I present to you the second half of a diary chronicling my experiences with the Kindle 2 wi-fi. Read Part 1 of my Kindle diary here. (You can also read Parts 1 and 2 of my Nook diary.)
Hurrah! Amazon has announced a new lending feature for the Kindle, which means I can share titles with other Kindle users for 14 days at a time. The Nook’s LendMe feature was one of the main things that drew me to that device, so I’m excited to find that the Kindle now supports sharing e-books.
There’s just one tiny problem. None of the e-books I own appears to be lendable. Turns out the publisher gets to decide whether to make a title available for the lending feature, and not too many publishers seem to be as excited by this feature as I am. This is really too bad. A 14-day lending period is completely reasonable. Sharing books builds hype and gets readers hooked on a new author or series. Plus, it keeps Kindle-users happy so that they aren’t tempted to illegally download books for free. My 2 cents.
Week 13
I’m having a hard time trying to decide which books to download to my device, which to get from the library, and which to buy from a bookstore. Most of my books come from the library, because I read far more books in a month than I can afford to buy. But if a book is popular I have to wait weeks or months to get it from the library. If I buy a book from a local store, I’m supporting my local economy and I can pass the book on to a friend who might like it. But downloading it to my Kindle is easiest–it’s fast, and I don’t have to pay for gas to get to the store or shipping to order it online.
So here’s my system for determining whether to download a book (10 points=pay for the download):
- 10 points if I think I will love the book and want to keep it for a long time
- 7 points if I have giftcard that will cover all or most of the purchase (not 10, because who wants to waste a giftcard on a book that you won’t actually like?)
- 7 points if the book is self-pubbed and therefore only available as an e-book (but I need another reason to justify buying a book at all)
- 7 points if the e-book is really, really cheap (even though I’m probably less likely to enjoy a cheaper book)
- 5 points if I really want to read the book but all copies are checked out of the library
- 5 points if the book will be difficult to read and I’m going to want to hang onto it for a long time to finish it
- 3 points if I really need something to read but am feeling too lazy to go out and buy/borrow a book
- -5 points if my son hasn’t gotten to go to the bookstore in a while
- -5 points if I think a friend or family member will want to borrow the book when I’m finished
I’ll admit that one of the reasons I wanted an e-reader rather than an iPad or smartphone is that a device like the Kindle keeps me free from distractions. Yes, it has a web browser on it, but it’s so difficult to use that I mostly ignore it. I
So it sounds like you like the Kindle better than the Nook, Parker — true?
True. But if the newer generation Nooks don’t have as many technical glitches, I’d say my love for the devices would be almost even.
I don’t have Kindle or Nook, but I’ve downloaded the free app to my IPhone and plan to do the same when I get an IPad.
My book, DEAD GIRL WALKING, just came out free for the month of May on Nook & Kindle and I downloaded it to both apps. I haven’t figured out yet much about them, but noticed the lower corner dog-ear symbol on Nook for bookmarking a spot, which I like. I think I like the look of the Nook’s download best. But my learning curve is still growing.
I love your point system!! So far I’ve only paid for a few books but once I get an I-Pad I plan to try more this way for traveling.
For home reading, there’s nothing better than a paper book fluttering pages in my hands.