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In which I become a hypocrit

Head Rambles Posted on by

I have succumbed.

Having read every book in the house for the umpteenth time and where the library insists on playing silly buggers I have gone against my firmly held principles.

I swore I would never do it but these are desperate times. I went and ordered a Kindle thingy.

I placed the order a couple of months back and was delighted two weeks ago when I found a box jammed in the outside of my letterbox. The box was a bit smaller than expected but these days everything seems to be miniaturised. Maybe it just folded out flat like Origami in reverse? I opened the box. It contained a thirteen amp plug. This was not quite what I expected so I read the piece of paper that came with it. Apparently I now have a mains plug to charge my Kindle despite not having a Kindle to charge. Whoopee!

This morning another small box arrived. This one was a bit flatter then the previous one and had actually fitted through the letterbox so was lying on the porch floor. Luckily we have had a dry spell so the porch wasn’t in its usual flooded state.

So I now have a device to read e-books. It doesn’t seem to do much other than that. I can’t use it to read my mail or browse the Interwebs or anything interesting. It doesn’t even have games. It’s a bit of a one trick wonder.

I charged it and let it to one side to play with later. I don’t know if I will like it as a book substitute.

But at least I now know I won’t have to read my Tom Sharpe collection for the fifteenth time.

 

Comments

In which I become a hypocrit — 19 Comments

  2. I have to admit I love my kindle. I receive an e-mail every day from bookbub which recommends cheap (often free) books in the genres you request. Almost as cheap as the library! Should you wish I will e mail you the info.

  3. I read you and write this on a Kindle fire.

    Advantage – It can hold lots of books in a small space and you can read in the dark.

    You can get onto the interwebs. It plays music if you use headphones/earplugs.

    Disadvantages – It has its quirks. You don't own the books you download from Amazon. It is poor for reading in sunlight – the e-paper Kindle is better for that. But then you lose the other advantages.

    Gutenberg is good, and Gutenberg Canada and Gutenberg Australia are useful because of different copyright expiry laws.

    And then there are the other sources.

    If her indoors takes a liking for it, you might have to buy another.

    Good luck. 

    • I'm not worried about the bells and whistles as my phone takes care of them.  The reason I took the plunge was the easy availability of new reading material.  I no longer should have to rely on a sporadic library service or long postal delays. 

  4. I've had one Kindle or another since 2009 when I went for surgery. Carrying several large books from up near the Canadian border down to the VA medical campus in Boston, MA just wasn't in the cards at the time (or any other time for that matter). Love the things and I'm an avid reader who loves the feel of a book in my hands–always have been.

    I've downloaded plenty of out-of-copyright books from Gutenberg (have to manually load them into the device) plus the whole Discworld series from Amazon plus others over a period of time. Nice thing is once you buy a Kindle version of a book from Amazon (always cheaper than the printed version) a copy is kept "in the cloud". You can download it again without charge if something untoward happens to your Kindle.

    I keep a copy of every book from Gutenberg as well as from Amazon on my PC for when I need to finally replace my current Kindle. I always download the book to my PC first and then manually load (“side load”) it to the Kindle.

    • I started reading my first "book" last night.  It takes a lot of getting used to.  It doesn't smell right either.  But at east I don't have to search for bookmarks any more…

      • You'll get used to it quickly enough. You can also choose which font is the best for you as well as the font size. And the smell wears off after a while though it will never smell like a real book, more's the pity. It will most likely end up smelling like the last thing you ate and got all over your fingers.

  6. I'm a total Kindle convert – If I went away for a holiday some years back, two thirds of my baggage would have been books, now I slip the Kindle into my pocket. I still keep some reference books to thumb through, but novels are now all kindled (is that a word?)

    • "Googled" is now a word so presumably "Kindled" is acceptable.  Anything goes these days.

  7. I am on my 3rd kindle. The first 2 were true kindles and could only be used for reading books. although the second one could kind of look at the web. The last one was a Kindle Fire which is really a tablet that also is an eReader. There are many source of free book including Amazon. I also buy a lot of $0.99 or maybe $1.99 books. Rarely do I pay more than that.

    • Just out of interest, why your 3rd?  Did the others break down or do you just have to have the latest model?

  8. I think a pile of Flann O'Brien books would be appropriate for the times we're in – The Poor Mouth is very funny!

  9. Have a look at Calibre, a free e-book manager that converts most formats to one you can load onto your new book.

    As mentioned, The Gutenberg Project is an excellent free resource for e-books. Many classics plus some old titles that you would rarely find. 

    • Welcome Maggie May and thanks for the reminder.  I have used that program in the past but had forgotten about it.

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