(I’ll be speaking tomorrow night at the Phoenix Airport Sheraton, along with a Nook user and iPad fan, about my e-reader experience)
I’ve read a lot of books in my life. In grade school, I was the kid who always read a book under the table, during meals and even during recess (gasp). There wasn’t much I wouldn’t read, save for romance novels that didn’t make any sense to me at the time. I read pamphlets, newspapers and even Stephen King novels, which required my mom to send in a special note to the librarian granting permission. In third grade, I won a school-wide contest on who could read the most pages in one year with something like 20k pages read. During that time, I read the entire Little House on The Prairie collection and most of what King had written up to that point, including It twice. I’m still scared of clowns after seeing the accompanying movie knowing the violence was toned down.
My Moleskine case holds a pad of lined paper, Kindle and a pen. Very handy.
But I hate clutter. Owning a lot of books is great until you have to store them, arrange them, or worst of all, move them. Each book that I keep, write in or otherwise annotate becomes just another thing I have to lug around. Living in a studio apartments doesn’t give me any extra space and walking around in AZ heat makes me want to carry around as little as possible.
Oh, and books are expensive, too. Audiobooks, my previous preferred method of getting my fill of books in, are great until you want to take notes or start looking at how much they cost. New releases are around $20 and that adds up pretty quick. Not every story is cut out to listen to, either. Some authors/narrators are terribly annoying, which completely kills the experience for me.
eBooks were also an enticing option, but I spend too much time starting at my bright computer screen already and printing them out to read later defeats the purpose of having them. I needed something else. I needed a an e-reader that functioned a lot like a book, but could store many books and didn’t have a bright screen. I needed a Kindle.
Kindles first arrived as high-priced toys that only a few people could afford. While the price for Kindle books was between $10-15, you’d have to buy a ton of books before you’d reach a cost-savings point. When I first looked, they were hovering around $300 and I just couldn’t justify it, so I started saving up. Few dollars there, a few here and one less latte per week and I’d be set.
Shwaag came to my rescue. After pestering Eric Keosky-Smith for weeks to offer a Kindle giveaway, he did, I entered and I won. Finally, a place to store all that I want to read. Now that they are under $200, it’s a no-brainer decision for anyone who buys 5-10 books a year. The cost savings alone is worth it.
Tomorrow night I’ll be speaking to the AZ Book Publishing Association about my Kindle experience. I’ll delve into what makes my like the Kindle more than the iPad, any drawbacks associated with it, what it’s like to read and how much I like carrying it around. If you can’t make it, I’ll be sure to post video here for anyone to check out later.
