Review of Amazon's Kindle 2

Most product reviews I've read the reviewer has examined the device for only a short period of time -- a weekend or maybe a week. Better product reviews are for longer periods of time, weeks or months, and usually involve trying different things, experimenting with it and preferably experiencing an issue requiring contact with the product's customer service. Best reviews are when the reviewer can spend the Better amount of time with products of the same class. This review will have to be the "Better" as I don't expect anyone will be sending me a Sony Reader or a Barns & Noble Nook in the near future to make a "Best" review.

• I've had my Kindle 2 since March. While I still read some paper books, mostly leftovers from the reading pile and gifts; about 90 percent of my book reading has been on it. My wife thinks my reading has almost doubled since then.
• I have a daily subscription to the New York Times and monthly ones for One Story, Asimov's Science Fiction and Living Breathing, Writing. I've had a dozen or so subscriptions to other magazines and blogs since March but have canceled them during the two-week trial period.
• I've found several public domain books, some on Amazon and some on other sites, and sent them to my Kindle for reading (Walden, Alice in Wonderland, Flatland, The Art of War and poetry collections by Kipling, Yates and Service). Some of these lack the formatting making them easy to read but they are free nevertheless. I also bought a version of the Bible for $5 which word for word is quite a bargain.
• With over 30 books bought and a half a dozen or so free ones I already have a hundred pounds of paper books inside my Kindle.
• My brother is an author and I'm his first editor; mostly for continuity. I have downloaded his manuscripts onto my Kindle for reviewing. This has exposed one of the few times where the Kindle comes in second to paper – you can't make editing marks on a Kindle document. I've also sent several extended articles found on the internet to my Kindle for reading. (This may be a service some sites might think of offering.)
• I have put music files on my Kindle so I can read and listen to music. While I have used this feature I am surprised at how little I take advantage of it. I have yet to put an audible book on it. I have contemplated but have yet to upload my own static photos to replace the ones that grace the cover of the Kindle when it is turn off.
• I have checked my email on it and have preformed some limited browsing with it but find the molasses like slowness too frustrating.
• I took my Kindle on a five day backpacking trip into the Idaho wilderness. I read for about three hours a day and still had some battery charge when we came out. This was because I turned the wireless off before we left for the mountains.

In short I have embraced the Kindle experience and had put it through it's paces. Here are a few comments regarding my experience:

Bigger Books
I'm reading longer books since getting the Kindle. Since I don't know how big a book is when I buy it – not being able to see or feel how thick it is – I have read books I'm not sure I would otherwise have bought and read. Since all the big books I have bought were good books I finished them. I have read a couple non-fiction books over 500 pages and one science fiction story in two volumes which came in at over 1,400 pages in the hardback versions. With each of these books I discovered how large the books really were when I noticed the percentage of the book I had read was lower than what I had expected.

Read to Me
When cooking for the family or riding in the car I have used the Text-to-Speech option. For the most part I liked using it as long as I was not using earphones. When using earphone with my first Kindle 2 (see below) I could only hear the reading in one ear. In my current Kindle 2 I can hear it on both sides but the volume projected through the earphones is very low. This is likely the main reason I don't listen to music on it while reading. Also you never know how the device will pronounce names. For example I have had to listen to hundred of New York Times stories where President Obama's name is pronounced O – BAM – AH. I hope for more improvement in the quality of voice and pronouncement in future editions.

“What is That?”
I get asked about my Kindle all the time when I'm reading in our town's only expresso shop. I have probably shown my Kindle to 40 people. A little under a third said they would never buy one. These are all retirement or older aged people. About a third said they wanted one. I don't, however, know of anyone who bought one after I showed them mine. In fact I've only ever seen one other person with one. I live in a town of about 6,000 in rural Idaho so I shouldn't expect to see many or any. The owner of that other one was visiting her sister in town.

