I chose to download and read David Gilmour's memoir The Film Club. It's a wonderful book about time the author spent with his wayward teenage son watching and discussing movies. Aside from great movie trivia, and great ideas of what to watch - Gilmour was a Canadian film critic for years - it's an an extremely moving story.
Here's my report on the Kindle:
Pluses
- The Kindle is cool, lightweight, compact (10.3 ounces, 7.5 x 5 inches)
- Electronic paper/ink gives incredible contrast - no eye strain
- Wireless - it downloaded The Film Club in less than a minute
- Fully searchable
- Incredible battery life - only needed to charge it once
- Over 120,000 book choices that Amazon has digitized, along with blogs, newspapers, etc.
- 3 gig storage holds up to 200 books
- Book prices are only around $9-$10
- Displays graphics
- Can use it on the treadmill easily - no need to hold it and turn pages
- Adjustable font size for tired old eyes
- Has a dictionary and rudimentary web look-up features
- There are already a number of support blogs, etc. online
- Cost - pricey at $400
- Can't "borrow" books - have to buy novels, etc., which I usually don't buy
- Navigation can be a bit tricky (menu-driven, but wording can be confusing - no obvious Help choice)
- Navigation buttons (previous page, next page) are too large and poorly placed - I hit these inadvertently many times which took me from the page I was reading
Questions
- Can it display color?
- Can one download from sites like Project Gutenberg?
Overall Recommendation
This is by far the best e-book reader I've seen (I've tested some of the early readers), and the best marketed. I would certainly buy one given a few major changes: lower the price; fix the navigation buttons; and allow library check out of books so everything doesn't need to be purchased. But then again, I might buy one anyway. It's pretty cool.
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