(not one of my better photos)
I love it!
I’m great attached to books. I love the feel of the pages, the weight in my hand, the smell of them, the pleasingly large stacks they make which shout to the world “THIS PERSON IS A READER”
But oh I love my Kindle too.
It’s just like reading a book, without the weight or the page turning. Its so much like reading a book I sometimes find myself reaching for the upper right corner of it to turn the page. I have it in a cover which makes holding it just like holding a large sized paperback.
I currently have 7 Kindle books & have finished 3 of them so its seen some use in the past two weeks.
I love the samples you can download. I have about 24 samples currently & eventually will buy most of them.
But maybe not for the Kindle.
Right now I am way too cheap to buy books for it unless I was already planning to buy them new and that is maybe 10% of my reading.
A new paperback is $6.99 or $7.99. Most of the Kindle versions are $6.99. Hardbacks are $15-24 and the Kindle versions are $9.99-$14.99 due to publishers insisting on Amazon changing the pricing
Here’s the thing.
I can get a used paperback for $1.25 or less on half.com and a used hardback for anywhere from $2 to $7 and even after you figure in shipping, it’s still cheaper to buy the used book.
When it is one of my favorite authors like Lindsey Davis or Janet Evanovich & I am planning on buying the new hardback as soon as it hits the shelves, a Kindle version makes sense. But if it is a new to me paperback cozy mystery series that is 5 books long I’m going to half.com.
And the publisher & author don’t get a cent when I do that. Sooner or later I’m hoping the publishers realize they are competing against the used book market as well as the new book market and rearrange their pricing.
I gave up on expecting instant gratification of anything in my life when we moved out here to the boonies but I’d gladly pay that $4 I was going to give to half.com to Amazon in exchange for having the book as close to instantly as anything is here. But I’m not willing to give them $7 for it.
The reason not even the Kindle gives me instant gratification is their whispernet coverage is spotty where I live.
I know!
Who’d’ve guessed that? right?
I have to go outside & sit on the high point of the retaining wall & wait a few minutes for the connection which is fine when the weather is nice but was uncomfortable on those 104 degree days recently and I can’t imagine what it would be like with 20 inches of snow on the ground like in Feb or during a thunderstorm.
But as I mentioned previously – I no longer expect things instantly. If I can’t download a book for a day because of driving rain, well, there are certainly plenty of other things I can read in the house in the meantime.
However! 10 days after I got my Kindle Amazon released a new model with wifi! You can get it with whispernet & wifi or just with wifi ($50 cheaper) and since I cannot recall an occasion in the past 18 months where I was without wifi, apart from the river, nor can I imagine any situation in the future where I would be, apart from the river & cannot imagine why I would be at the river and suddenly HAVE to download a book, I’m exchanging my Kindle for a wifi only version (and buying $50 worth of Kindle books).
I have to return the Kindle by Aug 20 to be within their 30 day return policy and they don’t start shipping the new model until Aug 27 so I will be Kindle-less for over a week.
I don’t know how I am going to read.
I’ll have to turn pages!
