by Thomas Howard Elliot

Created on: March 20, 2010

The thought of an eBook reader did not appeal to me.   I have always been of the "old school" opinion that books should be printed on paper and read by candle light.  Or at least printed on paper.  I would never have purchased an Amazon Kindle.  Someone purchased one for me however, and I decided to give it a try. 

My first task was to register it to my Amazon account, which was quite easy and an ingenious way to connect it to the market place, instead of having to create another account and give out more information. Once that was done, I began browsing the free library, which holds quite a few classic titles.  I started with a couple Sir Arthur Conan Doyle titles, both Sherlock Holmes.  After a few minutes I had half a dozen titles, including Dracula, Frankenstein, and others.  The built in Wi-Fi and 3G made this download process fast and simple, not needing to connect cords. 

I began reading and found the navigation to be quite intuitive.  It's certainly easier to push a “next” button than to fumble with pages.  The home menu lists the collection of books you have downloaded to your device, and you can easily view what you have to read.  In book options are much improved over previous E-Readers as well.  You can bookmark the page you are on, and the reader will automatically open to that page when you open that file again.  If you don't close out the book, the reader will open to that spot anyway though.  A very nice feature if you are someone who, like me, reads several titles at once.

A built in “note” and “highlight” option lets you mark up your E Book just like a paper version, without the colors of course.  This is a  nice option for students of any discipline, professional or hobbyist alike.  There also is a built in dictionary function which lets you look up the meaning of a word within the text, for those with a less than verbose vernacular.

The battery life of the device is quite impressive, thanks in part to the screens design, and simple functionality.  I was able to read an entire book (Return of Sherlock Holmes) on one charge.  The reader's sleek design is thin and light, making for an ergonomic device that wont fatigue you while you read. 

Another bonus to the eBook is that most titles are cheaper than their conventional counterparts, with new releases usually commanding 9.99, and many older titles are less than that.  There is also a large collection of free books, mostly old books whose copyrights have lapsed and are now free domain.  Amazon has made shopping for titles easy as well, with their one click purchases, and powerful search engine. 

Over all I was pleasantly surprised by the ease of use, functionality and design of the Amazon Kindle (Version 2) and am glad that someone made the connection between me and new technology, because if they hadn't I would never have done so myself.  Now, I would gladly recommend this item to anyone interested in being able to carry a library full of books with ease to anywhere they are going.

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