Amazon's Kindle ignites reader interest

By Dina Gerdeman

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Your novel may be a page-turner, but with the Amazon Kindle, you'll get to the next chapter by pushing a button.

The Amazon Kindle, an electronic reading device, lets you read that all-engrossing novel or your favorite newspaper on a stand-alone six-inch display screen about the size of a paperback page.

The portable device uses the same 3G network as advanced cell phones. Users can purchase books through the Kindle Store, and content is delivered over a wireless system called Amazon Whispernet through Sprint's EV-DO network, which is accessible at no charge.

At the time of the Kindle’s release in November 2007, more than 88,000 books were available for download; today more than 130,000 titles can be accessed digitally, including most of the bestsellers on the New York Times Bestseller List. Most books on the bestseller list run $10, while many others cost less. It's about as simple as loading digital music onto your iPod.

If you're not sure the book you're considering is worth the fee, you may download and read the first chapters of books for free to see if they reel you in before deciding whether to buy them. The Kindle also provides subscriptions to major magazines and newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, TIME and Forbes for a monthly fee.

The Kindle, which costs $359, has enough memory to hold roughly 200 non-illustrated books, and an optional memory card is available to let the user add more.

Features on the Kindle include a basic Web browser; NowNow, an online research service that can provide answers to simple questions; and the ability to play tunes from MP3 files, providing background music while you read. It also includes the Oxford American Dictionary inside, allowing you to look up words you run across while reading.

The device has a fairly long battery life. If you leave the wireless button on, the Kindle will need to be charged about every other day. If you turn wireless off, you can typically read for a week or longer without the device losing life. It takes about two hours to fully charge it, but even a 20-minute charge gives the Kindle enough juice to last for a while.

The Kindle simulates a printed page, displaying ink electronically and reflecting light in the same way paper does. It does not use backlighting, which eliminates the glare often found on other electronic displays.

If you find the small type in paperbacks a little hard to read, the Kindle has six adjustable font sizes, allowing the reader to increase the text size. The user can turn "pages" using buttons on either side of the device, accommodating both left- and right-handed people. However, critics say the two-sided buttons make it too easy to hit the Next Page key accidentally.

Other criticisms include: A keyboard that can be slow to respond, which means there is often a slight pause before the letter the user types appears on the display screen; a space bar that was placed on the left side, which is awkward for people who hit the space bar with their right hands; and delete and enter keys that are located too close to each other and can easily be mixed up.

Overall, though, many will find the Kindle lightweight, simple to use and easy to hold -- because it's a reading device that is comfortable enough to use, many people may just start reading more electronically while saving some space in their bookcases.