So last year I got a Kindle for Christmas. How do I like it so far? I like it fine, although I haven't used it to its full capability yet. I've read it in transit and at home, mostly, and here's my report on what I've discovered about those experiences. I'll also comment on what I've been reading on it and how that's worked out. I have not yet taken it on a long trip or used the Amazon store, but plan to do both those things -- not so much just because I can blog about them as that I see them as approaching the intended function.
The Kindle in Transit
Pros: Apart from the mass-market paperback, it would be hard to find a more compact way to carry more than one book with you. You can hold it open with one hand on the subway and hang on with the other. You don't lose your place, as often happens to me when I'm shuffling a book and a bag and trying to do 5 other things at once. And while commuting, the dull-gray "e-ink" screen makes a nice break from staring at a glowing screen all day.
Cons: First, on a plane, you have to turn it off during take-off and landing. Major disadvantage over the ol' paperback. The on-off switch is on the back, so if you have it in a case you have to half-slip it out in order to switch it off. It's easy to botch this maneuver. I also worry, just a little, about it being stolen if I pull it out late at night on the subway* -- less than with my iPod, more than with my dumbphone.
The Kindle at Home
Pros: it's lightweight and, again, you can hold it with one hand. You can read it hands-free (hard to do with paperback alone) while you make dinner or sew on a button.
Cons: When reading in bed you'll probably want the overhead light on -- a bedside lamp won't give you enough light for it since the screen is slightly darker than most paper pages would be. Clever folks have hacked it by attaching an LED light; if Amazon were smarter they would market a clip-over light with batteries like the ones for Game Boys in the '80s. I might be mistaken, but I don't think there's an automatic shutoff to save battery life. If you fall asleep while reading, you may wake up to a dead Kindle. Bummer. (Also, you can't read it while it's charging.)
The Kindle and Nonfiction
The reason I haven't bought any books for my Kindle yet is that, as I mentioned, the gift was a hand-me-down from my dad. Dad had some books loaded onto it already, and while not all of them piqued my interest, enough did that I decided not to switch the device over to my account right away. (If you really think I should read THE SNOWBALL: WARREN BUFFETT AND THE BUSINESS OF LIFE, though, I'd entertain the argument.)
By chance, one of the "legacy" books was one Dad had earlier given me in hardcover, Sheila Weller's GIRLS LIKE US: CAROLE KING, JONI MITCHELL, CARLY SIMON... AND THE JOURNEY OF A GENERATION.** I thought this would be an interesting test because I could switch back if I wanted to compare hardcover and Kindle, but I didn't had the urge. I would have thought nonfiction would not be a comfortable experience on the device, but so far it's been good. In fact, the Kindle may be more suited to a work intended to be read slowly than a page-turner, because of the paucity of text in each "location" (the derminant it uses instead of page numbers to label where you are at a given time). A few times I had to page back to remind myself of who a just-introduced person was, but that was relatively easy. I really appreciate it when the occasional endnote comes into play -- I can scroll up, click on it, and then hit "back" when I'm done to return to the text. It keeps your place in the endnote too, which would have come in handy when reading INFINITE JEST last summer.
As for the actual content of the book, it's an overlapping biography of three singers I didn't know much about and whose lives as depicted here have been very interesting. (Also, did you know that Mia Farrow and Sven Nykvist had an affair in the '70s? The mind reels.) The prose is a bit purply, especially when trying to connect events from the lives of these women to larger social currents -- the parallels are often evident without that last paragraph of "and women looked inside themselves to change the world" -- but the material was compelling enough that eventually that didn't bother me.
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* I was surprised to find myself defending New York City's relative safety when I was at home over Christmas, visiting with friends who live in smaller cities or my hometown. Maybe I shouldn't have been. What I really need to make this argument convincing is a comparison of urban street crime and suburban/rural/highway car accidents, because I suspect the latter is more common than the former.
** The other books he left on there I'd like to read (out of 7 books, tops) are T.J. English's HAVANA NOCTURNE, David Maraniss' ROME 1960 and Steve Martin's BORN STANDING UP. I assume once I switch the Kindle over to my account these will disappear, so I'll read them first.
5 days ago
3 comments:
Go figure. No one in Baltimore thinks that New York is unsafe.
When the Kindle first came out, I thought that it would be particularly handy for non-fiction. A lot of the non-fiction books that I buy, like Nixonland, The Longest Winter, the Robert Caro LBJ biographies, etc - are enormously long, and footnote-heavy, and the Kindle seemed like a good solution to both of those problems. I hadn't thought of the difficulty presented by the small selection size, but I think that just holding the Kindle would remind me that I'm reading a Kindle too much to allow me to lose myself in a suspenseful work of fiction . . . but I could be wrong about that.
I should add that I really enjoyed Born Standing Up, but then I'm a sucker for anything Steve Martin's ever done (except for the movies he's made since the mid-90's.)
Rome 1960 looks like the sort of interesting but self-important book that gives 'prestige' sports writing a bad name. But he's a good writer so maybe he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
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