Thanks. :) And happy birthday to you, too! Based on discussion of your birthday swag in your journal, I gather our birthdays were pretty close -- mine was on the 11th.
I have yet to scratch the surface of how cool this thing will be, I think. It will get dramatically cooler when I get back to the US and can use the Whispertel network. Telecom is still ass backwards up in Canada. But I'm looking forward to getting blog entries, Asimov's, and a whole bunch of other things on it.
Okay, approximately...11 seconds before I pulled up LJ and saw this entry, I'd just finished singing the praises of electronic readers to a co-worker of mine (I introduced him to the Baen Free Library last week).
That was my primary motivator for wanting an e-reader of some sort -- not even just how cool the Kindle is as a device (and it is indeed very cool) but the environmental standpoint. Though I should probably try to find or create some breakdown of how many trees have to die in the aggregate to allow for the creation of the device and the packaging. =P I would bet it still probably exceeds book publishing industry + shipping, though.
Ha! I did that one-click ordering thing -- I can't even use Whispernet yet -- and I was truly unsettled at how instantaneous the purchase was. No confirmation, no nothing -- just one click and "congratulations! your book is being delivered." It was honestly unnerving. :)
We'll see how I fare once I get to Whispernet access... what they ought to do is let you hook up an Amazon gift card to it, and not the CC, so you can budget your purchases...
The only thing that really bothers me is that it seems completely random which books have kindle editions and which don't. There are a lot of series that have one book available, but not another in the series... very annoying, very random.
And several books I'm waiting for now not only have no kindle edition, but no electronic edition at all. I'm beginning to understand why there are pirated editions of things. I went so far as to look up some of the authors in the SFWA Directory and ping them to ask if there was ANY way I could buy a PDF or electronic version of something they have, and no one was willing. :P
Huh. Good to know you did that legwork. I'm going to be contacting a couple of editors to ask if they'll make Kindle editions available -- but I'm sure it has to do with the Parnassus of the owning publishing company as to whether they offer it or not, because I would bet right now there's a lot of analysis going on from the bottom line level as to how the Kindle edition will impact sales. And they have to set a pricepoint, which depending on the organization can be a huge issue since it directly impacts revenue.
But you're right, that was the one disappointing thing, but I guess it comes with jumping in on a first generation of a technology like this. I think the only way it changes is if Kindle users get more vocal about contacting the book publishers and sending the "hey, I want to give you money and you're inhibiting me from doing so" request letters.
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I have yet to scratch the surface of how cool this thing will be, I think. It will get dramatically cooler when I get back to the US and can use the Whispertel network. Telecom is still ass backwards up in Canada. But I'm looking forward to getting blog entries, Asimov's, and a whole bunch of other things on it.
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Enjoy the easy-access-reading-niftiness!
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That was my primary motivator for wanting an e-reader of some sort -- not even just how cool the Kindle is as a device (and it is indeed very cool) but the environmental standpoint. Though I should probably try to find or create some breakdown of how many trees have to die in the aggregate to allow for the creation of the device and the packaging. =P I would bet it still probably exceeds book publishing industry + shipping, though.
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It is very cool, though. I'm looking forward to saving trees.
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I have the whispernet thing turned off though, as a way to control impulse buys. :P
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We'll see how I fare once I get to Whispernet access... what they ought to do is let you hook up an Amazon gift card to it, and not the CC, so you can budget your purchases...
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And several books I'm waiting for now not only have no kindle edition, but no electronic edition at all. I'm beginning to understand why there are pirated editions of things. I went so far as to look up some of the authors in the SFWA Directory and ping them to ask if there was ANY way I could buy a PDF or electronic version of something they have, and no one was willing. :P
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But you're right, that was the one disappointing thing, but I guess it comes with jumping in on a first generation of a technology like this. I think the only way it changes is if Kindle users get more vocal about contacting the book publishers and sending the "hey, I want to give you money and you're inhibiting me from doing so" request letters.
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