Kindle and I

January 27, 2014 — Amazon, APE, books, Kindle, reading

APE Cover

In November I decided to go big and stay home with Amazon Prime. To make the most of the services one needs to own a Kindle for the lending library. I purchased the Kindle Fire and later the paperwhite. The Fire has an audio component with good sound. I enjoy the readers much more than I thought I might and new reasons are added all the time. Today as gift from Guy Kawasaki I received a free copy of APE, Author Publisher, Entrepreneur in my Kindle.  Since the book was a gracious gift I added narration for an extra $1.99. I have not tried it yet, but it now gives me the option of reading or listening to the book.  Since the paperwhite has no audio I will obviously use the Fire which so far I have used for cookbooks, instructional books, and poetry.  This is such a cool transformer feature.  I have always enjoyed audio books and frequently bought them after reading some book I liked.  Now they are combined for one low price if you decide at the outset to purchase it.  It bookmarks your place audio or reading. This is an upgrade.  I am excited to try it.

The paperwhite reading experience is easy on the eye and fits perfectly into the hand.  When I read A Religion of One’s Own on it recently I particularly enjoyed the vocabulary feature.  When you touch a word you access a dictionary and the word is automatically added to your Kindle’s vocabulary builder list.  The word remains on the list until you remove it manually.  This feature thrills me because I am a word and language lover, but not always a stop and get the dictionary person.  Reading should expand the vocabulary and glossing over meanings that are vague can lead to misunderstanding the author.  I thought maybe I had been silly in buying the Fire model, but now am pleased I have one that can use the added narration feature.  I love both of my Kindles and the fun eternal lending library which is included in Amazon Prime membership. I still love all the paper and print books in my home, but I see myself carrying all my books on Kindle as I buy them in the future. The advantages of Kindle ownership are numerous:

• Tiny, light, and holds a charge for a long time
• Books, audio, and magazines are published in the format
• Font size and lighting are adjustable
• More and more books are available on Kindle all the time
• Amazon gives super customer service and the free lending library

If you don’t have Amazon Prime you can do a free trial for a month, but to take full advantage of all it offers you need to own a Kindle.  I am extremely pleased with my decision to join and to buy my Kindles.  Now I am going to enjoy reading/listening to my new book to learn how to publish a book on Amazon.  It is all very fitting.