{"id":585,"date":"2011-04-13T16:00:32","date_gmt":"2011-04-13T14:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/?p=585"},"modified":"2011-08-31T15:29:03","modified_gmt":"2011-08-31T13:29:03","slug":"how-the-kindle-ruined-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/how-the-kindle-ruined-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Kindle Ruined My Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m a gadget guy, I have to admit.  So when my wife got me an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B002FQJT3Q\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;tag=warrisheph-20&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=B002FQJT3Q\">Amazon Kindle 3G<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=B002FQJT3Q\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important; margin:0px !important;\" \/> last Christmas, I was stoked.  I had read some of the reviews: wifi access to download books, discounted book prices, capability to hold thousands of books &#038; magazines, and a book-like display.   But as I began to use my Kindle, I realized that those descriptions were just the tip of the iceberg&#8230; <\/p>\n<h3>The Pros: I love this thing<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Not only does it have wifi, it has <strong>free<\/strong> 3G&#8211;and not just to download books:  You can use the &#8220;experimental&#8221; web browser on the Kindle to access the web, twitter\/facebook, read mail, and yes, even download magazines while sitting in a cafe in Spain.<\/li>\n<li>Kindle-version books are available at reduced rates, and older public domain books are completely free&#8230; (although sometimes Amazon&#8217;s Kindle pricing is a bit wacky)<\/li>\n<li>Not only can you hold thousands of books, you can also read .pdf&#8217;s and ebooks, and subscribe to magazines, newspapers, and blogs.  &#8230;And it can hold mp3&#8217;s so you can listen while you read.<\/li>\n<li>The magic of this all, is the Kindle itself: as advertised, it does &#8220;disappear&#8221; in your hand, making the reading experience flawless, and allowing you to immerse yourself in the book.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But those aren&#8217;t the reasons it has ruined my life.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/kindle_cafe_sm.jpg\" alt=\"The Kindle&#039;s size is perfect... and so is downloading new books at a cafe...\" title=\"kindle_cafe_sm\" width=\"588\" height=\"200\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-592\" srcset=\"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/kindle_cafe_sm.jpg 588w, http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/kindle_cafe_sm-300x102.jpg 300w, http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/kindle_cafe_sm-191x65.jpg 191w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 588px) 100vw, 588px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>The Con: It&#8217;s turned me into a Kindle nerd<\/h3>\n<p>Now, don&#8217;t get me wrong, <strong>I recommend the Kindle highly<\/strong> for someone who wants a dedicated e-reader&#8230; an electronic book that keeps you connected wherever you can get wifi, 3G, (or GPRS or Edge, for that matter).  But it is a book first and foremost.  For someone who loves to read, it&#8217;s a great tool.  If you want to surf the web or play slicky touch-screen games, get an iPad.  If you need to skype or call, get an iPhone.  I can&#8217;t really talk much as comparison to the other e-readers on the market, but I have to say that Amazon really struck gold on the Kindle.  And that is where Jeff Bezos is a marketing genius.<\/p>\n<h3>Reason #1 the Kindle ruined my life: I can&#8217;t stop buying books<\/h3>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/kindle_buttons-300x193.jpg\" alt=\"Kindle keyboard and &quot;mouse&quot; buttons\" title=\"kindle_buttons\" width=\"300\" height=\"193\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-589\" srcset=\"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/kindle_buttons-300x193.jpg 300w, http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/kindle_buttons-100x65.jpg 100w, http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/kindle_buttons.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Yes, this means I am reading more.  So, yeah, sure, that&#8217;s good.  But with the Kindle, there&#8217;s no pause between books.  Amazon is smart:  it reads my mind and knows what books I might want next and provides me with recommendations&#8230; so no need to nip down to the bookstore. (or even worry about finding an English book in Spain&#8230;) <\/p>\n<p>However, one of the limitations to the e-readers is sharing.  Amazon has added the capability to share just <em>some<\/em> of its titles, but you can only do it once.  So if you&#8217;re someone who likes to read and then pass on, you&#8217;re in trouble.  So what I have ended up doing is buying the Kindle version (I haven&#8217;t paid more than $9.99 for a book yet) and then enjoying a book so much that i have to buy the print version to share.  I did this with <a href=\"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/book-review-poke-the-box\/\">Poke The Box<\/a>, by Seth Godin, to share with the staff at the G42 Leadership Academy.  And I am planning on doing it with a couple of other titles I am reading&#8230;  so if part of your job is reviewing books for others to read, it&#8217;s perfect.   And although you can highlight and write notes on the Kindle, I think it&#8217;s it&#8217;s easier to have the hardcopy book in front of you.<\/p>\n<h3>Reason #2 the Kindle ruined my life: The Man Bag<\/h3>\n<p>Another reason it&#8217;s ruined my life: I now enjoy it so much have to carry it wherever I go, and to do that I use one of those &#8220;man-bags&#8221;.  Thank goodness I live in Europe and it&#8217;s pretty common.  I do a lot of running around for work, and a lot of waiting, so the Kindle is perfect&#8211;I can just whip it out, crank it up, and pick up just where I left off.  Do I need to check a flight arrival?  I can do that no matter where I am with the included browser and the 3G service.  Did I just finish my book?  no worries&#8230;I can download a free sample chapter of a new book to decide whether I&#8217;d like to buy it.  Check email? done.  &#8230;  <\/p>\n<p>Okay, fine, I admit, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B002FQJT3Q\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;tag=warrisheph-20&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=B002FQJT3Q\">Kindle<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=B002FQJT3Q\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important; margin:0px !important;\" \/> hasn&#8217;t ruined my life.  It has actually made it better.  I&#8217;m reading more, including some excellent books (look for more book reviews soon) and the go-anywhere free 3G internet access is simply brilliant.  In the end, it does what books are supposed to do: be simple enough and  functional enough that we forget what we have in our hands and are totally engrossed in what we are reading.  <\/p>\n<p><strong><em>So, now I need your help.  What are some book recommendations?  Non-fiction and fiction please&#8230; <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:smaller;\"><br \/>\nPhoto credits: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/customer-media\/product-gallery\/B002FQJT3Q\/ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_all\">John Catral<\/a> &#038; <a href=\"http:\/\/antiblogdesignblog.jimkirkthomson.com\/2010\/09\/kindle-3-moleskine-hollow-book-case.html\">Jim Thompson<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:smaller;\">Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are \u201caffiliate links.\u201d This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be useful. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission\u2019s 16 CFR, Part 255: \u201cGuides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m a gadget guy, I have to admit.  So when my wife got me an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B002FQJT3Q\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;tag=warrisheph-20&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=B002FQJT3Q\">Amazon Kindle 3G<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=B002FQJT3Q\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important; margin:0px !important;\" \/> last Christmas, I was stoked.  I had read some of the reviews: wifi access to download books, discounted book prices, capability to hold thousands of books &#038; magazines, and a book-like display.   But as I began to use my Kindle, I realized that those descriptions were just the tip of the iceberg&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[115,117,119,116,78,243],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1427,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions\/1427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}