Labels: Kindle
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Colleen Coble writes romantic suspense with a strong atmospheric element. A lovable animal of some kind--usually a dog--always populates her novels. She can be bribed with DeBrand mocha truffles.
Denise Hunter writes women's fiction and love stories with a strong emotional element. Her husband says he provides her with all her romantic material, but Denise insists a good imagination helps too.
Diann Hunt writes romantic comedy and humorous women's fiction. She has been happily married forever, loves her family, chocolate, her friends, chocolate, her dog, and well, chocolate.
Cheryl Hodde writes romantic medical suspense under the pen name of Hannah Alexander, using all the input she can get from her husband, Mel, for the medical expertise. For fun she hikes and reads. Out of guilt, she rescues discarded cats. She and Mel are presently taking orders from four pampered strays.
25 Comments:
Positive:
1. I love reading novels on my Kindle.
2. I love being able to download classics for free.
3. I thought I would be bothered by not holding a book and feeling the pages, but I haven't given it much thought now that I'm used to reading from an e-reader.
Negatives:
1. Poems don't hold their format, so it's very hard to read a poetry book and make sense of the poems.
2. I downloaded the study Bible and find it difficult to use. I, too, prefer it in book format.
3. I also have found research books hard to use in the Kindle format. Not easy to maneuver around in them or look things up.
4. The battery doesn't last as long as they say--or I'm using the Kindle more than the average person!
Overall, though, I am very satisfied with my Kindle.
We do have the bible on ours but only use it on trips when we have a weight problem. Husband can navagate it better than I.
Reference books. I have a few, but only for reading on trips as I use real physical bookmarks (hundreds per book) when doing research.
Fiction? For trips? Ahhh. And I keep my Kindle in my purse for such times as husband want to take me somewhere then leaves me in the car while he does a boring errand.
Pam, make sure you have the web turned off except when you need it. Your battery will last much longer. =)
Positive:
1. I love reading books on it, way more than I ever imagined.
2. I love how fast I can have a "book" in my hands.
3. I love that I can use NetGalley.
4. I can read a lot more and not have it bother my eyes.
Negatives:
1. I find it very difficult to navigate the Bibles I've downloaded.
2. And I prefer research as actual books because I like color maps.
Pam, also...turn it off when not in use, don't just leave it on the screensaver.
LOVE your review. I've been tossing a Kindle back and forth and you NAILED some of my questions. And since I circulate so many of my fiction books that I buy, (I'm becoming the resident Christian librarian - LOL!) I may just keep to good ole paper and binding. yet ... I love the compact nature for travelling. Argh! :)
I agree with you, Colleen, plus I love knowing that I'm saving money and space because ebooks usually cost less, and there are a lot fewer books stacked everywhere. Still, I can't find what I need quickly enough to do research on it. Bible has to be a straightforward read, and I don't like to do that when I'm studying, but still, for travel, it's wonderful.
I love my kindle! I agree with all comments. One thing I wanted to mention on battery life, is if you turn off wireless when you're not using it it does extend battery life.
I love the ability to have 90+ books with me so I'm never without a read (unless the battery has gone dead)
I'm reading through the Bible this year and using one of the Tyndale "Read the Bible in a Year" versions where the passages are laid out for you, so that's great on the kindle. Using it for church or looking of stuff can be extremely slow.
It's also hard to use the books if you are a student and will need to do citations, since there are no page numbers.
I also have lots of "real" books at my house to read, I don't think they will ever go away.
I am just using my iphone Kindle application, but guess it would be similar...
Sometimes it is both a pro and a con that there is no sense of space physically. For example, I kind of like that the plot and ending are more surprising since I cannot see that I in the last few pages of the book. On the other hand, sometimes not being able to see where something is in relation to the book as a whole is a bit confusing.
I like to re-read things, or go back and see if this person was the same person mentioned a couple pages back. Especially on the small iphone screen, that is a huge pain.
Worst complaint, bording on TMI: You can't soak in the tub with w Kindle...or are they waterproof? :-)
I love my Kindle! But I'm totally with you on the research books and the Bible. I like to be able to easily find a quote, reference or whatever.
As for the Bible, we have my grandfather's old Bible and I love being able to look at the underlined verses and margin notes that give me a glimpse into the man I never knew. So glad he didn't have a Kindle Bible! :-)
I finally have power and can check back in over here! We had a tornado warning and high winds. Something took out the lawn center of our new Walmart, I hear. Sheesh.
It sounds like we all concur pretty much!
Jaime, there are lots of free books you can get for your Kindle. That's a real advantage I should have mentioned more.
A timely blog. After debating purchasing a Kindle for nearly 6 months, my husband finally ordered me one last week and it arrived yesterday. I haven't used it yet though. I am still on the fence about it, even though I now have one in my possession. My husband knowing my tendency to reject these things said I need to read at least two books on it before I make a decision. My one thing from the outset is I don't actually like how light and thin it is. BUT your video from when you received your Kindle and your vote of confidence for it was one of the reasons I started to think that YES, I should get one!!
