REVIEW: Kindle

I went to the dark side and bought myself a Kindle.

I know, I know. I've heard all the arguments about how it’s not the same as a good ol’ fashioned book - and I was one of those who used to preach the exact same thing. I used to frown down upon Kindles because it took away the beauty of reading a book. The process of going to a bookstore, fingering the covers and the bindings of tens of books, picking one up and feeling the texture of the pages, weighing the book in your hands as you flick through the pages before pressing your nose into the middle of the book to smell that comforting ‘book smell’. All those little pleasures are taken away when buying a Kindle, and that’s a very strong point that opposition have.

My rationale behind buying a Kindle was very simple. Due to the vast amount of work I am set at school, it is very rare that I get enough time to sit down with a cup of coffee and immerse myself in a novel. The last ‘actual’ book I read for pleasure was probably Lord of the Far Island, in Summer of 2014, which may give you a time-scale. However, a few months ago I bought Girl Gone on GoogleBooks for my phone. It was an impulse buy, admittedly, as it was on sale, but I devoured it within a couple of weeks (I am a fairly slow reader and this was during exam period so this was incredibly fast given the circumstances). I was amazed at how fast I read it, but in some ways, I’m not surprised. Being a typical teenage girl, my phone is in my hand 24/7 and in any spare moment (eg; on a bus journey, between lessons, when so-and-so goes on about their boyfriend…) I would open the app and easily pick off where left. It was that simple.

I knew that this means of reading suited me, however there was one major problem - I am shortsighted, very shortsighted. I knew that if I were to look at such a small screen*, my eyesight would get considerably worse and that was not something which I could sacrifice. Therefore, after a little investigation, I found the perfect alternative priced at £109.99: the new Kindle Paperwhite. Now, I don’t often buy the latest gadget on the market (in all honesty I often don’t find much difference between each generation and believe that it is only a way to sell more products *cough* Apple *cough*, but let’s not get into that), but this time I had my eye fixed on a product which still hadn’t been released. Therefore, there were no reviews to indicate whether the purchase would satisfy my needs, but the YouTube trailers sure did look good. Amazon also showed outstanding reviews for the previous generation, the Kindle Paperwhite 6, though there were a couple of complaints about the lack of backlighting, and for my eyesight’s sake, I didn’t even consider it (bearing in mind there were about 2 complaints out of 1000s, and it would have cost me considerably less but... it’s my life, Mum). And that was it. Item bought and dispatched the next day after I subscribed to the 30 day free trial of Amazon Prime in order to get free delivery.

Kurt the Kindle is now very much part of my life. Kurt, after Kurt Cobain, goes everywhere with me and fits perfectly into my handbag. I love him, I love him I love him I love him. As soon as I received him I ran upstairs to charge him and download books onto him.** One thing I must warn you of, dear Readers, is to search through the free books available before buying any. There are about 26 search pages of classic books which are included under the public domain and are free of charge. I myself downloaded around 50 of the free books, which range from anything from Great Expectations to Dracula. It’s as simple as one little click, and after signing in to your Amazon account on both devices (or alternatively plugging the Kindle into your laptop then connecting it to your WiFi), the books automatically sync in.

Kurt immediately introduces you to the How-To guide on how to use him and has Step-By-Step instructions in order to familiarise yourself with him. Once that is out the way, you can always go back to the Manual, which is kept in your personal ‘bookshelf’ as well as a Dictionary. Oh, one of my favourite things about Kurt is the dictionary. When reading a book, even if you’re offline, you can highlight a word and not only does it give you a definition, where the word originates from, the option to X-Ray or Wikipedia it (internet required), but it also automatically adds the unfamiliar word to your personal dictionary so that you can review and learn it! How awesome is that? If English is not your native language, there is also an option called ‘Word Wise’ which gives simple explanations of words above a complicated word whilst reading and you can select how many words you want Kurt to define (ranging on difficulty levels).

Being an English Literature student, I was worried about how I would make notes, however Kurt had the solution. I can highlight sections of any text, add notes, but more importantly, I can also see sections which other Kindle users have highlighted and depending on how many times they have highlighted it I can judge the importance of the quote. That is by no doubt one of my favourite things about Kurt. The mere simplicity and how easy it is to use him. I remember when I used to have ‘actual’ books and went through the grand deliberation of weighing up the consequences of writing in books. Whether it be for personal notes or for school, I think we can all agree that writing in a book feels like a crime, a violation. However, with Kurt I don’t feel guilty at all.

Apologises for the length of this blog post, I'm just really enthusiastic about Kindles. I hope that you can all understand, or at least, have some more knowledge, on how amazing Kindles are and that there is so much blasphemy surrounding them. If you have a Kindle, please feel free to comment your thoughts and if not, I’d love to hear why you’re a good ol’ fashioned book lover!

* I own the Motorola G 2nd Gen with the 5”5 inch screen but it is still comparatively small. Endless research has shown that due to the reflection/glare which screens give off, access use of electronic devices such as mobile phones is not recommended without pauses of 15mins of looking into the long distance in order to relax one’s eye muscles. Kindles are fitted with anti-glare and therefore doesn’t look or act like a screen. It gives the appearance and also feels like actual paper.

** The cable is included but with no plug that connects to a wall, so I normally just plug it into the side of my laptop or swap wires with that of my phone.