Tuesday, March 23, 2010

All things electronic

I've had my Kindle for a couple of months now and while it has some limitations, I like it. Mostly, I like reading USA Today and some blogs on the Kindle. I have a book or two and while some have been practical to read on the kindle, others have been more of a struggle.

One book that I'm on the fence about is "The Healthy Kitchen" by Andrew Weil and Rosie Dailey. I like being able to read it on the Kindle but at the same time, this is a book that would be nice to have in hardcopy. Could be I'll change my mind down the road as I become more adept at using the Kindle - only time will tell.

I'm definitely a fan of reading USA Today on my Kindle and even though it's not in color, I'm able to scan and read the paper and then zero in on those select articles when I get a chance on my regular computer and print to pdf if I want to preserve them for research or just plain morbid fascination. Sure beats cutting out articles from the actual paper and then trying to capture them electronically.

I just wish that the electronic version of books was more reasonable. The price points seem curious given that electronic delivery should be much more cost-effective than the actual book. It probably is but the savings aren't necessarily being passed onto the reader.

It will be interesting to see where we are at in 5, even 10 years on the issue of price.

I also purchased a netbook and so far so good. The keyboard takes a little getting use to but I like how compact it is, especially since I commute by train.

2 comments:

L. Diane Wolfe said...

The small to mid-sized publishers seem to be charging less - sell more even at less money I guess!

Rob Walker said...

Folks are buying into Kindle and ebooks in a huge way; all I read is how many are selling and I have sold in this month alone some 140 copies of various books I have on Kindle and there are seven more days left in March; what is cool is seeing your sales at the click of a button. Try that with a traditional publisher or even just asking your editor. HAAAA.