Wednesday, October 20, 2010

I remain enamored of the Kindle...

I haven't actually counted or kept close records, but I have read between 30 and 40 books on my Kindle since I purchased it in May. I love it even more than I thought I would before I bought it. I love it so much, I do not even regret (much) that Amazon dropped the price of the Kindle by $70 about five weeks after I bought mine. I thought it worthwhile to pay the price I paid, and I was not wrong.

Today, I had another Kindle-love moment.

I'm 99% percent finished scheduling out one daughter's schoolwork for the year (we're getting a very late start, because we just returned to Poland from the US one week ago). She'll be doing Year 11 from Ambleside Online, which focuses on the 20th century. One of the books she needs, and which we certainly have, since my son did this work a few years ago, is Seven Men Who Rule the World From the Grave, by David Breese.

I have scoured our dusty (neglected for six months) bookshelves twice, and I have the allergies to prove it. However, I have not located this book, and there is the niggling suspicion in my mind that I loaned the book to someone. As soon as I remember who that might have been, you can be sure I will not lend that person any more of my books. In the meantime, I really do think this book is important enough to replace. Right now.
Bookmooch failed to yield any available copies (a frequent occurrence for me), so I turned to Amazon. I thought there might be some inexpensive used copies available, and indeed there were. I could have paid less than $2 for a copy, plus shipping to Poland, which would have been quite a bit more--probably $5 or $6.

But! What do I see, but that this book is available for the Kindle? Considering that it was published originally in 1979, I find this nothing less than astonishing. It took me about ten seconds to decide that I will purchase the Kindle version, which will be available in the promised 60 seconds, even here in Poland.

And so I bought it, and I was reminded all over again that this is exactly the sort of reason I wanted a Kindle in the first place. The truth is, even without the Kindle device, you can take advantage of Kindle books using the Kindle apps for PC, Mac, and even smart phones. But I love the physical e-reader, too, which seems like a magic book (I keep mine in a book-like cover), becoming almost whatever I want to read, almost whenever I want it. I do exercise a great deal of restraint, however, and do not click "buy" very frequently. But when I do, I'm so very that I am able to do so.