Since I'm citing Wings Over Iraq today, I want to echo one of Starbuck's other recent topics: the Amazon Kindle 2. If you like to read--especially if you're a military servicemember who spends the majority of the year living out of a suitcase or dufflebag--you need to buy one. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say the Kindle 2 has changed my life.
When I was flying C-17s the hardest part about packing for deployments was deciding what books to bring. I would spend hours piling up the books I wanted, sorting through them, agonizing over which to bring and which to leave behind. I would cram every pocket with books, toss more in my flight bag, even store one or two in my helmet bag. Once I was on the road, I would scour libraries and BX's at each base for good books. A couple years ago I flew an out-and-back from Kyrgyzstan to Kuwait, and made the mistake of buying Stephen King's masterful The Gunslinger at the BX there. It was the first of seven volumes. I devoured it in a day, and spent the rest of the deployment hunting down the remaining books. Every time I flew to a new base--even if it was just for a few hours--I would run to the BX while other crewmembers fueled the jet, hunting for the next volume.
As a devout reader who loves the texture and feel of a good book in his hands, I swore I would never use e-books. I was issued an old e-reader at Squadron Officer School and hated it. Then my dad bought a Kindle 1 and loved it. When I visited the Kindle website, I noticed something curious. The people raving about Kindles weren't gadget geeks. They were writers like Neil Gaiman and Toni Morrison, librarians, and literature professors. They were people who loved reading.
I preordered a Kindle 2 and received it on release day. Since then, my reading habits have changed forever. In most cases, I actually prefer reading on the Kindle over paper books. The reading experience is superb--Kindle users consistently say the device disappears in your hands. You get lost in the book and forget you're reading electronically. The screen quality is fantastic; you have to see it to believe it. I can read it for hours without eyestrain. It reads perfectly well in direct sunlight. Because there are no pages, a book always lies open--you can read with one hand or set the device on your lap. Because I have a small son I'm always playing with, this is a huge help; I can set the Kindle beside me and read while we play. You can also adjust the text size. I always wanted to read while exercising, but there was too much jostling on a treadmill or elliptical, and it was too hard to turn pages. With the Kindle, I can increase the font size and set it on the console in front of me. The device is thin and light and easy to pack around. It carries a library of around 1500 books and the battery life is excellent; I recharge my Kindle every 2 or 3 weeks.
The best feature is the availability of books, especially now that I'm living in Jordan. In the States you can order books directly from the device in a matter of minutes. Internationally you can visit Amazon.com, buy a book with one click, then download it to your computer and transfer it with a USB cable. I buy a book every few days here and it's delivered instantaneously; no waiting for boxes to ship. A huge selection is available. I'd estimate that 80% of the books I want are available for it.
It's important to know that the Kindle is designed for just one purpose: reading books. This isn't a laptop computer, a music player, or a web browser, although it does have some experimental features. If you expect an iPhone, you'll be disappointed; if you want a device for reading books, you'll love it. The Kindle is also best for books you read straight through and that don't have lots of graphs, figures, or footnotes. If you need to do a lot of underlining and notetaking or need to flip from section to section, a good old-fashioned book is probably best.
If you want more insight on how Kindles do in the deployed environment, read Starbuck's thoughts here and here.
1 comments:
I love my Kindle 2. One of the great things about it I've found is the ability to highlight and add notes because all this data is stored in a .txt file which makes it easy for research. Plus the ability to search through all books is very nifty.
One thing I wish I would have known before I bought it...they are very fragile. If you drop it the screen may not visibly break it won't work. I found out the hard way from a "minor" fall and because I didn't buy the extended warranty I had to shell out another $200 to have it replaced.
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