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November 30, 2007

WANT

Let me be clear. It's already ordered. I will be getting one. The question at this point is whether that will happen before we leave the country, which is what I'm really hoping for. Because I would far rather carry the Kindle across the ocean and around England (and maybe Paris) for several days than the ten books I have to read in order to prep for next semester.

Dave (of course) already has one. I spent Wednesday evening playing with it, to see if it would work for me. I can highlight text and make margin notes. I can "dogear" pages. Which, yes, I do all the time in my working books. So slap me around and whisper at me fiercely in your librarian voice. My books are well loved and annotated. I like to know what I was thinking about the last time I read a given work. I love other people's marginalia too, when it's intelligent and not just "This book sucks" scribbles. Though I will admit that one of my favorite books has a number of very personal notes written where I made discoveries.

But back to the Kindle. The screen is easy to read. It's not backlit or glare-y, which is the one think that has kept me away from e-books all this time. The pain of reading something as long as a book from a computer screen. That's not a problem here. And the setup is so simple that it becomes intuitive very quickly. You don't even notice, really, that you're pressing a button rather than turning a page. You just slip into the story. (There's a Neil Gaiman review video on the Amazon.com site where he says much the same thing.) In other words, the Kindle ROCKS.

Mind you, I'm not planning on giving up on books. I'll still want paper copies of everything I teach from. I love books too much to remove them from my life. The Kindle fits into the routine because it will let me take books with me without having to lug them all over campus or on trips. It will save my back and leave room in my backpack for important things like student papers.

It's on backorder, though. Mine isn't scheduled to ship until after we get home. Bah. Here's hoping they can make them faster than expected. I'd love to have one in my sweaty little palms before the end of finals week.

Posted by sally at November 30, 2007 09:40 AM

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