I have a confession to make, and it’s one that surprises me as much as anybody else: my Kindle has been collecting some serious dust this year. I always swore that tablets and e-ink were different animals, that use of one need not threaten use of the other, that you would have to pry my Kindle from my cold, dead hands and so on. Well, now, I stand corrected. 90% of my reading this year has been on my tablet device, and here’s why.
1) Sometimes, you just need a backlight. I like to read just before bedtime, and since my move in May, have had better bedtime habits than I did when I lived alone. I like having some time with the boy before we turn the lights out, and since he goes to bed much earlier than I used to, I have been hitting the sheets by 10 pm. Since I am naturally a night owl, I am awake for at least an hour or so and that is plenty of reading time, right? Well, yes. But—the new bedroom only has one power outlet, and it’s on his side of the bed, so I find myself wanting to read but lacking the Kindle-friendly light source I need to do it. Backlit iPod Touch to the rescue! Without it, I couldn’t read during the time of day when I most want to. And if my eyes do get fatigued (they haven’t, but even so) then so what? It’s bedtime. I was going to sleep anyway.
2) Sometimes, lifestyle dictates choice of device at hand. I find that during the work week, I tend to have my iPod Touch with me because I use it during my morning commute, and then during the day I have the iPad with me because the computers at school are unreliable so I keep everything on there. If I have a few minutes to read during lunch, that is what I have with me. I am unlikely to bring the Kindle to work just for the lunch break since it’s just an extra thing to carry and I can view the same content on the iPad. I also find that during these shorter breaks, I am more likely to go for magazines (since I can finish a whole article in even a very short reading break) or cookbooks (if I am planning to grocery shop on my way home and am trolling for new ideas). Both of these genres look much better on the iPad’s glossy screen than on the stark black and white of the Kindle.
3) Syncing is just so easy on a tablet these days, especially now that I can sync personal documents (aka non-Amazon books) across my devices using the Kindle server. I love that I can read on the bus on my iPod Touch, resume the story later on my iPad while on a lunch break, and then finish it at night on my iPod Touch. I realize that I could add the Kindle into that loop and sync to there too, but given my reading habits (i.e. I tend to read mostly while on the bus or in bed) it just wouldn’t be worth my time . I’d have three sets of reading list to go in and delete finished books off of, and I’d deplete the battery on my Kindle faster because I’d need to leave the wireless on all the time. It seems easier to just keep my main reading on the two devices I use most and to save my Kindle for special purposes.
So, is my Kindle ready for the trash heap? Not necessarily. I am keeping a small but valuable stash of French books on there because I like that the hardware Kindle (unlike the app versions) lets you load a custom dictionary so that you can read in other languages. And I also have a pile of mystery magazines and short story anthologies on there because the collections feature (also absent in the app versions) lets me group those together and work through them at my own pace without cluttering up my screen with hundreds of entries. And for travel, the Kindle with its long battery life can’t be beat!
But with that said, I must admit that if anything happened to my hardware Kindle, I probably wouldn’t miss it much and would not rush out to replace it. Reading on a tablet, for me, has become such a natural, easy routine that I use my Kindle much less than I used to but am reading more than ever. Still, if you had predicted a year a ago that a book lover like me would have a Kindle sitting in the corner, neglected, I probably wouldn’t have believed you!
I like having a Kindle Touch but truth be told my reading & buying is done on my iPhone/iPod Touch or Samsung Galaxy Tab. These gadgets are easy to use, hold and have a backlight. They are used all the time. Having said that Amazon’s service is fantastic. Great selection, ease of use, etc. can’t be beat.
The best ebook company there is. Cannot say enough good things about them. All the others, here in Canada at least, do not measure up to their *excellent* business model. 3 Cheers for Kindle Store.
I find myself reading less on the iPad and more on the Kindle Fire now. It’s frustrating that I can’t load ePub files onto the Kindle without converting them to mobi though. That said, I guess the Fire is a tablet. I love the new iPad’s screen, but the Kindle’s size is so much better for relaxing and reading. I only ever use the Fire to read on – the rest of the UI and functionality is so clunky compared to the ease of using an iPad. I was never able to understand the attraction of eInk Kindles – the annoying keyboard that you hardly ever use, no backlit screen for reading at night, but most of all I find the ‘flash’ every time you turn a page and the ink resets to be so distracting that I cant lose myself in a book.
@Liam, you can load an ePub reading app such as Mantano (or Aldiko or Bluefire) onto your Fire and use that to read ePubs (and PDF’s if desired).
Thanks Brian,
Would that I could!
Unfortunately, I’m in Australia.. so I can’t use my Fire to install third party apps on it yet as it hasn’t launched officially here yet! I got the Fire in order to develop for it, but am enjoying using it to read books on as well now 🙂
For reading when up and about, I prefer my iPad. It’s more versatile, and I can read ebooks from multiple sources as well as articles in Instapaper. I can also follow web links.
The lack of any serious apps for my Kindle 3 is a big handicap, as is the fact that personal documents I send to it have to be managed by being installed and removed. The epaper Kindles need a version of Instapaper, but Amazon doesn’t seem to want to see that happen. In short, I’ve grown tired of waiting for real apps to appear on epaper Kindles. Mine has become a one-trick pony.
For reading in bed, however, I still prefer that Kindle 3. It’s much lighter and reading with dim lighting from behind helps get me ready for sleeping. And if I grow tired of one book, I can pick up in another in a few seconds.
Liam,
You can download Aldiko from Aldiko’s site.
http://www.aldiko.com/download.html
Just be sure your settings for your device are to Allow installs of apps from ‘unknown sources’
Amazon allows that.