Has it been four months since my last log-in? Apparently so. Well, fortunately there's not too much to report, and I'm getting used to the 2 p.m. 'til midnight shift at the big bank. Chase what matters, as the ads say. For me, that's chasing the almighty dollar, but only to pay bills.
If you don't own a $79 Amazon Kindle, buy one, says this librarian. I've had a 2nd generation Sony Reader and traded it (donated it, actually) for this 4th generation Kindle. The ePearl ink with 16-level grayscale creates a good visual contrast; the display looks much better than the 50% improvement that's touted. Side-by-side with the old Sony Reader, the Kindle has the better screen clarity.
Plus, the very popular, ebook-managing Calibre freeware makes converting the Reader's epub format to .mobi very easy. However, Kindle owners will attest that the capability to download from the Amazon store gets you lazy, and it gets Amazon rich. I've heard that Amazon loses about $20 for every Kindle they sell. Amazon likely gets much more than that amount back in online book orders within weeks of a Kindle purchase. First you "order" some 99-cent games or discounted books, then it's the $1.99 deal-of-the-day, and then you're treating yourself to the $14.99 Steve Jobs biography. Bingo! Amazon.com has recouped its initial loss.
I'm surprised that more Kindle cheapie users haven't raved about the free games available. I've got two word-creation games, plus Video Poker and Blackjack. I spend half my Kindle "reading" time playing the games. Did I mention you just download them, they load in 20 seconds, and they're free?
I've only loaded about 70 books on the Kindle, and I doubt I'll ever have more than 200 on it, but oh, am I digging the biographies these days. From the wacko life of Mackenzie Phillips, to the dull beginnings of Steve Martin, to James Ellroy's darkest depths, it's all looking good on my basic Kindle. Plus, I was able to get a sampler version of my former colleague Lucy Snyder's short story collection, Sparks, for 99-cents.
Yes, I'm hooked on the 99-cent bargains, which included the famous 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I've yet to read that one, or the 99-cent recent biography of J. Edgar Hoover. So Amazon you'll nickel and dime my $20 debit, albeit 99 cents at a time.
Buy a Kindle, even the least expensive $79 model. You'll be glad you did.
