By Truman Lewis
ConsumerAffairs.com
March 5, 2009 -->-->
Everyone else has already reviewed Amazon's Kindle 2, which is impressive since it's only been available for a week or two. Most reviews spent lots of ink or electrons comparing the latest Kindle to the earlier one, which is fine if you have both but — let's be honest — most of us don't.
As a first-time Kindle user, I thought it was important to spend some time with the thing and see if it really is a substitute for — or even an improvement on — the standard-issue book that has been around for more centuries than most of us can remember.
The verdict? It's better than books in some ways and, quite honestly, I can't find any objective standard by which it's worse.
The author at "work"
For those who have been in a coma the last few years, the Kindle is an "electronic reader" — more commonly called an ebook. Simply put, it is to books what iTunes is to CDs.
You can read all about its many gee-whiz features and ergonomic pluses and minuses elsewhere. I'd like to concentrate on its usefulness to habitual readers or, as they used to be known, bookworms.
Now, reading is one of those things that everyone claims to be in favor of, although in fact the powers that be often as not frown on the actual practice of reading, equating it with goofing off, lollygagging, procrastination or just downright troublemaking. It's also not uncommon for those of an authoritarian bent to think they know what the rest of us should be reading at any given time.
The Kindle offers an elegant solution to both of these problems.
Let's say you're in that modern torture chamber — a meeting or lecture, where those with the authority to tell you to sit down and shut up have already done so and are now droning on about who-knows-what.
Assuming you buy the little leather case for the Kindle for an extra $30 or so, you can open its cover and, by holding a pen in your right hand, make it look as though you are poised to record the brilliant comments of the windbag currently holding forth, while in fact you are reading Mark Twain's fictional memoir of his career as the editor of a weekly agricultural newspaper.
This technique also works if you are seated in your cubicle at the digit factory. You can easily look as though you are assiduously studying your notes from the aforesaid interminable meeting when, in fact, you are reading the latest bilge from Stephen King.
There are, of course, times when reading is acceptable but all too often, the material one is supposed to be reading — a geology textbook, let's say — is a bit less than riveting. The Kindle in its case will slip nicely into the chasm of the geology book, allowing you to continue plowing through Charlie Huston's latest noir thriller.
Or let's say that you are afflicted with a spouse who values thrift above all else and constantly exhorts you to patronize the library instead of the local Barnes & Noble. No longer do you have to scuff up your new copy of American Rust, vainly trying to make it look like a well-read library copy.
With the Kindle, you can order a new book every day — most cost about $10 from Amazon and are delivered instantly — and your spouse will never be the wiser. If you are smart, you will scuff up the Kindle cover and perhaps spill some coffee on it (the cover, not the Kindle), causing your spouse to mentally associate your Kindle with a browbeaten library book. You still have to intercept the monthly Visa bill, of course, but you'd have to do that anyway, wouldn't you?
Grueling test
But enough prescriptions for chronic underachievement, let's take it out on the track and see what it's made of.
In the 10 days or so that we've had our Kindle, we've put it through every test known to the book world. We have read it outside in bright sunshine (the screen is basically an Etch-A-Sketch rather than an LCD and isn't bothered much by glare), inside in dim lighting next to the fireplace and even upstairs in bed.
We have read it while comfortably seated on a sofa, perched on a breakfast stool and when prone on various flat surfaces, lying both on back and side. We have even read it while holding, comforting or restraining one or more dogs and cats.
It passed all of these tests with flying colors and we noted these further advantages:
• It's hard to lose your page. The Kindle automatically bookmarks the current page and will take you back to it if you accidentally press the wrong navigation button;
• It's not bulky. It is the size of a thin trade paperback and will hold thousands of books. If you travel, this is a huge benefit, as it relieves you of the burden of carrying multiple books on board;
• It won't take over your house. Bookworms move frequently, usually because their current habitat has filled up with books. This is not a problem with the Kindle. You can live in elegant, uncluttered splendor just like your illiterate neighbors;
• Neurotics' Nirvana. Do you fear being trapped on a train, in an elevator or doctor's office with nothing to read but three-year-old copies of Car & Driver? Now you can slip your Kindle in bag or purse and have a stack of unread newbies and old favorites available at a moment's notice. Boredom begone!
• No waiting. No more must you read about the latest biography, political polemic, novel or cookbook and then race to Borders in hopes of finding it. A quick online jaunt to Amazon will likely do the trick.
• It's expensive but cheap. OK, the Kindle costs $359 and that's not cheap. But hardcover books cost $25 or more, whereas Kindle books run about $10 on Amazon. If you read a lot, this is like replacing your Hummer with a Prius. What's not to like?
Oh, one other thing — your friends, relatives and coworkers can't "borrow" your Kindle books.
So, that's it. The Kindle 2 is a Godsend for readers. Those who don't read a lot shouldn't get one. Simple as that.
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