Friday, September 17, 2010

Why I love the Kindle - Part 2

It has been many years since I have gone paperless. Every note that I keep, from income tax records to instructions, letters, memory joggers, schedules, etc, are stored digitally. Therefore it is only natural that I embrace ebooks so readily. I can add volumes to my collection without adding one single piece of paper to my cabinet.

Amazon has a super built-in support for the Kindle. Any book you buy or download for free exists as an archive record in Amazon's database. You can choose to delete this permanently if you wish. As long as it is there, you can re-download your book at any time without making the same purchase again.

As for the reading experience, I think I can get used to reading from an electronic tablet. Some people might miss the feel of a book; I don't. I quite like the fact that the page I am reading is always there. The pages don't get accidentally turned or blown by the wind. I can change the font size if it is too small. The Kindle allows me to play music on its built-in speaker while I read. I can even get the Kindle to read to me, if I wanted to. I love the built-in dictionary and I have used it many times.

If everyone embraces ebooks, what will happen to the future of paper books? I think reference books will continue to be printed and sold. At the same time, fiction and news articles will probably exist better in bytes than in books.

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