Why I Love my Kindle

I have long ago and happily accepted the fact that I am a Reader. I developed a habit of carrying a book with me everywhere I go--to work, to the movies, grocery and other shopping, visiting relatives, etc. Whenever I don't take a book as I leave the house, I have always regretted it.

General traveling as a Reader pretty much sucks--and now with baggage restrictions on airlines, it really sucks. I can't even think of a word bad enough for a traveling fast Reader. Picking out 3 or 4 books for a trip or having Amazon ship to your location--yikes! Or being stuck at the laptop during downtime, reading on a computer screen is too pitiful for words. :(

Along come ereaders and my Kindle in particular. The only other device that I can compare it to in the life changing venue is my cell phone. What other device could please a Reader more, completely serve the purpose, is totally innovative yet has room to grow?

Here is my Kindle Top Ten List
1. The Kindle is smaller and lighter than a single paperback
2. I never lose my place in a book anymore! Yay, no more dog-eared pages
3. In a pinch I can browse the internet if needed
4. I can save future purchases with the 'Save For Later' feature (This is a very under-rated feature; Kindlers, please explore)
5. My middle-aged eyes can be accommodated by the occasional necessary font increase
6. Re-reading a book is super-easy! No more digging thru piles in the garage, pawing thru boxed up books, searching thru closets. All my books are stored either on Amazon, the device/SD card or my pc
7. I am 'greening'. No more dead tree books for me
8. The Kindle holds hundreds of books
9. I can sample most books before I buy them--just like browsing in a bookstore
10. I can download new books anywhere, anytime thru the wireless 'WhisperNet'

The Kindle is not a perfect device. For a Gen-1 device it is a home run, but there are definitely features that can and should be fixed or upgraded. (Whats up with the cover, where are the folders?) I really hope some of the user suggestions are implemented prior to or with the version 2.0.

For a medium that I have loved for years and which except for availability hasn't really changed for hundreds of years, I can't see myself ever going back to printed books. I am looking forward to a Kindle-like device for business (8'x11') documents and perhaps a separate Kindle for reference materials.

I once again bow to Amazon; they changed the way I shop and now, changed the way I read.

Jeff Bezos? Can you hear us?

I have had my Kindle for 8 months now and I just love it. Its not the end all and be all of devices for everyone, though. If you are not a Reader (note the capital 'r'), then unless you just happen to have $359 lying around, it may not be for you.

Personally, I am a book hoarder. It works for me, but over the past 10 years, I have slowly filled up not only my personal space, but under the bed space, space between the wall and my bed, closet shelf space and most unforgivable to my husband--an entire wall in the garage space. After one mention by me, my husband bought my Kindle for me out of self-defense.

Don't get me wrong, I did my research and product comparisons. The deciding factor for me wasn't just the Whispernet touted by many fans, but the 'Amazon' factor. I was getting 2 to 3 shipments a week from Amazon and since I trust them, they were the ones that were going to get my business. I recently breathed a sigh of relief when I got to handle a Sony device in my local Target and found it cold, gadget-y and totally without personality.

Since then, I have (much to my surprise) lavished love and attention on my Kindle. I actually got a skin for it which has lent it a surprising amount of the personality that I found lacking in the Sony.

All that being said, Amazon really needs to fill an immediate customer need. Perhaps some of the beta Kindle users weren't real readers, but they missed a huge usability feature. Getting back to me being a book hoarder--I don't like to delete books from my Kindle.

Since so far the internal memory plus the SD card that I have for it are not full--why should I delete books. Yes, the Amazon purchases are available for download to my pc or Kindle at any time, yes, I can copy the non-Amazon purchases from my local pc hard drive to the Kindle with the USB, etc., but why should I have to do that?

I have plenty of memory on the Kindle and SD card, but I am forced to delete the books on my Kindle to keep from having to scroll thru 20 pages of books and book samples. Folders are not available for the device. Heavy sigh....

I realize that many readers don't go back to a book once they finish it, but its my belief that many more do. And God forbid that I was also using it for newspapers and magazines! How many pages would I have have to page thru then? (shudder). Even if I save my books on Amazon, when I go to Show and Sort, I have to page thru all of them!

I want to save my books ON THE DEVICE! I want a way to organize my library when I do. Maybe saving my books on the device is the same mentality that makes people keep emails for years that they will never read again, but that's my perogative.

Which brings me to my point. Is Amazon listening? Every blog, forum and discussion board that I have read over the last 8 months has begged for folders or some other way to organize their Kindle content.

Mr. Bezos, in our Kindle purchase Thank you letter, you thanked us for being early adopters. We responded by spreading the word (far & wide), blogging, filling up forums in support of, making daily recommendations and supporting Amazon and Kindle. We're not asking for a redesign--just a little support ourselves.