Does anyone have a Kindle?

[tashabear]

I had thought about a Kindle and all the convenience, but I do most of my reading in the bathtub, with the door locked so no kids can get in and bother me, and like my husband pointed out, what if I drop the Kindle? Books dry out.

Johanna

The first gen kindle fits nicely in a quart-sized Ziploc.

Just a personal observation, there are some things that just shouldn't be messed with. Books should be paper and ink. It is bad enough that in the workplace if the computers go down no one knows how to do their jobs manually. If the kindle goes down, will they still remember how to read.

Are you serious? The Kindle is just another way to deliver text. I really don't think "forgetting how to read" is an issue with e-books.

[Jordan]

No not serious maybe tin foil hat is on a little tight today, but over dependence on technology is one reason people are losing interpersonal skills in the workplace.

[JohnBarton]

Just a personal observation, there are some things that just shouldn't be messed with. Books should be paper and ink. It is bad enough that in the workplace if the computers go down no one knows how to do their jobs manually. If the kindle goes down, will they still remember how to read. I think it is just one more piece of technology to mess things up and dictate to people what they can and cannot read. Don't own one never will unless the government finds a way to force me. Maybe they will inject a chip or something while I sleep.... where the hell did I put my tinfoil hat? those microwaves are working overtime today!

LOL. Well since the Kindle is for reading I'd guess that they would know how to read. The real question is would they know how FIND information without being tethered to the internet? Does anyone know how to go to a library anymore and find information the old fashioned way with a card index file? Do libraries even use non-electronic filing anymore?

I personally like the idea of ebooks. I am reading a lot of the classics now on my new Ipod Touch. I have a whole library at my fingertips. I downloaded all of the stories from the Brothers Grimm to read to my baby. I am a nomadic sort. I left more than 20 boxes of books behind in the USA. Most of them I donated to others before I left.

I carried most of the books with me around the world for 20 years. Now I have more than that in my pocket or at my fingertips.

That said, there is nothing about reading anything on any computer device that can replace the tactile good warm feeling of reading a book or magazine. Books are natural, they feel good, they don't run out of battery life, you can take them anywhere and not worry about dropping them. You can fall asleep reading a book and not worry about it when you find it on the floor in the morning or crushed under your pillow.

Lastly, to speak to the Big Brother mentality, I find the idea that with electronic devices your every move is tracked - ostensibly for customer service reasons - to be completely repulsive. More repugnant is the idea that "they" can go into your machine and delete items you have on it. My Ipod touch is jailbroken. I have turned off Apple's killswitch so they cannot just go in and disable whatever they want to.

I find Apple's products to be very nice and cool but their controlling nature to be very much like the "Big Brother" that they were supposed to be against in their iconic Superbowl ad in 1984 where the lone protester is standing up to Big Brother. Now Apple has become that which they said they would never be. Much more so than Microsoft whose products are not as sexy and "cool" but in fact are a lot less restrictive.

Is the Kindle worth it? Not to me when I can get an Ipod touch or even an Iphone for about the same price and still get just about every book in the world on it. And I can do a lot more than read books.

There I have addressed everything in one post. Going to listen to a podcast now :-)