Typoze’s reigning typo hunter, Deletia, shares her thoughts on the Kindle.

I’ve been reading with my Kindle for about a month now, so I’m becoming familiar with its
strengths and weaknesses. I enjoy having it, and it’s easy to use. I’m already substituting it for many paper books. The e-book is more portable than an average print edition, and instead of one book, I have a variety of options with me anywhere I might have spare time to read. The ”e-ink” is visually similar to printed text. It’s convenient not to hold the book open while reading, and it’s fun & informative to be able to touch any word for a second to pop up the definition from the onboard dictionary. There’s quite a large selection of free and very cheap reading material, and most books will let you download the first chapter or two as a free trial.  I lik sampling various authors. I also enjoy the various free word games which are available.

Paper books still have some advantages. They’re easier to flip back and forth in, if you’re not doing the traditional beginning-to-end read-through, and it’s much easier to have two printed books open and look back and forth between them (for example, reading a Bible commentary and looking up the referenced verses). The Kindle can only open one book at a time, so to switch to another, you must go back to the home menu and open the other book while trying to remember which chapter and verse you were looking for. Also, print versions of books are less vulnerable to being dropped, sat on, spilled on, chewed on by small children, or left in baking hot or freezing cold vehicles. If you absentmindedly leave a paper book lying around somewhere, it will probably be there when you come back for it. Your luck may not be so good doing the same thing with a Kindle. Print books are more reusable, too; after you read one, you can lend it to a friend, donate it to a library or thrift store, or re-sell it to recoup some of the cost. E-books can be loaned to a friend (who must, of course, own the same brand of e-book as yourself) one time only…not very transferable. On the plus side, if you lose or break or upgrade your e-book, your purchases remain safely stored online to be re-downloaded for free.

So, generally I am enjoying my new Kindle a lot, but there will always be a special place on my shelf for real books, too. After all, it’s a lot easier to start a fire with a real book…Just kidding, books–love ya!