On Christmas day, 75% of our family was connected to the great bookstore in the sky…Amazon.com. Emily and the kids each got kindles for Christmas. I think we were all pretty skeptical when we first started thinking about this evil magic but Emily’s mom and my mom each got kindles and they seemed to like them. The kids begged to read on theirs each time we saw them so we thought it might be worth a try.
Emily opened hers on Christmas morning and sort of gave a scowl…much like when I gave her a frying pan for Valentine’s day. Rats…I blew it again. Still, she turned it on and started reading the book that I had bought and installed. She came out of hiding a day and a half later! Maybe a kindle was better than a frying pan! Isaac did the exact same thing so I knew his gift was a hit too!
Before Abigail had a chance to even turn hers on, I commandeered it and downloaded a bunch of books and hid from her while I read. She finally tracked me down and insisted that I return her kindle so she could use her Christmas present.
Dang kids who read…well, I had to order my own. Yesterday I received my kindle from the kind UPS driver and moved all of my stuff to it. Of course, I had to take all of my stuff off of Abigail’s kindle. She finally got it back right before bed last night. Was that mean? I think it will make her appreciate being able to use her Christmas present even more today!
Well, we do read a lot and I guess you could say we are 100% kindle enabled finally. Thank you great bookstore in the sky. Thank you for giving us cheaper books at the touch of a button. But please great bookstore, please make it just a little harder to buy a book…we are becoming addicted and the credit card on file doesn’t seem to know how to say stop!
There’s something about me that wants to hold a real book. Do you miss that?
Couple questions about your new toy:
1. Once you buy a book, is it in there forever?
2. Can you preview a book (first chapter) without buying it?
3. What if you get 1/3 of the way done and discover you don’t like it? I’m guessing it’s just like with a real book–you’re out of luck.
I wish I could get my kids to read for enjoyment. Forced reading in school has killed that love they once had.
Ceecee – we got covers for the kindles (I recommend the lighted ones) so it still feels like a book. The nice thing is that we do not have to read into the crease, etc.
Once you buy a book, Amazon does keep a record. It stays on your kindle as long as you want. If you need room, you can delete and it is still in your account so you can re-download (no additional cost since you already bought it) again. You can preview books…I am not sure how much the let you download but it’s a good bit. And if you don’t like the book, you are out of luck. I love the thing. I especially like that I can make the print larger as I get more tired so it doesn’t hurt my eyes!
Technology is great right??? But I worry about the prospect of not being able to affordably buy a real book in the future. Look what happened to the post office after email. I like the idea of digital books and heaven knows my wife would love to see my library of books disappear. But a lot of my books are oversized photo histories and the idea of loosing those great photos to mico-sized pixilated thumbnails worries me. Also I wonder what will happen when it comes time to upgrade to the next level…will my library transfer or will I loose out. For example music went from record to 4-track to 8 track then cassette tapes finally to cd’s in a relatively short time leaving me with a huge unuseable collection of each in the new digital music world.
Also it could be expensive when I need to level a table or sofa up using a bunch of kindles.
I haven’t been able to do it. I just love real books so much. The smell. The cover. The collection ability. I read 81 books last year, many of which I found in thrift stores. I would be sooooo broke w/ my habit if I used a kindle!
Now I know who I can send links to for free downloads for the kindle when I see them on a few of the coupon blogs I follow!
I have heard about so many people who received Kindle’s for Christmas!! They must have been having a big sale!
I am neither for them or against them. It would be nice to have one on vacation though. One Kindle=as many books as you want!
I love my Kindle but I did have some problems with mine. The dang thing would shut off and reboot in the middle of reading and wouldn’t recharge right and on and on. I called and they replaced my Kindle at no charge. Great the new one work briefly and then started doing the same thing. When I called today to complain they told me that there was something about the cover that I had purchased with the Kindle that was giving some folks problems. They refunded the cost of the cover and gave me an additional amount to cover the cost of ordering a new lighted cover. They said for some reason the lighted cover didn’t give the same problems. I really do love my Kindle…being able to download a book in the middle of the night or whenever I run out of reading material, etc. Love it, love it, love it.