Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Book Nut


Well, I am a book nut. I'm always carrying around a book to read at lunch (and sometimes more than one!) I've got 2 or 3 going at a time these days (which I used to not allow myself to do). So, for Mother's Day my wonderful husband got me a Kindle2. (Photo above). If you don't know about it, a Kindle is an electronic reading device. This is the coolest thing ever! It will hold about 1500 books. It has a built in dictionary which you can use right where you are in the text, you can highlight, make clippings and even write notes where you are in the text. It remembers where you were when you last stopped reading so when you turn it back on you're right there. It will even read aloud to you. Once I figure out how to do it, you can even put MP3 files on it and listen to music while you read. It also will let you search Wikipedia and Google - these are experimental applications they are working on. Just incredible.
I just finished The Kitchen Boy (about Russian Tsar Nicholas II and his family - one of my very favorite subjects on which I have read many books) and am now reading For Whom the Bell Tolls - I have never read any Heminway before! I have the entire Bible on my Kindle (New Living Translation) and a collection of Dostoevsky as well as Alcoholics Anonymous, The Year with C. S. Lewis for a little daily meditation, and the Three Muskateers for some future day. I really want to read the Count of Monte Cristo but I found the Muskateers for free so I put it on there. You just search the Kindle store and buy your book and it downloads it to your Kindle in about 60 seconds. The entire Bible downloaded in 60 seconds! Can you believe that? You don't even have to be connected to a computer. It is a wireless connection direct to Amazon.com. As you can tell, I am thrilled to death with this little dumplin' and will be reading a lot!!!
This thing is small and compact and comfortable to hold, very easy to use and the new "paper technology" is awesome. Even in bright sunlight there is no problem seeing it at all. Not backlit like a computer screen. It looks just like a book page. I had already recently bought some books from Amazon before getting my Kindle so I'll have to read Liberal Facism and The 5000 Year Leap the old fashioned way, but oh I wish I had them on my Kindle! I'll have to be careful not to spend a fortune now on putting a library on it!
Anyway, hope you are all doing happy reading too.

1 comment:

Cristi said...

Oooooh, that sounds great and a PERFECT gift for you. He did good! Way cool!