5 Reasons Why I Love My Kindle

Earlier on this year my brother and I decided that it was time to purchase an electronic reader. There are several different ones on the market, but since I am already an avid Amazon fan, I decided that it was going to have to be the Kindle. Now after using it for several months I want to list 5 reasons why I love my Kindle so much.

1. Battery Life: So I have already been reading books electronically for several years. First I used a Palm TungstenE and later an Ipod Touch. They are both great but they lack the Kindle's battery life. According to Amazon.com the battery should last for about a month. What I have discovered (and this is hard to measure since my usage was continual and not continuous) that using it several hours every day will give you about 2 weeks of reading. This is pretty awesome compared to the 3-5 hours that my previous devices had.

2. E-ink: The Kindle has a special screen that uses a system called E-ink. The goal is to make the screen look like actual paper. And the amazing thing is that it actually does look like printed ink on paper. I put a protective covering on the screen which makes it ever so slightly glossy, but does not impede on my reading at all. Also it is not backlit, like most electronic devices and so this is better for your eyes. Another advantage, you can read outside in the sunlight without your screen reflecting.

3. It's light: When reading I really like to hold my books in one hand (mainly so I can hold food in the other). Only 8.7 ounces, it weighs less than most books. It can be comfortably held in one hand for hours at a time (I cannot be stopped once I start on a good book).

4. Free Books: The website www.gutenberg.org offers over 36,000 free books in different electronic formats. These are books that are older and therefore are not subject to the same copyright laws anymore. Some nice people got together and decided that everyone should have access to these books for free and so project gutenberg was born.

5. Storage: It was always a family joke to see us packing for a trip. Every member of the family would take several books with them. Paperbacks do not weigh that much, but when you are taking ten with you it can add up. A Kindle also solves this problem. You can take hundreds and hundreds of books with you and your suitcase does not get any heavier. So, for someone who likes traveling and reading, this is an ideal combination.