Comments on: Kindling

By: jennifer

jennifer — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:31:33 +0000

Ooh, thanks Winnie, I will read Winter’s Bone starting tonight. After all, I do hail from Missouri.
Lindsay, I did read Little Bee and loved it but apparently our book group disagreed with me (I missed the meeting). I thought the descriptions were incredibly vivid and fascinating. I tried Cutting for Stone on Jane’s recommendation but lost interest and stopped halfway through…

By: Winnie

Winnie — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:21:13 +0000

I can’t give up on “real” books for myself yet, but I am toying with the idea of getting ereaders for my library. I could put the same book on three different devices and thus have multiple copies for much less. The problem is what if a kid loses the reader or downloads other stuff on it? Much to ponder.

By the way, Jennifer, I just read “Winter’s Bone” and loved it.

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 18:15:10 +0000

I have to confess Freedom is the first book I downloaded or is it uploaded. Anyway, don’t like it at all and have given up.

I loved the book “Little Bee” – great for a book group, lots of ethical issues to discuss. Did you like “Cutting for Stone” that is next on my list.

By: jennifer

jennifer — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 17:40:29 +0000

Lindsay, recommend some books please – I just finished one and pre-ordered another that won’t be in until March. Tell Liam the story of how I read the Grapes of Wrath during finals week at the end of first semester sophomore year….and it had nothing to do with any of my classes! I just thought I should read this classic! So I got it out of the library! And read it front to back with precious time that should have been spent on my real classes! Aaaaargh, what a dolt I was.
BTW, my Kindle shows how a little percentage at the bottom left corner instead of a bookmark, so I know basically how far along I am.

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:19:31 +0000

Jennifer, I forgot, you can also convert the screen to sepia tones to make it look like an old book. I thought of you when I saw this feature which I do not use because I find it harder to read. What I miss is being able to see from the bookmark how far along you are in the book. Instead, we are practicing math skills to figure out if we are yet half-way. Since I use a bigger font these are challenging math problems, page 1326 out of 2274!

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:15:36 +0000

I have an iPad and have many books in my “library”. I CAN adjust brightness and font size, but it is not as good as the Kindle outdoors in bright sunlight (as their ads are now pointing out). I have a couple of Spencer’s “J” books and can read to him when I am traveling. We do look up words in the dictionary all the time (he would never do this with a real book). I am also reading “Grapes of Wrath” at the same time as my high school freshman. He had to prepare for a quiz on Uncle John and I was able to do a search on every Uncle John passage that he then re-read. The efficiency of this seemed almost unethical, but I decided it wasn’t since there was no interpretation involved, just avoided skimming hundreds of pages of fine print-which he would have never done.

By: jennifer

jennifer — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 20:59:38 +0000

Thank you for the tip, I will soon rush off to Target to buy the light!
And Melanie, I know what you mean. You can only use one bookplate on a Kindle, and the only place to put it, in theory, is on the back.

By: MomKat

MomKat — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 16:38:19 +0000

Jennifer, I solved the too-dark to read my Kindle problem with a handy slide-on LED light sold especially for ebooks. It’s tiny but powerful and sold at Target, which is where I got it. I never thought I’d like a Kindle, but my boys got me one for a “big” birthday this past summer, and I’m totally addicted to it and the easy acquisition of books. Instant gratification! It also eliminated the decades old comment from my husband of “You’re packing THREE books! But we’re only going away for the weekend!”

By: MelanieO

MelanieO — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 16:18:26 +0000

I’m with Emily on this one. While I do listen to podcasts at the gym, even then I’m a little worried about getting sucked under the treadmill.
I have also resisted the Kindle. I have a book stamp my mom (a librarian) gave me years ago and still love stamping my name into a book before loaning it to a friend or family member. I would miss both actions.

By: Emily

Emily — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 15:54:56 +0000

I read People and US magazine proudly. However, Star Magazine and National Enquirer is where I draw the line. Interestingly though, I cant read while working out — Im too afraid I will fall off the machine. I can walk and chew gum at the same time but the reading working out thing — particularly on the treadmill is too precarious for me. Still Im glad you like your Kindle — gives me hope for my own future and graduating to new technology. All those mags sitting around my house are starting to clutter things.