To Kindle or Not?

In a few short months I went from not being sure I wanted to read ebooks to being addicted to them....

I've been using my iPod Touch to read ebooks since Fall 2008. I've actually been very happy with the iPod as a reading device except for the lack of availability of books that I want to read. [NOTE: My preferred reader on the iPod was the eReader because of the ease of purchasing and downloading books from ereader.com or fictionwise.com. However, Amazon just released a Kindle eReader for the iPhone/iPod Touch.] You may want to have multiple ereaders on the iPod because of availability of books. I still haven't figured out why some books are available in some formats but not others.

In January I started getting antsy. I wanted more new releases right away...or at least at the same time that they are available in other formats such as Kindle. When John suggested he might want a Kindle also....I broke down and ordered a Kindle (okay...I ordered 2 Kindles)...on Tuesday February 24th my Kindle2 arrived.

I've now been reading on the Kindle for a couple of weeks and I have to say I'm very happy. I like the ease of purchasing books. But more than that I like the "sample" feature. While I haven't experiemented with the speech-to-text feature, I look forward to that time when I'm almost done with a book but have to put it down to leave or do something else...no I can just have it read to me while I'm doing something else.

My Favorite Feature - Samples: Amazon allows Kindler users to download a sample of a book. You can read the sample and at the end select to "Buy the book Now." I've started using this like a wishlist. Once a book is available in Kindle format, I download the sample. When I'm ready to start a new book, I browse through my samples and select a sample to read. I read the sample...decide it's what I want to read at this time...and buy the book at the end of the sample. AWESOME!!! I also like that Amazon tells me if I already purchased something. THANK YOU!!!

What is still missing: While Amazon allows you to share content with Kindles within an account, the license agreement says that you can share with 5 Kindles...but they must be on the same account which means that they share a single credit card for purchasing content. (And NO Noumena11 and I are NOT sharing an account!) Amazon already manages digital content and rights for Kindle content. It's not a stretch to see how Amazon could easily manage the exchange of digital content while still ensuring digital rights management by transfering rights to content from one user to another. I'm even okay if the content is limited to 5 or 6 "owners." I can see Amazon setting up a used digital content store.

Overall, the Kindle2 is a great ebook reader! Great form, fit and function and It's easy to use right out of the box. Amazon needs to be a leader in the exchange of managed digital content.

Previous related blog posts:
To ebook or not? That is only one of the questions...
To ebook or not? Revisited.