Re:i like the idea of the kindle (Score 1)

I recently bought a Kindle and read it on the bus pretty much everyday. You bring up some really good justifications of why it doesn't make sense for you to get one. What I think is funny is that your reasons for not getting one are the reason that pushed me into getting one. For the most part, the library doesn't work for me. It's out of the way, a pain to work into my schedule for returning books, and I end up getting late fines before I know it (don't get me started on the library I lived near that wasn't open on weekends and didn't have an after hours drop-bin). The $1 bin at Half Price Books isn't my style as far as things I'd like to read, so that doesn't work well for me either.

What did convince me to buy the Kindle was the fact that I could carry a bunch of books with me at the same time. Considering I'm going on vacation soon, this was a huge draw. I did some research into the books that are available and found that pop fiction type stuff is way too expensive (so much so that if that's all you read, then I don't suggest getting a Kindle), but those are the types of books I don't like reading, so I was fine. It ended up that a lot of the tech books I owned were available on there. I did some basic math and figured out that the discounted Kindle version of these tech books would have covered the cost of the Kindle. I also looked into what formats were supported by the Kindle and found that plain text can be transferred over to the Kindle. So I now go to Project Gutenberg and grab a bunch of the classics that are no longer under copyright for free.

Free classics, cheaper tech books, on a device I can bring with me anywhere without much hassle? That's what did it. Since getting the Kindle, I'm pretty happy with it, but it definitely has its flaws. The buttons on the sides make it awkward to hold at times. The keyboard was designed as if you were only using it one way (with both thumbs at the same time), which aggravates me most of the time. But I do think that the screen makes up for it and the convenience is great. We're thinking about getting a second one, because after I bought it I found out that you can hook up 5 Kindles to your account and they all get the books that have been purchased. But I'll need some time before taking that step...even that might not be enough to justify the extra price...