Are Digital Books Worth It? A Kindle Review

The digital age has brought some amazing innovations to our fingertips. E-books are one of those. Now it is possible for just about anyone to write a book and publish it in e-form at very little to no cost. The book becomes available to anyone and everyone with an internet connection and in essence, more and more people can become published authors than ever before.

With the birth of the e-book, typically published in PDF format, came the birth of the Kindle, and other such e-reader devices. These devices are stand alone readers with a few other bells and whistles such as a wireless internet connection, mp3 playing capability and even simple games.

The Kindle is Amazon.com’s rendition of the e-reader device and probably the most popular because it connects to the Amazon store and you can purchase books directly from the Kindle, have them instantly downloaded wireless  to your device and even have your bookmark’s synced from one device to another.

I’ll admit right now that I am intrigued by this device and the technology it uses but I don’t typically spend any money on single use devices like these, especially to the tune of $200+.

So when I noticed a Kindle application on my Android phone, I did a little research into the app. It appears that Amazon has released an app for the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Mac and Windows so just about anyone can take advantage of the Kindle book library and Kindle functionality.

I happily installed the app to give Kindle a whirl. The following are my thoughts.

I found the application very well designed. The different reading color contrast options, font sizes and brightnesses were welcomed and they all worked well. Navigating a book was very intuitive and I actually really enjoyed using the app to read on my phone.

I was able to jump onto the Amazon store and browse for books available for the Kindle and you can even download samples of any books available there. The sample books download right to the device like a full book would and they let you read a chapter or so in, just enough to get you really interested 🙂

Buying books was, dare I say, too easy. I accidentally bought a book that I was sampling because of the “One Click” buy method used by the Kindle. The majority of the books available on the Kindle are $10 although there is a section of free books (Most of them so obscure, I doubt I would ever read any of the titles there).

So all in all I found the app to be really well designed and I would love to use it to read PDF’s and other content, but I don’t think actually buying a Kindle device, or buying e-books from the Kindle store to be worth it for a few reasons.

Firstly, most of the books are $10 which isn’t too bad considering you get instant delivery and you can have the book an all of your Kindle devices such as your computer, your phone, and your Kindle reader but how often do you go to Amazon to buy a NEW book? I always check to see what options are available in the used category before I ever buy new and you can get most books, in physical form for under $10.

Secondly, when you buy in physical form, you have a physical copy. You can do with it what you please, once you have read it. You can give it away, or resell it to recoup part of the original cost.

One last thing I found interesting while reading more about Kindle on Amazon.com is that they tout the ability to take your entire library whith you where ever you go. Now I consider myself an avid reader, and always have a book on hand, but I can’t see why anyone would want to take their entire library with them everywhere they went. When I read a book, I read a book..not five or five hundred. It’s seems more like a trophy case than anything else and to me, a bit frivolous.

After thoroughly reviewing the app, I intend to return the digital copy of the book I purchased and I have already purchased a physical copy for a few dollars cheaper including shipping. Digital copies of books can be returned within 7 days, and from what I read, the return is hassle free.

Image by L’eau Bleue

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Tags: amazon store, bells and whistles, blackberry, book library, capability, color contrast, e book, e books, e reader, fingertips, innovations, iphone, money, rendition, sample books, simple games, synced, whirl, wireless internet connection