Monday Morning LitLinks
Mexican writer Jose Emilio Pacheco wins the Cervantes Prize. (Monsters and Critics)
Tamara Moore chats it up with cyberpunk Richard Kadrey. (The Rumpus)
TV and film writer Andrew Davies is honored with a lifetime achievement award by the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. (BBC)
Electric Literature launches a “microserialization” experiment with a Rick Moody Twitter story. (GalleyCat)
Andrea Sachs chats it up with legal-thriller writer Lisa Scottoline. (TIME)
Carol Rumens returns with a new poem of the week and commentary: “Gascoigne’s Lullaby” by George Gascoigne. (Guardian Books Blog)
Ron Miller muses on whether eBook readers are already obsolete. (DaniWeb)
Everything must go! Borders UK goes into fire-sale mode. (theBookseller.com)
Orville Buddo rounds up the latest ‘poli-book best sellers.’ (NYTimes)
On this day in 1667, Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, “a few blocks from St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where Swift would be Dean; almost in the backyard of Dublin Castle, representing the Englishness he would both covet and skewer; the specific address, 7 Hoey’s Court, almost perfect for perhaps the most famous scoffer in literature.” (Today in Literature)
AuthorScoop
December 13th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
First, let me say that the Kindle 2 is my first dedicated ebook reader (previously I’ve read ebooks on my computer). So I’m not approaching the new Kindle from the standpoint of whether it’s worthwhile to upgrade, but whether it’s worth it for a new buyer.
My conclusion: It definitely is. I love this device!
I love the lack of eyestrain. I’ve read steadily since I got it (four and a half long books thus far), and it doesn’t strain my eyes any more than print reading– less, really, since I need bifocals but haven’t quite gotten around to getting them yet, and the Kindle lets me adjust the font size. Reading novels on my computer made my eyeballs feel like they were going to pop out after a while. Reading on the Kindle, on the other hand, is a pleasant and easy experience. The lack of backlight is not a problem for me, as I read it just as I do any other book.
It’s just as lightweight and easy to handle as promised. I’ve read it lying down in bed, lounging on the couch, sitting in the carpool line at preschool… I find it awesomely convenient to be carrying around a library of twenty-five books (hey, I’m just getting started here!) on a device that’s smaller than a trade paperback. I’ve already gotten to the point where my Kindle goes everywhere I go. If I have to wait in line at a restaurant or a doctor’s office, it’s great to be able to grab my Kindle and start reading whatever I feel like reading at that moment. The buttons are self-explanatory and easy to handle, and yes, after a while the device really does seem to “disappear.”
I love the automatic bookmark feature. The fact that the Kindle remembers where I was reading, so I don’t have to, is nice. Also, the built-in dictionary is very useful and will probably improve my vocabulary, as it enables me to look up the word instantly, rather than trying to remember to look it up later (and usually forgetting). I also enjoy the ease of ordering books– I do tend to do my surfing of Amazon on the computer, because it’s faster, but if I’m in the bookstore and spot a book I want to read, it’s nice to be able to order it directly from my Kindle.
The selection of Kindle books is good. I have found a few I couldn’t yet obtain (Catch-22 is not yet available in a Kindle edition, go figure!), but I do realize that’s in large part a publisher issue– some publishers may not be willing to have their books put into e-format. So I don’t blame Amazon for that. Overall, the pricing structure seems reasonable– $9.99 for a book that sells for much more in hardback doesn’t bother me (I do draw the line at spending any more, however), and many books are cheaper than that. I’ve also found plenty of free or almost-free older books, which has allowed me to pad my library with comfort reading like “White Fang” and “Little Women,” as well as classics I’ve never gotten around to reading somehow.
The device itself is certainly not cheap, and even in the long haul, I don’t expect that it’s going to save me significant money. I don’t have a problem with that, as it’s a luxury item. It’s like buying an iPod– no one HAS to have an iPod, but it’s a great thing to have. I am getting a great deal of enjoyment out of my Kindle, and don’t begrudge the price at all. I bought the standard leather cover, since I carry the Kindle with me in my purse, and I like the way it folds back out of the way when I read.
The one thing I would like to see in the next generation of Kindle is a larger screen. If the designers could figure out a way to have the screen extend all the way down the front of the device, I think that would improve the reading experience just a bit. But that’s not a complaint, just a suggestion. Overall, I’m very pleased with my Kindle 2. In fact, after only a couple of weeks, I’m already addicted to it!