Kindle-ing a desire to read

This post was originally drafted in May when I actually bought my kindle – I finally got round to actually publishing it…

__Earlier this year I finally gave in. I felt a moment of regret about buying into an enormous DRM machine as I clicked purchase on my new Amazon Kindle 3G. I felt a little dirty because of the DRM. Still, I wasn’t buying Sony so I can live with it.

Then theft next day it arrived. So simply packaged, entirely in recycled cardboard, that I forgot about that dirty DRM feeling and tore open the packaging. I pulled out my new kindle and just sat there admiring the instructions showing on the screen. A screen which could show that image for months without charging. It was beautiful.

DRM aside the kindle is an incredible thing.

There are a few hiddenkindle gems including shortcut keys, minesweeper and how to change the screensaver pictures at the following site: From down the hill : Kindle 3 Keyboard Shortcuts et al.

Since then I have been averaging just over a book a month. Some were free, some were £0.71, most are around the £5/£6 mark and one was nearly £10. DRM aside, I have been reading way more than I normally do, as getting to the end of a book is not such an obstacle. The hardest part is choosing what to read next, but while in the middle of a series it is only a 15 second delay to get on to the next book.

I am looking forward to UK lending and eLibraries which support Kindle. Though even without that, I am still reading more than I ever used to and am really loving the fact that I have so much available to read with so little effort. In some ways it is slightly worrying how easy it is to purchase a new book, but at least they are generally cheap.