Books, life the universe

Sunday 29 August 2010

I'm not a gadget person but . . . .

My Amazon Kindle e-book reader arrived yesterday and I love it! Very easy to use straight out of the box though I did skim through the manual while it was charging just to get used to using it. I tried buying and downloading a book via the 3G telephone network but it is slow partly because there isn't a terribly good signal here. Now it's set up on our wi-fi network and downloading is very quick. It's pretty intuitive to use if you've ever used a mobile phone or a computer. What really intrigues and amuses me is that I can be using the computer and see an e-book I want so I buy it and it's then downloaded to my Kindle provided it is on and the wi-fi connection is switched on. You can switch it off to save battery life.

I was going to say it's like reading a book but it's actually better in some ways than reading a book. You can change text size and appearance, line spacing and the number of words per line. You don't get text lost at the edge of the page as you do when reading a tightly bound paperback. Of course the big advantage is you can store up to 3500 books on it and pretty well anything out of copyright is free or less than £1. Other books - unless they're only just published - are cheaper than paperbacks.

It has to be one of the best things I've bought.

3 comments:

Anne Brooke said...

I can't wait to Tuesday to get mine! They tried to deliver it yesterday, but we were out at Mother's! :)) Let me know if there's any disasters I need to avoid doing as I'm really kack-handed with them! :))

Anne
xxx

Jilly said...

I found it really easy to use and I'm usually dreadful with electronic gadgets! I would recommend at least skimming through the manual - which is easy to read - first. But the quick start guide which comes with it covers enough to get you going.
From reading the Amazon forums it seem customer services are very good if you get stuck. The troubleshooting bit of the manual is good as well because it starts by suggesting that you plug it in to charge if it won't start!! I like the instructions aimed at electronic morons like me.

Anne Brooke said...

Thanks, Jilly! I really like idiot-proof instructions too! From what you say, it seems to be better supported than the Sony ereader - I'm looking forward to comparing as I don't think I know even 10% of what the Sony one does!!

Anne
xxx