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

[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.