Ellie, get the case for it. It makes it feel exactly like a real book!
my mommy, always told me, if ya can't say something nice about something, then don't say nothing at all.
:(
But I will say this, Hope ya have a very safe and fun trip!
and hope ya take some cool sunrise, and sunset, shots while your there! :)
So you don't like a Kindle, Jel?
no sorry, I'm a paper person.
now I do like books on tape :)
I always was too, JEL. I'm surprised I like it as well as I do.
My thoughts exactly! I love novels on it. I like getting a new novel I want INSTANTLY. So cool.
But all the things you numbered are how I feel about my Kindle, too.
I was annoyed one day because I couldn't get it to come on. I emailed the Kindle support and by the time I came back around to it, it had miraculously healed. Not sure what that was about! (I had done all the suggestions and troubleshooting.)
One thing that annoys me (maybe because I have quirks) but I hate not knowing what page I'm on. It just makes me nervous or something! LOL. I love being able to increase the font size. I love it that I can put it into my purse to take anywhere.
Oh, and I love all the "free" books for Kindle. That's fun!
LOL Crystal, being able to change the font size is the trade-off for page numbers. They would be all messed up if you were reading on a very large font size.
I also like to know what page I'm on, and I found that if I go to Amazon and look at how many pages the real book has, and then pay attention to the meter across the bottom of the page, I can get a good guess as to what page I'm on. Like if Amazon says there are 300 pages in the book, and my meter says 10%, then I know I'm on page 30, and if it says 50%, I know I'm on 150.
Colleen (and others),
My wife Cindi got one last year. She is so sold on it, has never looked back. Now with the price drop, I'm very close to asking for one this Christmas.
Especially wished I had one at ACFW. Can really see the benefit on trips. Struggling about which books to pack, not wanting to pack all the ones I may want to read (trying to avoid check-in bag fees). With the Kindle, how about 1500 books?
I've also seen my Kindle sales double, if not triple, since this time last year (must be a lot more buying Kindles now).
Have fun in Hawaii!!
Dan
PS Stopped by to learn about how to do a multi-author blog well (Jim Rubart, Harry Kraus and I are working on doing one together...so excited about this).
Correction Dan, the latest version of Kindle, both the 3G and the WiFi version hold 3,500 books :-)
Bonnie,
3500? My gosh, borders on the absurd. I'm looking at my 3 bookshelves right now, about 20 books/shelf, 5 shelves. So, about 100 books/shelf.
3500 = 35 bookshelves worth in the space of 1/2 a trade-size paperback.
Best of all, no check-in luggage :)
Dan
LOL...and that's one of the draws for me too Dan! Now if they'd just come up with a way to let authors digitally autograph them, it would really rock!
This is what I wish could happen with Kindles, ereaders--publishers could send review ARCS or even the published books to your ereader. Bonnie said 3500 books--well, over the years that I've reviewed books for places like Church Libraries magazine and other magazines I am pretty sure I've received that many books! I have donated the published books to church libraries, school libraries, public libraries (for their annual fundraising sales)but I still have hundreds of books stacked here!!
Now some books I want the actual copy--Andy McGuire's beautiful children's picture books to name one type. Some I just want the physical copy because I'd like to either have them in the church library or my own library, but many of them while I loved reading them, would rather have them on my Kindle.
At least it would be nice to be given a choice these days.
For research and my Bible I still want a physical book. Anyway, talk about the changing scene.
Does anyone get magazines or newspapers on their Kindle??
Colleen and all the Girls, I love how you always bring up topics that really make me want to comment, want to participate in the conversation and even to read your commentators comments! Dan, you guys really study this format because I think it's a winner. :)
Crystal, have you contemplated joining NetGalley. It's free and they have a load of books. A ton of publishers, especially Christian ones are using that place now to pass out ARC's and the like. I've even got a blog tour slated for next month where most of the reviewers are getting Kindle copies from there to review.
I love my Kindle - you just have to figure out what works best on it. Reference books, Bibles, cookbooks, newspapers, magazines - not so great. Physical books are better for reference, Bibles (but one-year Bible works great), and cookbooks, while something with an LCD screen would work better for magazines, etc., because of color.
For me, these are some Kindle strengths:
1) Novels (E-ink screen is just like reading on paper, no eye strain like with prolonged reading on an LCD screen)
2) Ability to adjust font sizes (mass market print is too small for me, but I'm not ready for large print)
3) Dictionary (place cursor beside word and definition appears at bottom of screen)
4) Non-fiction (I read a lot of Christian non-fiction as a minister's assistant. Kindle lets me make notes, highlight, and transfer these to my computer if needed.)
5) Tons of free and discounted books
6) Good pricing on backlist books
A lot of changes are taking place in publishing right now and the next few years should be interesting. Speculation is that ebooks will gradually replace mass market paperbacks. I doubt that paper books will ever go away, though.
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