Oh Great and Powerful LJ Hive Mob! I seek your knowledge and wisdom!

[snowywolfowl]

Greetings LJ Hive Mob! I have a question for you!

I was just speaking to my mother and apparently my family is thinking of getting me a Kindle for my birthday. I'm thinking its a cool gift but I'd like to have your experiences, both good and bad, about it before telling family members to go ahead with their plan if its not going to be very effective or useful.

As an English Lit student my main reading usually includes (in pretty much this order):
    1 Novels
    2 Textbooks
    3 PDFs
    4 Other material (often non-fiction)

So, what do you think, Hive Mob? Is the Kindle the best thing since strained gruel or is it overhyped?

Brutal honesty appreciated. Thanks!

Comments

[anomilygrace.livejournal.com]

I LOVE my Kindle. Love, love, love it. My mom got me one for Christmas, and I'm hopelessly devoted. It's the best thing since sliced bread for me. I always have books with me AND if I run out, I can download more. I have Calibre set up to send me newspapers everyday, and like the pretentious git I am, I have electronic delivery of The Economist. Also I can jump online and check my email/facebook/google in a pinch. (I have the 3G edition and while I'd love it still just with wifi, I think 3G makes it that much better)

Freaking adore it. It is pretty bad at reading pdfs though unless you convert them first. The biggest thing I had to adjust to is how light is is. That freaked me out a bit for the first week or so, but it just seems normal now.

It will never replace books for me - I love having books on shelves and a nice library, but I've noticed that I've started to prefer reading on the Kindle solely for convenience sake.

[snowywolfowl.livejournal.com]

Thanks Anomily! That's good to know. Do you know offhand if there is there a way to convert PDF to a more readable format and if so does it help and make a difference in the reading experience?

[anomilygrace.livejournal.com]

Oh absolutely. I use a nifty-keen-awesome program called Calibre for all of my Kindle management. It'll convert pdfs to the azw or mobi formats with pretty good accuracy - sometimes not all the formatting comes across, but I've found if it's a well-made PDF, it generally converts just fine.

Also the excellence of the whole 'lack of back-lighting' issue is not to be overstated. I read a lot on my computer and use to on my phone and never really felt like I was straining to, but the LACK of eye strain on a Kindle is noticeable.

[snowywolfowl.livejournal.com]

I got to admit that a lack of eye strain is a really good thing. Not much point of trying to read something if the device makes you go blind.

Thanks for the tip about Calibre. I'll keep an eye open for it if I do end up getting the Kindle.

[anomilygrace.livejournal.com]

Definitely! Nice little piece of freeware with some pretty amazing capabilities.

[snowywolfowl.livejournal.com]

Even better. I <3 open source software.

[vitriolpoisoned.livejournal.com]

I <3 my Kindle with a blazing passion! I can't really help too much with most of your list, since I exclusively read novels on it, but for that, it's fabulous. (And if that's all it ever did, I'd still think it were a worthwhile investment) I love the highlighting/note taking ability. (It takes a little getting used to the keyboard, but being able to export highlighted portions and the notes makes up for it)

If you get one, I hope you love it even an tiny bit as much as I adore mine! :)

[snowywolfowl.livejournal.com]

Thanks Vit! Don't worry about not being able to answer every question...it's the ones you can answer that I'm interested in! :-)

So you can take notes and export them? Hmmm. That sounds pretty useful, actually. Thanks for the info. I didn't know Kindles could do that.

[padawansguide.livejournal.com]

My officemate has a kindle and totally loves it! I'm really tempted, though I already have an ipad with a kindle app on it. Though that isn't as light and easy to read on as the kindle. It also has great battery life. :-)

[snowywolfowl.livejournal.com]

Thanks Padawan! That's good to know about the battery life and weight, since if I get it it would be going to school pretty much every day. Also good to hear about the ipad reading experience.

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend looking at the e-readers available to you (I think B&N Nooks aren't available in CA?) and comparing them before you jump for a Kindle. Lots of people love Kindles, but there might be something out there that you like better or another type of device (an iPad or something like that) that would work better for what you want to do.

[snowywolfowl.livejournal.com]

That's a fantastic point and I am keeping it in mind. That said I think part of this "lets buy Dave a Kindle" mania that's sprung up is partly fueled by some type of file or book list sharing program that my sister wants to take advantage of. I'm fuzzy on the details of the whole thing and clearly need more research on all fronts.

I'll look over the other readers, definately. Are there any you particularly love or despise?

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

I don't have an e-reader, but I've been reading up on them, and most people seem to dislike them because they don't fit their preferences -- the screen is too bright or there's a bit of a glare on it or using it gives them eyestrain. I think it's one of those things that you need to try out on your own before you make a decision. It seems to me that Kindles are really great for casual/hobby reading, but they fall down a bit when it comes to more academic uses.

I also think sarahbellum bought one and returned it to use in grad school not too long ago. She didn't like it because it wasn't so great for reading articles and such, if I recall correctly, which does diminish its utility for her.

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

Oh, damn. That supposed to be sarahbellem. I hope. You know, Sarah from California!

[snowywolfowl.livejournal.com]

No problem, and thanks for the clarification...I don't think I've ever spoken to Defenestration but I've spoke to Sarah a few times. I'll drop her (Sarah) a line about that...it would be odd to do that to someone I don't think I've ever spoken to!

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

The BookFails community had a really good discussion on e-readers some months ago. A quick browse didn't help me find it, but it had a really high comment count (I want to say near or over 100).

http://community.livejournal.com/bookfails

[snowywolfowl.livejournal.com]

Oh nice! I'll have to hunt that discussion down. Thanks for the heads up.