Feb 13th, 2009
Is the Kindle a Frugal Way to Read?
I have to say that I’ve been doing a lot more reading of blogs than books and the books I’ve been consuming have much more likely been audiobooks than physical books, but the Kindle has always intrigued me–in a “not quite ready for prime time but it looks like this could end up being really cool” kind of way. This week, Amazon introduced version two of the Kindle. For the uninitiated, the Amazon Kindle is an electronic book reader with 3G wireless access, a rudimentary Web browser, and the ability to download books quickly to your reader over the air. Some tech Geeks (Andy Ihnatko, for instance) absolutely love it. For me, I’m interested in it, but I’m pretty sure I’m not buying one (although I’m not closing the door).
The Kindle can cut down on the amount of books you buy; that can be a fantastic thing in terms of both dollars (if the Kindle versions are cheaper which they have the potential to be–even if they aren’t yet in reality) and space. The text to speech option is intriguing–turn any book on the Kindle into an audiobook–but the quality of the speech seems to be about the same as you get from a computer these days.
Still, the issue for me is pretty simple–I can use the public library a lot cheaper than I can the Kindle, and the Kindle does make an inviting target for high tech pilferers. So while I admire the technology, I have to say that right now, the Kindle’s not on my to buy list–but not necessarily permanently.
My brother in law has a kindle and is in college. I know he saves money getting text books and other books he needs for school on his kindle. But I don’t know if he has saved enough to warrant the kindle.