Hi y'all. I just have to tell you about the new gadget I have. I'm an avid reader and long ago ran out of shelf space and we're now running out of floor space to store my books (I have a hard time parting with any of them!) So 2 months ago, Amazon.com came out with an electronic book reader. My fantastic partner actually listened to me and bought me one for Christmas. It's been sold out and backlogged since it was first introduced Nov 19. My Kindle finally arrived yesterday, and I am thrilled. I could go on and on about this new gadget, but will just say that I never thought I would enjoy reading a book in electronic form. It's pricey, but when I think about all the trees and paper it will save, plus the cost of best-sellers is low, I can justify the price. It holds about 200 books, is about the size of a paperback and weighs a lot less. A memory card can be added for more storage, plus Amazon will store your purchases for you. You can annotate, highlight, write comments (like I do in the margins of my books) bookmark pages. (There is also a web site to download free books in Kindle format as well as other formats - manybooks.net if you want to check it out.)

Sorry if I'm gushing here, but the Kindle is fantastic. If you want to know more, you can check it out on Amazon.com, and I'm not getting any money for recommending it!! LOL

School is going well so far and I'm actually ahead on my assignments. I'm checking in here every day, but haven't posted until now 'cause I haven't had time. But I had to let y'all now about the Kindle and how fantastic I think it is. And to let y'all know I'm thinking about you even if I'm not saying so; and offering up prayers and thanksgivings for those who ask (and for those who don't, too!)

Miss you guys!

Yonuh,
I just watched the video on this. It looks cool. Is Amazon the only way you can buy this? I was wondering if it is in stores, like Costco? Maybe it will be. It is pricey, but the initial cost doesn't concen me as much as the cost of books and magazines and how you pay for them. they must go on a credit card. I'm assuming you need an amazon account of some kind. But it says most books are $9.99 or less. I don't often pay that much for a book, especially a paperback. I buy paperbacks at Costco for under $5 most of the time. Sometimes I buy them at Wal-mart's cheap as well. It certainly looks like something I might like though. I do love gadgets.

My stepdaughter really wants one of these, but they're not available in Canada yet. I think they're only available through Amazon.com, because they use an Amazon-specific wireless network connection - I think the price of that network access is incorporated into the price of the books, so maybe that's why they're more expensive.

Sounds intesting, but I do love my books. Of course, I'm running out of room too. I don't want to end up with another toy that I don't use much. I have so many already. I love my digital picture frame. I also have a digital picture book, but I hardly ever bother with it.

I'm sure each and every household will have at least one or two of these electronic books within the next ten years. Jeez, I wonder if there are stocks you can buy on them? I also wonder what this will do to our beautiful local book stores. The city I live near is a book city. I think every third store is a book store. That's why I do try to buy my books at the stores and not over amazon. I don't want those quaint little dusty stores to fold.
I wish this gadget was never invented,...but who knows, maybe I too will be an owner some day.

How do these gadgets replicate that irresistable feel and smell of a book, especially the familiar smell of an old book that has been sitting on family shelves for decades and lifetimes? I do like holding an old book in my hands, and would miss the smell...hmmm, this reminds me of scenes from Star Trek, where Kirk would be seen caressing, with great respect and awe, an old earth book that he had bought on the space version of the black market (along with the old reading glasses Bones found somewhere in San Francisco on one of their time-traveling trips).

I think it's sort of like photo albums. All this digital stuff is great and I love looking at the pictures online and making little albums to share, etc., but it is also so nice to hold an old family album and slowly turn the pages and look at pictures. I'm sure we can mix the Kindle with the books the same way we do digital pictures with albums. I donate some of the books I'm done with, or I go to a used bookstore where I turn them in for credit toward more books. Good point, Hannelore. I'd miss bookstores. I too like the old ones more than the new B&N & Borders type even though you can buy a cup of coffee or a sandwich and sit down and read. What will happen to the libraries we have left?

I don't think the Kindle, or any other ebook reader, is going to put bookstores or libraries out of business any time soon. I thought long and hard before requesting this as a gift, and I did lots of research. The reviews were mostly good. My main reasons for wanting this gadget were lack of space, not wanting to use more trees and paper, and the ability to carry more than one book at a time when we take a trip. I can buy the classics for as little as 49cents, or even get them for free. I can also buy textbooks for a fraction of the cost I would pay for a physical book. Bestsellers are $9.99; other books not on the bestseller list are a lot less than that. And there are other books that I would want that cost less than I can buy them for at the used book store (I checked.) The Kindle will never replace books for me, but I can carry a whole library in my hand. How cool is that?

Books don't have to be purchased at Amazon, although the Kindle is an Amazon product. There is software available, for free, that will convert other ebooks to something the Kindle can read. And I'm sure there are other sites that already have, or soon will have, books available. I know Manybooks.net has books from the Gutenberg Project already available for download for the Kindle, all of them free.

Also, for you authors out there, Amazon has a link for publishers and authors who might consider making their books available to Kindle owners.

Yonuh, thanks for telling us about your experience. I'd seen this and was curious. I have a feeling this is the way of the future. Id love to know some statistics on the ages of people buying it. You are do progressive. I'm wondering if the majority of buyers are younger. Just thinking that perhaps they haven't been holding, smelling, and marking up books as long as boomer shave so they might not think twice. They are also more comfortable with technology than some boomers.

I read an article that referred to it as an Ipod for books. How cool is that? I love the idea, but don't know that I'm ready for it yet. I continue to buy more book shelves.

Oh, I, too, would miss my books! You can't beat a book for it's feel, smell, and touch! I'll have to hold out!
dancer

I think it sounds very interesting though.

No one should buy an electronic book because he or she thinks they may save forests. There are more than sufficient forest plantations on this planet.
I just googled this, and learned that the US has the largest area of productive forest plantations in the world, many of which exist solely from the paper industry.
Needless to say this industry would suffer immensely, causing thousands and thousands of people to loose their jobs world wide. I can understand the other reasons to buy an electronic book, but not to save the forests.

Just wanted to share another view point.

I, too, wanted one of these for Christmas. I actually don't like having books around the house (ouch, those gasps of shock can be heard all the way over here!) once I have read them.

Keep posting, because I am sure that I will purchase one soon. Enjoy your digital reading.

OMGosh, I want one too!!! Hubby wants me to stop
killing trees LOL!

Cindy

What I don't like is buying something like that online and not in a store where I can go talk to someone and be in their faces if something goes wrong or I don't understand something.

NO-THANK-YOU. Period. After being on the computer all day with work, the last thing I want to do is sit at a screen and read. It has nothing to do with how great the product might be, just that I do not want to sit at a screen and read. Actually, I don't think I would want to do that even if I didn't work all day on a computer. Like Dotsie said, there is something about holding a book in my hands that says to my mind, I am part of the story. I am the character...or I am in the scene. Something personal. Does that make sense? Not to mention I want to have it accessible to me for references, immediately. What if the "system" OR memory card went bad? The book is behind me in the library. No thanks...

Not only that, can you imagine how much LESS an author is going to make if they have to compete with this? Its hard enough making a living as it is...

Thank you for your post, Hannelore. I collect books and you are correct, of course.
Also, paper is recycleable.

dancer9

It sounds like it has a place in things... easily packable for a trip. Packing books (heavy) can subject them to getting ruined. Ruining a book is like hurting an animal, to me. I've had some really serious heartaches over books that have taken a glass of liquid, or have had the spine broken... not to mention loaning them out and getting them back with highlighting...umph.