Problem Discovered, Problem Solved
Within a few months of getting my Kindle I noticed small cracks appearing on the front left edge right above were the hook on the Kindle Cover attached to the eReader. When I saw the visitor's Kindle I noticed she also had the same cover but her attachment hook did not bend up at 45 degrees like mine and so was not causing cracks. I called Amazon and asked for my Kindle to be fixed since their cover was causing my Kindle to crack. No problem at all – a new Kindle arrived in two days and it took ten minuets for all my content to be downloaded into the new one.

Best Three Things About the Kindle:

1) Text size adjustment. During the day I need a larger text size - 3rd or 4th from the smallest, but at night when my contacts are out I can hold the Kindle very close so the smallest text works best and means I'm advancing the pages less often.

2) When reading late a night my turning the pages of paper books would come to the attention of my sleeping wife and she would tell me it was time to turn out the light. With the Kindle there is none of the moving around to turn the pages so I'm reading later into the night. While mostly good it has meant many groggy mornings.

3) The ability to look up a word without having to find and use a dictionary. Gone are the days when I look at an unknown word and wonder if it's worth the effort to find out.

Strange Things Can Happen on a Kindle:
Apparently there needs to be more quality checking of books converted for reading on a Kindle. The Stuff of Thought, by Steven Pinker, was a great book but about half way through the letter “r” started showing up in sentences in place of the word “English,” such as in “People who have learned r as adults have terrible trouble with all this.” Some books have had formatting errors and one book was missing two chapters. Amazon needs to have a place were readers can report these errors and then someone at Amazon needs to read them and act on them. I'm convinced Amazon reads very little of what people are currently saying on their hosted discussion boards.

The verdict: I love my Kindle, I use it more than I thought I would. While not perfect it's apparent to me that the Kindle and other eReaders are the future of books and other reading materials. The only thing I truly did not like was it's initial cost.

Closing thoughts: I have not held a Nook but have read several media reports and have explored B&N's website for the product. I also am a big fan of the bookstore and if the Nook had be available in March I might well have gotten it rather than the Kindle. However after reading the reviews and exploring their website, including reading the fine print, I can't say their seems to be much difference except for that color screen at the bottom. I can see that being a big plus but I suspect it's inclusion means there is more draw on the battery meaning you have to charge it more often.

One of the biggest hyped features is LendMe -- the ability to share a book with another Nook user or anyone with the Barnes & Noble eReader app on their PC, Mac, BlackBerry or iPhone. The fine print is that your friend only can use the text for 14 days and during that time you can not read it on your Nook.

Now if I had a friend that could or would read the entire book in 14 days it might be worthy feature. My experience is that lent books are not finished or return in two weeks (if ever!). Currently if I had a friend who has a Kindle and I wanted him or her to try to a book they could download a sample -- usually the first chapter -- for free and take their own time at reading it.

This brings me to the observation that eReaders will not truly take off until there are some changes in how books and book rights are perceived.

When I have a book in my Kindle do I really own it? I can't lend it out, I can't give it away without giving my Kindle away with it. If in the future I was to switch to the Sony Reader, the B&N Nook or a device yet on the market I'd have to leave the books I bought on my Kindle behind. If I wanted to reread it I would have to find the Kindle, charge it and hope it still works. So here is my list of what I would like to see happen:

1. Regardless of whether we own an Amazon Kindle, a Sony Reader or a Barns & Noble Nook the book formant should be such so it can be transferred from one to another. OR there should be a third-party site where versions of a book on the Sony Reader, for example, could be exchanged for a Nook version. This third-party site could, would wirelessly remove the version from the old eReader, notify that company the version was exchange so it should not allowed it to be re-download again and would download the book to the new eReader. (I expect a two-week all expense paid vaction for two to Hawaii from anyone who reads this and creates a business from this idea.)
2. B) Using the same third party site a person should be able to lend or pass on a book to a friend or donate it to a library.
3. In the meantime Amazon, Sony and B&N should allow the gifting of a book they have bought to another customer at a discount.