Amazon Kindle – First Impressions

This will be a two part article about my new baby.  No, not that kind of baby!  That would certainly be a surprise for the husband!  No, I now have a Kindle!  I’ve finally reached the 21^st Century!!

This has created all sorts of havoc in my life.  To begin with, I had to make sure it was safe from damage and give it some test drives to see how it worked and whether I liked it or not.  The verdict is in:  I like it!  And where, you ask, does the two part article come in?  Well, since I had never expected to own a Kindle (as this was a type of windfall), I was completely unprepared.  I felt like a Luddite perusing a computer store.  How does it work?  What can I do with it?  How do I turn it on?  What happens if I spill coffee on it?  As I began finding the answers to these questions and more, I realized that there may be others out there in a similar predicament and I thought I would share my experiences with you.  I also decided to run a reading  experiment, and all of that takes a lot of words to get through, so I’ll try and keep the two parts relatively short so that you aren’t bored stiff.

The first thing I did when my new baby arrived was to read the small and easy to read mini-manual that came with it.  It told me exactly what to do to plug it in and charge it up, and how to turn it on (yay!).  It came with a more detailed manual on screen, which I of course perused but subsequently ignored. (You know, like most of us do unless something goes wrong.  No?  Just me?  Well then.)  It also came with a dictionary.  At first I was thinking, what in the world do I need a dictionary for?  Well, as my very patient friend explained to me, while reading if you come across a word you are unfamiliar with, you can easily look it up right then and there.  It also comes in handy, as I discovered later, when discussions regarding the meaning of certain words break out among friends.

I was deathly afraid I would harm my precious new gadget, so I refused to take it anywhere until I had a case and a screen protector for it.  Deciding on what type of case to get was an adventure in itself.  There are a vast array of cases of all sorts and types and prices.  I wanted something sturdy to protect from accidental falls, and casual bumping and squishing in my carryall messenger bag.  I also wanted something easy to use, that I could put away quickly and not have to remove the Kindle from in order to read.  Plus, I wanted it to look good and be inexpensive.  I didn’t ask for much, did I?

I immediately vetoed the envelope and pouch type cases, as I felt these didn’t offer enough protection and were designed so that the Kindle had to be removed from the case to read.  However, for a crafter or someone who can sew, these would be easy to make, and you could make them to your own specifications with colors and fabrics of your choosing.  Etsy has a lot of these in different styles and fabrics if you would prefer someone else to do the work.  There are also some professional ones made from neoprene and other squishy fabrics with buttons, magnets, zipper, and snap closures.  You can find these with a simple search for “Kindle cover.”  You can find them in prices ranging from $5 to $25, depending on what you are looking for.

The next type I looked at was a fold-over case that held the device in one side while the other folded over it like a book.  The fold-over cases were less varied in style and color; I saw black, white, silver, red, and pink.  Most were leather or a similar fabric, and the bulk of them fold over the Kindle from the side, just like a book cover does, though some of them fold over the top like a policeman’s notebook.  The advantage for these fold-over cases is that they are much sturdier and seem to provide more protection, though they may lack a bit in style.  You can also use the Kindle while they are snug inside, and when you are ready to get up and leave, just close the book and go.  Again, a simple search for “Kindle case” will get you everywhere.

I went with the case that folded over the top.  I wanted good sturdy protection, and I liked the way it looked–the black faux leather looked nice without being flashy.  It was available for a reasonable price on eBay, which was also a big consideration.  The one I got is padded underneath the faux leather and has nice, sturdy stitching all around the edges and where the Kindle rests.  My little baby feels nice and secure and has a magnetic snap to keep it closed tight.  I don’t worry about it slipping its case while it is inside my carryall, and the cover just folds back when I want to read and back over when I have to stop.

There were also some decals and skins available to accessorize your Kindle further; these vary about as much as your imagination, using images from popular culture or just random designs.  I didn’t do any research on these, though I saw them in passing, but I’m not big on flashy ornamentation, so I just bypassed them.  Simple is easy and usually works well for me, so I tend to stick with it.  This way I don’t forget which end is up or place the decals over the screen….

The worst part about the whole Kindle case hunt was waiting for it to arrive–I couldn’t take it anywhere while it was unprotected!  While I waited, I downloaded a few free classics like Jack London’s White Fang and a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories for casual perusing.  I was very anxious to get down to some heavy reading.  Armed with an Amazon gift certificate, I began to peruse the books on offer for the Kindle.  I was immediately struck with the vast amount of books out there available.  I knew that it was a big trend (can something that has lasted this long be a trend?  Well, whatever, you get my meaning), as I had seen in the past books I was reading and purchasing also available for the Kindle.  Not only were there a great deal of books out there, but also a huge number were by independent authors.  In fact, when I pulled Amazon’s list of that day’s top ten Kindle books bestsellers inSFF , I was astounded to find that the #1 bestseller for Kindle at that time was by an independent author.  Someone I had never heard of before.  And her book was only $0.99!  I perused some more and conversed with my still very patient friend, who is also a self-published author.  She was not astounded; in fact, she wasn’t even surprised.  Some of her author friends, she told me, sell hundreds of copies each month.  Hundreds!  It is a darned shame I have no talent in that direction, or I would be on it like a dog on bacon!  I decided that I would have to check out some of these independent authors and their bestselling books and see what all the excitement was about.  Thus the experiment:  I’d buy five $0.99 Kindle books with certain specifications.  They had to look to me as if they were not published by one of the big publishers (I have no real way of telling as a buyer if the books I’m purchasing were published by the author or a publishing house.  I can reasonably assume from various things that they are independent, but there is no way to know for sure unless they specify a publisher in the details), the author had to be new to me, and they had to be in my area of comfort–fantasy, urban fantasy or paranormal.

Listed below are the five books I purchased:

1.       Moon Dance by J.R. Rain

2.       Wistril Compleat, Frank Tuttle

3.        Elfhunter, a Tale of Alterra, C. S. Marks

4.       Powerless, the Synthesis, Jason Letts

5.       Erich’s Plea, Tracey Alley

In Part II of this article, I’ll go into my first foray into reading on my Kindle and discuss my impressions of these five books.