Sunday, July 26, 2009

7 Days of Kindle: Day 3: Books


And now...what the Kindle was truly created for: BOOKS!


Kindle offers 300,000 titles, which include almost all the NYT best-sellers and some public domain work such as The Art of War, Pride and Prejudice and Shakespeare, which is free.


What I absolutely love is the fact that all books offer a sample, which can range anywhere from three to 30 pages, depending on the publisher. This try before you buy mechanism allows you to get a good feel for the book. Samples that need more pages include Julia Cameron's "The Right to Write." Three pages? Uh, no. But what was amazing was the sample from the book, "Strapless" at over 30 pages.


Prices are far less than their hardcover options and run on average from $4.99 to $9.99 per book. I wish they put the prices on the main navigation bar so you can see them before you have to click in each title. But specials abound and I don’t miss turning the pages the way I thought I would.


Features I love: include the fact I can resize the text in six directions which helps late at night, and I like the fact that the automated voice can read anything on the Kindle to you.
Features I dream of: a color screen, a volume button for the voice (it’s a tad low without earphones).

Feature that is most fabulous: The wonderful buy one get one free offers and all the other special deals Amazon offers for the Kindle. I bought Chris Anderson's new book, "Free" and got "The Long Tail" along with it. It's these kind of deals that make the Kindle the medium of the future.


I also was able to download the No. 1 NYT best-seller free, "Paranoid." It's a thriller, something I don't get a chance to read much of but at free, you can't beat the value. Somehow I already feel that the Kindle is making me a much more varied reader.

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