To Kindle a New Love

I have finally decided to start writing, or keeping, a blog about the things I read. I say 'things' and not 'books', not because I'm a heartless crone who does not love the leaved and bound beauties, but because, as of a few weeks ago, book are no longer my sole source of reading material. No. I can now add 'e-books' to the list, shockingly enough, as I went and did the unthinkable.

I bought a Kindle.

Now, there's nothing wrong with Kindle, but, let's face it, I'm hardly pipping the gadget post of all my friends by purchasing one at such late a date. It isn't even a Paperwhite or a Touch, but instead a Kindle 4, which is now three years old. So why the sudden need to go get myself an e-ink friend, when I've lived with the precious of paper for years? It's a simple answer, really. University.

It was something I looked at doing way back when I started my BSc. You know how when you start a higher education course you get a book list? And how, if you're lucky, it will only set you back £100 (on top of the then £3.5k a year tuition fees) but, more likely, will set you back double that? And how each book is an absolute tome at one thousand pages, minimum, and if you're doing art it's full of text, yet if you're doing science it's full of indecipherable graphs? Ah, yes, the joys of academia; a library that will never be read and curse you to starve to death all in one fell swoop.

Anyway. Academic text books are big and bulky and heavy. While I do have a shelf put aside for my academic books, I realised that lugging them back and forth from the labs was going to break my back. The idea of being able to contain all this knowledge in one, slim, lighter than a swan feather 'volume' (and save pennies while doing so) appealed immensely; i.e., an e-reader. As I said, I looked at doing this when I started my BSc, but none of the textbooks I required had an e-book format; no e-books, no need for an e-reader.

So that was that.

Tesco's Finest

Fast forward three years, freshly graduated and I get another dreaded book list for another course. It's only three books, but they come to over £100. Two of these books, however, have do have e-book versions; admittedly one I already purchased as an undergrad, but, once more, the notion that I can have multiple text books on my person without suffering a spinal fracture is very tempting. Thus, I turn my attention to the Godsend that is eBay and, a few weeks later, find myself with a shiny, unused Kindle 4.

I had been aiming for a Touch, 'charcoal' preferably, but at the low price of £25, I felt this was a deal I could not let slip away. Fortuitous actually, as, having seen 'graphite' in person, I find it so much more pleasing and I am in love with the page buttons. Yes, the keyboard function would be a lot quicker and simpler to use with a touchscreen, but I like being able to press a key to turn the page. It's such a satisfying press, too; soft and without a click. No substitute for a real page, but it has the added bonus of being completely one handed; something both real books (to an extent; it can be done) and any touchscreen e-readers lack. While this may not seem like a massive pull, for me, it works. When I am in labs, I can hold the Kindle in one hand and write notes or pick up and observe the specimens in my other hand. Multitasking; I am female, after all.

I like the Kindle; I've been sold on e-ink readers over LCD e-readers ever since my best friend showed me her Kindle many, many years ago, over a Costa coffee. I've just not had the need to buy one before as any money spent on a Kindle I'd rather spend on books (I am absolutely a committed bibliophile as I'm sure this blog will serve to show). I read a lot of PDFs on the Kindle without too much issue, despite having been told it can be quite difficult to read them. Maybe it's the quality of PDFs (all from Academic Journals, rather than scanned in pages), I'm not sure, but I have found that, combining the zoom and contrast controls allows me to rather comfortably read them. Again, useful for bringing articles to lectures, rather than sheaves of print outs. Some are more difficult to adjust, but, over all, not so much issue.

Kindle 4, 'graphite'; MSc aide

I do have some complaints of the Kindle though; these may have been addressed in later models, I have not had chance to compare. Kindle has this wonderful feature where you can e-mail the files straight to your device. I say wonderful because it is, it's so easy for when I'm at the Library or somewhere else without my connection cable. It is wonderful... When it works. Despite having enabled my secondary and university e-mails, my Kindle will not accept any file that is sent from any e-mail other than the one it is registered with. Yet I don't get the 'unknown sender' e-mail either. I send and... Nothing happens. Which is frustrating as I sometimes have to download the item, send it from one e-mail to another to e-mail it to my Kindle; which is almost more hassle than it's worth. It's a shame, because it's a feature I really approve of and it means I can send documents to it, whether I have it on me or not.

The other issue I have encountered is whenever I try to access my 'notes' for one of my books, the Kindle hangs. This is extremely exasperating when I'm in the labs or in lectures and, instead of being able to read the page I wanted, I'm spending several minutes trying to restart my Kindle. Proof than analogue will always be simpler than digital; I've never had to reboot a textbook. I'm not sure why it takes so long to restart; the manual says to hold the power switch down for some twenty seconds, but I'll need to repeat this action three or four times before, rather than a blank page continually refreshing, I get the loading page. It does always, eventually, reboot though. I feel like it harkens back to my BlackBerry days; when it hangs, reboot and reboot again. I'm going to try deleting my notes and trying to add them afresh, see if that makes any difference, although I doubt it will.

Despite these few problems, I'm enjoying my experience with Kindle over all. It's not a book and, for me, it will never replace a book, but as an extra tool to add to my academic arsenal it's useful. I do have a few non-academic e-books on there now. One (which I am currently reading and will likely be subject to my next blog post), Dark Waters was actually bought for my course, but more of a 'this will give you an insight in to what we do' rather than 'this is vital for understand the topic'. I was debating on whether to buy it in paperback or e-book but my mum and boyfriend convinced me to buy the e-book (I think so that I could 'make the most' of my Kindle, and save £7 while I was at it). Part of me wishes I had bought the paperback; I miss the feeling of progress as the pages on the left (assuming it's a Western book) get more numerous the closer to the end you get. Even though there is a bar at the bottom proudly stating that I am '55%' of the way through the book it just isn't the same. I don't really feel that I have got anywhere.

I've also downloaded a slew of free e-books, courtesy of a wonderful site called BookBub. I haven't read any yet; perhaps I never will but I'm a sucker for free 'books' and, it would appear, that that includes 'e-books'. They're mostly cheap, throw away thrillers and disposable fantasy novels, although some of them have very good reviews on Amazon. They'll be at the top of my 'to read' list... Although I still have some thirty real world books to fight through before hand. Still, it's fun to get the newsletters once a week and see if anything catches my eye.

I suppose, ultimately, the title is misleading. I like Kindle, I really do. I like the ease of e-ink compared to the blinding light of LCD but... A new love? No. A passing fancy perhaps, or maybe even a fling, but my true love lies with paper and print.