A couple of weeks ago I found myself at Powell’s Books on a Saturday morning after being awake all night cheering India to victory in the 2011 Cricket World Cup. While at Powell’s I found the books that brought me there, but also decided on the spot to get a Kindle and to order the books on that. I’d been thinking of getting a Kindle for over a year and I had a feeling that it was the right time. That night I placed the order for it. It was at my door when I returned from work on Monday. The door had kindly signed for it.
I had seen the latest Kindle model in person before so I knew what to expect in terms of look and feel. As I spent large chunks of time reading on it I realized how comfortable my eyes were and how much paper-like the screen was. I can never read for more than about an hour or so on the iPad, even at minimum brightness. The Kindle, on the other hand, is a complete joy to read on. I feel that the magic of the Kindle is that one forgets that it’s an electronic device.
One feature of the Kindle that I didn’t know about before was that it can highlight popular text snippets, i.e text that has been highlighted by a number of people while they read the same book on their own devices. It is very interesting to see what others find worthy of highlighting. Of course, one wonders how much affect the highlighted text has on new readers, many of whom perhaps highlight the same text, thus perpetuating the importance of that text. I wonder if authors and/or publishers seek these snippet out as they create new editions or entirely new content.
It’s only been a couple of weeks but I’ve already read a bunch on the Kindle and look forward to a lot more.