The Joys of Kindle
I have to tell you that when ereaders first came on the scene, I was intrigued, slightly, from a technological point of view, but the few I had the chance to play with were underwhelming to me. The screens were bad, the formatting atrocious, and the page turns looked like something out of a low-budget sci-fi movie.
I, frankly, love physical books. I could give you the reasons, but you all know what they are, because most of you feel the same. I carried a paperback with me wherever I went, and if I had a few spare moments—a bus ride, standing in line, a lunch break—I'd spend that time with the paperback clutched in my hand. I'd even read a book when I went for a walk—which, believe me, is just asking for trouble.
When Amazon invented their version of the ereader, I greeted the news with a yawn. Been there, done that. But then something strange happened. Through a sheer stroke of luck, or pure marketing genius, the Kindle took off. We all witnessed it, and many of us turned up our noses at the thought that such a device could ever replace our beloved books.
Some still feel that way.
But I'm a professional writer. I make my living putting words on my computer screen. As such, I'm also a businessman and it was in that capacity that I decided to toss a hundred bucks or so toward Amazon just so I could have the so-called Kindle Experience.
I wasn't expecting much. Hell, I wasn't expecting anything. And believe me, I waited a LONG time before making that purchase. It wasn't until the Kindle 3 came along that I finally broke down and bought one.
(By the way, I've never really understood why it's called a Kindle. The word kindle means to arouse or inspire or give birth. So I suppose that has something to do with it, but I'm just guessing.)
While I wasn't expecting much from my new Kindle, what I DIDN'T really expect was to fall in love with it. The first time I fired up a book and looked down at the screen, I was surprised at how much it looked just like a paperback. This wasn't a computer screen I was staring at, it was merely a page full of words in a very pleasing format that looked as if it had been printed by a printing press.
The page turning feature was pretty flawless and as I read those words, I found myself forgetting that I was holding a device at all. I was, in fact, reading a book. A real book.
Because, after all, what is a book anyway? There was a time when I could have gone on and on about the smell of the paper, the beauty of the cover, the feel of the pages as I turned them—and I still have shelves full of hardbacks and paperbacks to prove my love for the format—but what I ultimately realized was that as long as the technology wasn't intrusive, the only thing that mattered was this:
The words.
Because that, in essence, is all a book is. The delivery of a writer's thoughts into the minds of his or her readers. How those words get there is, in all honesty, far less important than the words themselves. Even the most beautiful, perfectly bound book is completely worthless if the words on that page don't carry the reader away to another time and place.
So, here I am now, a man who was completely opposed to the idea of ereaders, suddenly finding that I PREFER to read books on my Kindle. So much so that I don't buy paper books at all anymore, unless they aren't available in ebook format.
I've even taken it a step farther as an author, by writing and publishing my first Digital Original, TRIAL JUNKIES, which is listed somewhere on this site.
And what I've discovered is that there are thousands—literally thousands—of others out there who feel the same way that I do. When I did a free promo of TRIAL JUNKIES, I gave away over 46,000 copies. And since that day, thousands more have bought the book, propelling it into the Top 100 and several bestseller lists, including the #1 Legal Thriller.
The Kindle and other ereaders (the Nook, Kobo, Sony) have made it possible for authors to reach their readers directly, and have given them the freedom to write what they want, when they want, without the interference of third parties.
So I have two reasons to be pro Kindle. As a reader AND as a writer.
Without the interference of those third parties, it comes down to just me and you.
And I love that.
I, frankly, love physical books. I could give you the reasons, but you all know what they are, because most of you feel the same. I carried a paperback with me wherever I went, and if I had a few spare moments—a bus ride, standing in line, a lunch break—I'd spend that time with the paperback clutched in my hand. I'd even read a book when I went for a walk—which, believe me, is just asking for trouble.
When Amazon invented their version of the ereader, I greeted the news with a yawn. Been there, done that. But then something strange happened. Through a sheer stroke of luck, or pure marketing genius, the Kindle took off. We all witnessed it, and many of us turned up our noses at the thought that such a device could ever replace our beloved books.
Some still feel that way.
