Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

This is a different sort of book review - to be absolutely precise its a review of the reading experience of a novel length book on the Kindle 2.

As I stand in the elevator, from the corner of my eye I notice the other occupants get more and more curious. Finally, the gentleman to my left can’t hold back and violates the ‘always maintain an awkward silence in the building elevator’ rule and mentions how it seems like a cool device. His eyes light up when I explain what it is and even the shy young kid leaves his father’s side and edges closer to get a better view. We’re going through the changeable font sizes and price when the elevator reaches the lobby.

No doubt about it – reading in public is very different on a Kindle 2. It attracts everyone’s attention instantly.

My first book read on a Kindle 2 is Robin Hobb’ Assassin’s Apprentice. A commenter on the blog mentioned that Robin Hobbs was his favorite author so Robin Hobbs got first shot. The one line review for his book would be -

Liked it so much, bought the other two books in the FarSeer series.

Review of the Reading Experience on the Kindle 2

It outdoes a book – That’s the essence of it.

There are a lot of things I liked -

1. How lightweight the Kindle 2 felt in my hand.  
2. Being able to change the font size. 
3. Taking it to the doctor’s and reading it while I waited.  
4. Trying to hide it in the doctor’s office out of concern that my illness would take a back seat to the Kindle 2.
5. Really good readability. No tiring of the eyes.
6. Reading half of a book on Scribd’s iPaper and finding the Kindle 2 much, much more readable than a computer screen.
7. Reading as fast, perhaps even faster.
8. Being able to hold, read and turn pages with my left hand while sipping hot water with my right.
9. No weight or tiredness in my wrist from all sorts of convoluted reading positions.

More thoughts -

1. Never used the dictionary.
2. Didn’t really switch much between books.
3. Find the home page list of books rather akward to shuffle through.
4. Tried the Text To Speech - just listening to it and while it’s unpolished, still loved it.
5. Some sort of light as an accessory would be useful.
6. The keyboard is not really needed, and definitely not very usable.
7. The Kindle 2 does have a beauty to it. Its just not very obvious until you start reading books on it.
8. A 9.7″ screen (as rumored for the Kindle Textbook Edition) would be so much better.

Review of Assassin’s Apprentice

The book really stirs up emotions and grabs you in the way a drowning man grabs on to any pieces of timber he can find. Its narrated from the perspective, or to be more precise from inside the mind, of the protagonist and is amazingly raw and powerful. The first few chapters are more of a gradual easing into the story and some point after that you find yourself fully immersed in the story and the world of the book.

I’ve bought the other two book in the series, and can’t recommend it strongly enough. From zero Robin Hobb books bought or considered to 2 bought and considering the other 10 or so. That’s a hell of a return for a marketing mechanism that costs the publisher and author close to zero.

Update: I found the Robin Hobb website and now that I know all her books are set in the Six Duchies world, there’s a pretty high chance I’ll end up buying all of them.

In the era of the Kindle 2 and Kindle for iPhone, giving out a free book is simply the cost of customer acquisition. Authors, start giving out 1 or 2 of your books free before it’s too late.

Filed under: kindle 2 Tagged: | kindle 2 book review