Barbara Feldman: My Kindle Review

My Kindle Review

My Kindle arrived on August 4 and I love it.

I have wanted one since they were announced in November, 2007. But the price seemed high for its functionality. I mean, I can already read books. What would it REALLY add to my life? But when they announced Kindle 2.0, and then dropped the price, I inched closer and closer to a decision. Then one day, without any special fanfare, I just did it.

My first critical reaction to my new Kindle was concern over the black flash that appears briefly between pages, and the iffy Whispernet reception at my house. But now that I'm on book three, I simply love it. And the black flash? I don't even see it any more.

Why do I love it? Because I am reading more. I don't know if its the novelty of it, but it does seem to make reading easier and more convenient. In different lighting situations, I can change the size of the font to improve readability (yup, I'm that old) and I can easily switch from genre to genre, because all my reading material is in one device. I wasn't brave enough to take it to the beach, however. First there was concern about all that sand, and I also didn't want to leave it on my beach towel alone when I went into the water.

I have discovered that I prefer to browse the bookstore on my computer, where I can easily flit from one book to another. I love the free samples, which seem to be much meatier than those available at the online Amazon store. Are they really? I'm not sure

So, here's the pattern I've settled into. I browse books at Amazon.com from my computer, where I have the benefit of all the reader reviews and the related recommendations ("Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought"). From the store on my computer, I send selected sample chapters to my Kindle (wirelessly, of course.) Then on the Kindle itself, I read the sample chapters and make my purchases (done with a single click, since Amazon has my credit card already associated with my Kindle account.)

My first read was a perfect summer chick lit pick "Best Friends Forever: A Novel" by Jennifer Weiner. The best summary I can give of Weiner's new book is to repeat this snippet from the Washington Post review: ""What if Thelma and Louise didn't have to die?"

Then I devoured "My Life in France" by Julia Child, which gets five stars and I heartily recommend for anyone who loves Paris, travel, eating or cooking. This is one of the two books that the current hit movie "Julie & Julia" is based on. The other is the book version of Julia Powell's Julie/Julia Project blog: "Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously", which I have not read.

The "Julie & Julia" movie is fabulous. We saw it last night with another couple and all of us enjoyed it tremendously. In fact, while I'm in my Julia Child period, I am going to take the next step and try my hand at boeuf bourguignon this afternoon, using the recipe from "From Julia Child's Kitchen", which is the only Julia Child cookbook in my collection.

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