But I'm a professional writer. I make my living putting words on my computer screen. As such, I'm also a businessman and it was in that capacity that I decided to toss a hundred bucks or so toward Amazon just so I could have the so-called Kindle Experience.
I wasn't expecting much. Hell, I wasn't expecting anything. And believe me, I waited a LONG time before making that purchase. It wasn't until the Kindle 3 came along that I finally broke down and bought one.
(By the way, I've never really understood why it's called a Kindle. The word kindle means to arouse or inspire or give birth. So I suppose that has something to do with it, but I'm just guessing.)
While I wasn't expecting much from my new Kindle, what I DIDN'T really expect was to fall in love with it. The first time I fired up a book and looked down at the screen, I was surprised at how much it looked just like a paperback. This wasn't a computer screen I was staring at, it was merely a page full of words in a very pleasing format that looked as if it had been printed by a printing press.
The page turning feature was pretty flawless and as I read those words, I found myself forgetting that I was holding a device at all. I was, in fact, reading a book. A real book.
Because, after all, what is a book anyway? There was a time when I could have gone on and on about the smell of the paper, the beauty of the cover, the feel of the pages as I turned them—and I still have shelves full of hardbacks and paperbacks to prove my love for the format—but what I ultimately realized was that as long as the technology wasn't intrusive, the only thing that mattered was this:
The words.
Because that, in essence, is all a book is. The delivery of a writer's thoughts into the minds of his or her readers. How those words get there is, in all honesty, far less important than the words themselves. Even the most beautiful, perfectly bound book is completely worthless if the words on that page don't carry the reader away to another time and place.
So, here I am now, a man who was completely opposed to the idea of ereaders, suddenly finding that I PREFER to read books on my Kindle. So much so that I don't buy paper books at all anymore, unless they aren't available in ebook format.
I've even taken it a step farther as an author, by writing and publishing my first Digital Original, TRIAL JUNKIES, which is listed somewhere on this site.
And what I've discovered is that there are thousands—literally thousands—of others out there who feel the same way that I do. When I did a free promo of TRIAL JUNKIES, I gave away over 46,000 copies. And since that day, thousands more have bought the book, propelling it into the Top 100 and several bestseller lists, including the #1 Legal Thriller.
The Kindle and other ereaders (the Nook, Kobo, Sony) have made it possible for authors to reach their readers directly, and have given them the freedom to write what they want, when they want, without the interference of third parties.
So I have two reasons to be pro Kindle. As a reader AND as a writer.
Without the interference of those third parties, it comes down to just me and you.
And I love that.
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Still prefer the paper books but have been grateful for the speed and convenience of my Kindle. Fits the bill nicely when sitting in waiting rooms and/or need a copy of Jane Eyre for my high schooler who left her copy in her locker.
Like you, I'm coming to prefer reading on the Kindle, except for things like cookbooks or graphics-heavy books. The adjustable font size is a gift for tired, aging eyes, especially with publishers making paperbacks' print smaller and smaller all the time. And book storage is such a hassle for heavy readers, so it's nice knowing I can now hoard all the books I want!
I looked up the reason for the name "Kindle" for you:
The name was conceived by San Francisco designer Michael Cronan and according to his wife and partner Karen Hibma, this is how it was coined:
About three years ago, Cronan was asked by Lab126, an http://Amazon.com company, to name a consumer product line, which turned out to be the Kindle. Hibma says, "Michael came up with the name through our usual practice of exploring the depths of what the potential for the new product and product line could be and how the company wanted to present it. Jeff [Bezos, the CEO] wanted to talk about the future of reading, but in a small, not braggadocio way. We didn't want it to be 'techie' or trite, and we wanted it to be memorable, and meaningful in many ways of expression, from 'I love curling up with my Kindle to read a new book' to 'When I'm stuck in the airport or on line, I can Kindle my newspaper, favorite blogs or half a dozen books I'm reading.'"
Kindle means to set alight or start to burn, to arouse or be aroused, to make or become bright. The word's roots are from the Old Norse word kyndill, meaning Candle. "I verified that it had deep roots in literature," adds Hibma. "From Voltaire: 'The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others and it becomes the property of all.'" No other name could hold a candle to Kindle.