Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Electronic Readers: Do You Have Yours Yet?


Electronic Readers are not new but the Kindle from Amazon is. It takes the ordinary electronic reader to a whole new level and possibly will reform the way we read books. That is according to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com. In an interview with Newsweek Magazine, Bezos was quoted as saying “The vision is that you should be able to get any book—not just any book in print, but any book that’s ever been in print—on Kindle, in less than a minute.”

I am not going to write a review on the Kindle, I want to send you over to Jon Morrow at onmoneymaking.com and read his informative and compelling post on this amazing product. I found Jon at Success from the Nest where he wrote a guest post about how not to become a "Home Based Hermit" .

Before I found out about the Kindle, I bought a Sony Reader and my main reason for purchasing this $300 gadget is to download all my e-books and have them available for reading at the click of a button. (There are cheaper readers but I don’t know the brand names and for a $100 more I could have had a Kindle) Printing e-books from my printer is out of the question since many of them are hundreds of pages in length. The Sony Reader measures 5 x 7 inches and has a leatherette cover which gives the feel of a real book more or less. Approximately 160 books can be downloaded to this compact electronic wonder. You can easily drop it in your purse or brief case.

Although reading by adults has declined from 62% to 57% in the past decade I hope that an electronic reader will be able to bring that number up.

Honestly I had not considered using an electronic reader until I went to a book signing event at my local library hosting John Schembra, author of M.P. A novel of Vietnam and Priscilla Royal, author of Wine of Violence, A Medieval Mystery. Both authors touted the benefits of a reader. Writers are quite often on the go and it is the portable ability of the reader that is attractive to busy people, like writers.

That’s all I needed. Now I feel that I can reap the benefits of all my e books rather than let them hang in the ether's of my computer.

Has anyone else had experience with electronic readers? Am I the last kid on the block to know about these? If you do indeed use an electronic reader, what is your evaluation?


Write it down,

Carma

4 comments:

  1. I've had a Rocket Reader for years and I quite enjoyed using it but the problem was getting material to read on it. It was fine if you wanted stuff that was in the public domain but little of what interested me was available online. You could save entire websites to read on the bus which was great but the process of getting them on the machine, although not exactly hard and comparable to loading up a portable media player, tended to put me off. I did used to load up my own novels and short stories to read on the way to work so I didn't stop every five minutes to edit them.

    I think the fact that Amazon has finally thrown their hat in the ring is a good thing and about time too. I'm not sure if their first effort is quite right, it's not the coolest-looking gadget I've ever seen, but that's cosmetics. Although a little heavy the Rocket Reader was comfortable to hold, especially the curved section that housed the batteries; that felt good in your hand.

    Bottom line: I'd buy a Kindle as long as they don't try and charge me £399 for it but I'll wait till the dust settles. Now the format is on the go who knows what other companies might produce a better product. Just look how the humble mobile phone has developed.

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  2. Hi Jim, you know, that is so true about the evolvement of technology. Everything is defunct as soon as it leaves the store. There will always be something better.

    Re: the Kindle, It is similar to a laptop in the fact that it can also serve as a portable computer. I think adaptability to it is a generational thing. For me that is.

    Kids (and that is anyone from 12 to 30) today live in a wireless society. I am just now getting used to the WWW on a hard wired computer. The knowledge is just overwhelming.

    I'll be happy leraning how to use all the features on my little (out of date)Sony, even if it is only a few months old.

    Great to hear from you again.

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  3. I know from nothing about electronic readers, but the folks over at EPIC are all over the topic.

    Also want to let you know that Reader Views now has a new service to get your book ready for KINDLE. You might want to go to their site to check it out. I've signed on for other services of theirs and been pleased.

    Janet
    www.riehlife.com

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  4. Thanks Janet for the tip. I dont' know EPIC but will check it out.

    I don't know electronic readers either but I am excited to try something new. All I need is TIME another infamous 4 letter word.

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