anyone tried kindle?

[ward_rb]

you know, amazon's new book reading gadget. http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Amazons...pf_rd_i=507846

it looks interesting to me, but i dont think i could give up "real" books. theres just something about actually holding a book, flipping the pages, etc that seems essential to the whole reading experience that a machine cant copy.

the main reason im interested though, is that my bookshelf is completely filled, with stacks on the floor next to it also. kindle would definitely save me some much needed space.

however, the price seems unreasonably high to me. close to 400 bucks for a digital book reader??? not to mention the fact that it costs the same amount to buy a digital copy of a book as a physical copy. shouldnt there be at least a couple bucks discount?

i dont know...i want one, but at the same time i dont. so share your thoughts with me.


i leave you with this comic, which i found to be hilarious, poking fun at not just kindle but the state of our society.

[BlueNinja]

Between my wife and I, we have both a Kindle and the Sony PRS-505. They are AWESOME.

To whit, they are light-weight, easy to carry, and the battery on both of them is good enough to last you through several hundred pages - usually a few books.

The Sony has a few upsides, namely:
- it's a little bit cheaper (or at least, it was when we got them)
- the battery lasts longer than the Kindle
- it's more durable than the Kindle (seriously - the Sony has been dropped 5 feet onto concrete, and got a couple of scratches. the first Kindle got dropped 2 feet onto a suitcase and shattered the screen)
- the button layout is better (the Kindle buttons for turning pages are huge and that means it's really easy to lose your place)

The Kindle has a couple of advantages, namely:
- the wireless can be used just about anywhere to download the books you've purchased (but it drains the battery like MAD) and can access wikipedia as well
- it reads several more formats than the Sony (which only reads .pdf and .txt)
- the keyboard means you can use it to take notes on

As far as e-books go, most of the ones I've seen are cheaper than their dead-tree version. Plus, most of the book publishers have a (limited) library of free books, usually to encourage people to get into various series. Baen publishing especially has a fairly good one with a number of authors. I don't recommend the ubiquitous piracy to get your e-books, as there's no guarantee they're actually formatted to be readable on the 4"x6" screens. Plus, yanno, it's illegal and stuff.