The Kindle Has Arrived at My House

My family gave me a Kindle for Fathers' Day.  All the nice things you have heard about e-ink and how readable it is are absolutely true. A Kindle is still not a book, though. There is no nice paper smell and you don't get the feel of the pages in your hand. It also comes without the cover art, if that is important to you.

My Kindle is one of the wi-fi only ones, which is fine, I don't need to download books while driving down the interstate. It's probably illegal in several states anyway. The Kindle has a primitive web browser and I have gotten to Gmail with it but have not succeeded in opening any email as of yet. It is really an awkward device to use for web browsing anyway, with it's tiny screen, black and white display and hard to use little qwerty keyboard. There is no mouse or track pad, just a "five way" navigation button.

The Kindle Store is always at your fingertips, with a lot of books, some magazines and a list of blogs, written for kindle users only and for which you have to pay a subscription. Why would I want to pay to read a blog? There are also some apps for the Kindle, mostly games, but I've seen a calendar program, a couple of calculators and a few note taking programs. Maybe someone who is really good  at text messaging would find those apps useful. I'm all thumbs when I try to write something on it.

I am not sure if every new book I might want will be available on my Kindle any time soon, either. Many old ones are. If a book is in the public domain I am sure I can get it for free. Books more than a year or so old are much cheaper than the current list, as well. All the other e-readers use a format which is available through library websites. You can't borrow an e-book from the library for your kindle, though. I'm told this will change some time this fall. I can hardly wait!