze up.  I’m not sure how long it took since I set it aside and did something else while it did its thing, but I think it was the message that got to me.  As it was downloading (or doing whatever it has to), there was a message that said I could continue browsing the store or go back to the home page and read a book, and yet I couldn’t.  I only bought the book to see what the process was like, but the fact that I had to find something else for a few minutes bugged me.  Again, that’s more due to the message than anything.  If they hadn’t said that, then it probably wouldn’t have bothered me since it’s obvious its going to be busy downloading something – it is still a machine afterall.

The only other thing I’m still holding out on is the books.  I’m reading Must Love Hellhounds and I don’t know if it is the Kindle version or I just had high expectations for Charlaine Harris, but I’m not feeling the story.  The story just seems disjointed in places and I’m wondering if that’s due to the translating of the book to digital or if that’s actually the way the story reads.  The only way I’m going to figure that out though is to read the print edition as well, so that is what I’m going to do.  I’ll be doing a double review for Must Love Hellhounds all within one post – comment from the Kindle version, wait a week or two, and then read the print edition and see if my comments still match up.  It’ll be a little longer than normal, but I’m hoping it will also help others who are debating going digital or not.

Speaking of reviews, there is one aspect of the Kindle that I can’t wait to explore.  There’s a feature where you can add notes to certain parts of the book, or even highlight different sections, and then go back and read those notes later.  Having notes might be a great advantage to have when I’m writing my reviews.  I’m not really one to take notes while reading, but that’s mainly because I don’t want to have a paper and pen next to me while I read.  It’s not always possible either.  However, with this feature, I’ll be able to quickly add any thoughts I had to a section and continue reading without losing too much (I think).  Again, I’m just now starting to play with this, so we’ll see if it works or not.

Okay, now I just seem like I’m rambling.  I meant for this to be a quick post, but it obviously didn’t end that way.