I’ve been meaning to update the blog, but a huge cog got thrown into my life wheel this week: A new Amazon Kindle.

My Dad read something on my Twitter a few weeks back that spurred him to order one for me. Aw shucks! I can’t deny that there was a subtext that I was drooling over the new, sleek design, so thanks Dad! I’m a gadget girl at heart, and having seen the paper-like screen in person with the 1.0 version, I was definitely curious to see how it could change my reading habits. Oh and I really “needed” one for “research.” Yeah, that’s right. 🙂

The first thing I hear from people who see it, which I was totally on board with before I got the Kindle, is “I like to feel the book in my hand”. I have a HUGE bookshelf in my house of paperbacks and signed hardbacks, so I’m a girl who was also skeptical of the idea of a newfangled electronic thing. Isn’t that what the 2-3 hours a day I spend on the internet is for; reading stuff?! Shouldn’t I reserve my pleasure reading to real life?

Evidently I could be persuaded otherwise. Shortly, here are the bullet points of what I think about my Kindle:

GOODS
-The screen is amazing for reading, my eyes didn’t get tired at all and read for about 9 hours straight one day on the set this week.
-The ability to use the free Wifi feature and dial up to Amazon and purchase sequels instantly is absolute gold. I used it compulsively to read 4 books in a series this week. Yes!
-Freakish coordination with the new iPhone App. I can now order a book from my computer browser, it will be instantly downloaded to my Kindle, I can read some on the Kindle then if I go out for an appointment, I can use the iPhone app to pick up in the same book EXACTLY WHERE I LEFT OFF. When home again, it will synch to where I read on my iPhone when I pick up on the Kindle. Amazing stuff!
-Traveling=SUPER win. I can have 1500 books or something on my Kindle and it fits in my purse. Never reading the SkyMall again!
-Newspaper subscriptions are great as well. The New York Times is hella expensive to get delivered, and I don’t tend to read the whole paper on the internet, but having it dropped onto my Kindle every day for $13.99 a month is actually great. Well worth the discounted price because I can browse the Sunday NYT at the table with coffee, or over brunch.
-No Visible Cover Art, the advantages of I will get into after this list.
-The new 2.0 version looks awesome and everyone who sees me with it wants to check it out. Who doesn’t like that about a new gadget? 🙂

BADS
-I kept wanting to use the thing like my iPhone. The idea of touchscreen is so intuitive and wonderful it’s hard to shake it, feels like you’re going backwards by having to use the little joystick.
-It’s slow. It’s not horribly slow, but it’s not as fast as I feel like it needs to be since it’s not really doing a LOT of different things for you.
-The Home page is messy, I wish it looked more organized, with folders by category, etc.
-Black and white web surfing is so crazy ridiculous, it’s like going back to 1980’s DOS prompts. I think the idea is to organize your RSS feeds so you don’t have to maneuver on web pages that much, but it’s so cumbersome. It’s way easier to use my iPhone and Google Reader App. WAY easier.
-No PDF support. I would love to drag and drop PDFs to the device, but they have to be converted to their proprietary format first, and PDFs aren’t totally supported, which sucks as a majority of the things I’d love to use it for are audition sides and D&D Manuals (Which won’t go on it, grr!)
-At first, the Kindle store feels like Disney Land: High entry fee, then inside everything nibbles away at your wallet a little more. 99 cents for blogs that I can read on my computer?! Psh! A little research can help you find more stuff for free (and a way to get free RSS of blogs on your device), but it should be waaaay easier to jump start your collection for free. My non-savvy grandma would be out of her league.

WHO WOULD LOVE IT
-People in your life who LOVE to read
-Older relatives who would use the change text font size feature
-Travelers: it’s INVALUABLE

In short, as an insane reader of genre paperbacks, I’m absolutely in love with it. It would be great if Amazon sold it in a physical store somewhere so people could check them out themselves. I think they would sell a lot more of them. They especially make great gifts, as they’re an indulgence most ppl won’t allow themselves per say, but if you’re looking for a REALLY nice gift for a family member or friend who loves books or travels a lot, you couldn’t go wrong.

Now for the “come clean” part: I’ve read like, 6 books this week and ordered about 10 more. And no ordinary books: Pure unadulterated TRASHY-ROMANCE books! Check out my GoodReads shelf vaginal-urban-fantasy, it’s bloating to an alarming degree. It’s stuff I never would have checked out at the Barnes and Noble, because the gleaming and oily man chests would have made me blush too much (unless I was drunk, but that’s a previous blog entry :D). I’m delighted to be reading ridiculous werewolf/demon/vampire-Alpha-male fiction with no guilt.

That is, until someone walks up and asks about the Kindle, and sees “Caressed by Ice” at the top of the list. Oops 🙂