How I Learned to (Sorta) Love the Kindle

Amazon’s new reading device offers more than 90,000 books—as well as newspapers and magazines—at your fingertips. But can you actually read a Kindle without getting laser surgery? Our resident tech geek, Kevin Sintumuang, boots up and sounds off

I wanted to hate the Kindle. The whole idea of electronic books in general annoyed me—just another gadget that solves a problem that doesn’t really exist. I don’t think anyone has ever sat with a book and said, “If only this thing had batteries…”

So when it arrived at the office, I released my preconceived gadget rage upon the angular slab of white plastic: “This thing looks like a Tandy computer from 1982!” “It’s like reading a book on an Etch A Sketch!” “How many whacks with a hammer will it take to destroy it?”

However, I put my hammer aside and decided to spend a few weeks with the Kindle. On the subway. In bed. In the bathroom. Everywhere humans read. And I’m surprised to say it: The Kindle isn’t half bad.

Although its screen is crisper than that of the Sony Reader, the Kindle’s main competitor, its real saving grace is its wireless store. Through a high-speed data network, you have access to more than 90,000 books that you can download for anywhere from $3 to $10. In the airport and want to read The Secret? Bam! Seconds later, you’ve got it. The first chapters are free—which we hope will keep you from buying The Secret.

But my favorite thing about the Kindle? Newspapers you subscribe to are automatically downloaded overnight. I can now get through two papers on my morning commute. In the past, I’d be lucky to get through two sections before retreating in defeat to my iPod, having given up on origami-folding my paper without elbowing people.

Not that there aren’t times when I want to condemn the Kindle to the technology hall of shame. Like before I got used to the black-and-white flash between page turns, or when I accidentally hit the awkwardly placed buttons, or when I tell people it’s $400 and they laugh at me. (Rightly so. I’d pay $150 for it—tops.)

The Kindle excels when you’re traveling—my carry-on is much lighter these days—but the rest of the time I crave the finer, overlooked nuances of good ol’ printed matter. When I get to the office, I still scan the paper. The boldness of headlines and pictures has always been a good indication of what’s important to read; everything on the Kindle has a sameness to it. And while the ADD in me likes being able to carry several half-read books at once on my Kindle, I miss the sense of accomplishment I get as the pages in my right hand grow thinner and thinner as I near the end. That’s a feeling that’s hard to replicate, and even harder to give up.

Kindle is available now from Amazon.com

Illustration by McKibillo