Why Get a Kindle? Some Pros and Cons of Reading on Kindle Paperwhite

They make for different reading experiences. On some days now I want to read a paperback, and on others I want to hold and play with the Kindle. The way we adapt to things has always fascinated me. We embrace new things but we don’t really let go of the old ones. You know the story: we still have radio and television (albeit much changed in content, support, infrastructure, etc.).

So by all means, if you like to read, try the Kindle Paperwhite. It’s beautifully made and a pleasure to handle. It’s lightweight, the touchscreen is great (I imagine you can work the letters much faster than on the older models, which had the QWERTY keyboard separate from the screen), the nice built-in light (you can choose the brightness setting which works best for you in a given environment) of the E Ink display is easy on the eyes and uses less battery power than regular tablet screens, and the option to highlight and annotate passages is nice.

Another advantage is that this thing is really helpful if you want to travel light, especially if you are the kind of reader who doesn’t read only one book at a time. It can be hard to decide what to take on a trip, especially if it involves long train rides and long airport stopovers.

If you like your electronics to work super fast, the processor on the Kindle seems to have a short lag (some two seconds?) before it saves your annotations. BUT I have the pre-September 2013 version, and I’m reading the processor is faster on Kindle Paperwhite 2. And in any event, I can wait. I get two seconds longer to think about that passage.

The Daily Deals (usually $1.99). I discovered great reads through this feature (you get to read reviews, of course, and also samples for free), including some contemporary classics I long wanted to read and others I didn’t know about. Also, there are “singles” written for Kindle, some sort of novellas. And you can read various magazines you subscribe to, or serials you pay for.

It’s also a great way to read some literary magazines out there.

Then there’s Project Gutenberg, which has over 42,000 free ebooks. I had to pay to read them in paperback before I had the Kindle, because I simply can’t read a book on the laptop. So this was one major reason why I decided to get the Kindle.

Another major reason is that while you won’t find on Amazon all the books you want in a Kindle format (especially if it’s an older book), you do get to find many, and your living quarters will be less cluttered. So even if you will still buy paperbacks, the fact that you save some of the space this way is great.

I found myself spending more on books ever since I got the Kindle. Maybe it’s just the initial excitement. I don’t know yet. It’s all very tempting, whenever you have a wireless connection, to check those Daily Deals and other books.

Now, another con: not having a 3G connection. Make sure you get the Kindle Paperwhite 3G. It’s $209 on Amazon right now (compare that to $139 for the one with Wi-Fi only) but it’s worth it, I think. And don’t kid yourself: you’ll be spending much more once you get it (on the other hand, if you spend your dollars carefully, you may save money in the long run). That’s how technology works nowadays -- that's why Nokia, which closed the deal with you once it offered you the mobile phone, lost the race.

Now, if you know you do NOT want to spend too much money on books, and plan, for instance, to read mostly books in the public domain made available by Project Gutenberg, you may be happy with the Wi-Fi Kindle Paperwhite. Do note that you CAN download books from your computer, of course. And you can also access the Daily Deals on your laptop and download books first to your computer, and then, through a USB cable, to your Kindle.

Note that you can also see your highlights and notes online on kindle.amazon.com.

There are many more features to explore. There’s Amazon Prime, which gives you access to a large library of books from Amazon as well as to books owned by other subscribers (you can borrow them through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library), free two-day shipping for a year, and more.

You can also share book ratings, highlights and annotations with other Kindle owners. To learn more, click on any of the images below and take a product tour on Amazon.

Happy reading!