sds:

craytonc:

sds:

I am tentatively interested in a Kindle. But I don’t know anyone who owns one, and they aren’t sold in any brick-and-mortar stores—only online at Amazon. Not cool. If I’m going to shell out almost 400 bucks and sanction a paradigm shift in my reading habits, I want to try this sucker out in person with my hands and not just watch an introductory video on the web.

I was quite worried when I ordered my first Kindle. I used to read like crazy. But it started getting harder and harder to get out to the book stores, pay the ever increasing costs, and then find places for the books afterwards. So eventually, I wasn’t reading as much.

And I saw the Kindle, but I wasn’t sold. I had a Rocket eBook reader back in the day. I downloaded a ton of things to it, but it never really worked for me. And the Kindle was expensive.

But I’m so glad I took the plunge and got it. It really has made a difference, and I’m back to reading almost constantly again. It is - hands down - the best electronic purchase I’ve made in the past 10 years.

That said, I know where you’re coming from. Look at the group discussions on Amazon’s Kindle page, and check out some pages devoted to it. There were lists of people in different cities who had them that wouldn’t mind meeting someone to let them see how it worked out. They had someone here in New Orleans, but I didn’t see their post until after I ordered it, so it didn’t help me. But I’m sure you could find someone who might be able to help you out.

Of course, with the refresh happening next week, you’re more likely to find someone with the older model.If there are any questions I can help you with, let me know. I’ll take pictures, video, whatever to help answer them.

(Eagerly awaiting next Wednesday when my Kindle 2 will be here…)

Good to know—thanks.

One concern I have is that I have a ton of (physical) books on my yet-to-read list, and obviously I don’t want to pay for the digital copies when I already own them. In addition, I get a lot of books via inter-library loan on various subjects in order to “try before I buy.” Another question: are Amazon’s ebooks wrapped in DRM? Can they be shared and swapped? If I own a hard copy of Crime and Punishment, is there a way to get the Kindle edition from, say, you—rather than pay $10? In terms of reading blogs on the Kindle, is any RSS feed supported or am I limited? How do the bookmarking and annotation tools rate? What format do they export in?

As you can see, I have a lot of questions!

You might want to wait on that.