Light My Kindle

I’m a fan of Facebook, the social networking site that allows friends to connect, share photos, and even play Scrabble. Facebook has a couple of places for Kindle users to connect. You can become a fan of the Kindle, although this doesn’t appear to be an official Amazon-sponsored page.

You could also join the Amazon Kindle Facebook Group which appears to have been started by someone in the Amazon network.

Both the group and the page allow you to discuss with other Kindle owners, but beware the Amazon product spam in the Posted Links section.

This one is almost too easy. If you bought your Kindle using your own Amazon account, you’re done. It’s already linked. Turn on your Kindle and you’ll see “[Your Name]’s Kindle” in the upper left hand.

If you were lucky enough to receive your Kindle as a gift, as I was, connecting your Kindle to your Amazon account is very simple. On your Kindle, scroll to the Menu button on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen and click the scroll wheel to select. Then select Settings from the menu that pops up. Under Account Name, you should see the name of the person who purchased the Kindle for you, with the word “Deregister” next to it (check to make sure your wireless switch is on first).

Select Deregister. (It also might say “My Kindle” if the person already disconnected the Kindle from their account.) Select “Register” and you can enter your Amazon account information. The password is the same as it would be if you were signing in to Amazon.com.

You could also go through the Manage Your Kindle Page on Amazon at amazon.com/manageyourkindle.

Since I received my Kindle I’ve been carrying it with me wherever I go. I always find a minute to read it, while in line at a store or waiting for someone.

Unfortunately, I left it at home one day, thinking I wouldn’t need it. After all, I was spending the day with my mother-in-law and my young nephews. I’d be busy playing Candy Land and going grocery shopping. I wouldn’t have time to read, or so I thought.

While driving from my mom-in-law’s house to my husband’s office to pick him up after work, I realized I was early by about 45 minutes. I thought to myself, “No problem. I’ll go into Barnes & Noble, get a cup of tea, and read my….uh oh.” I didn’t bring my Kindle. I wanted that cup of tea and quiet reading time. But I knew if I walked into Barnes & Noble I couldn’t just sit and drink my tea without reading a book. If I bought a book, though, I’d be adding to the two other books I was currently reading.

I felt lost. Almost as if I had forgotten my wallet at home.

Now I bring it with me as a sort of “when in doubt” policy. If I bring it and I don’t find time to read, it’s only 10 ounces and doesn’t weigh my purse down all that much. If I do find a quiet moment to read a few pages, all the better.

A company called SFBags has four cases designed just for the Kindle by WaterField Designs.

One is a simple slip case (pictured) similar to the leather case included with your Kindle, but it appears to be softer, and comes in several different colors.

They have one called a SleeveCase that looks like a fabric envelope version of a very small laptop bag and comes in two sizes - one for holding just the Kindle, and one for holding the Kindle inside its leather case.

They also have something they call a Travel Case that holds the Kindle, charger, headphones, a small booklight, and the USB cord. With the strap attached it looks a little like a man-purse, but we won’t hold that against them.

The cases range in price from $27 to $49 (optional strap is $5) and some models come in multiple colors. Click here to see more pictures and to order yours.

I had been meaning to read the Dexter books since I first started seeing commercials for the “Dexter” TV show in 2006. There always seemed like there was something else on my reading to-do list, until I got the Kindle. I ordered Darkly Dreaming Dexter right from the built-in Kindle store and had started reading in just a few seconds (Take that, procrastination!).

The opening scene has us following Dexter while he stalks a victim. The victim turns out to be a priest who was murdering kids. How can you not root for a killer that kills child murderers? Especially one whose day job is working in a crime lab putting away criminals.

I liked the character of Dexter right away, despite his coldness. He was amusing, in a very dark kind of way. He reminded me a bit of a character in a teen novel series I used to read called Fearless. It featured a girl named Gaia who was born without the gene that causes fear. In the same way, Dexter seems to have been born without any human personality genes. He fakes it pretty well, but he doesn’t feel love or shame or guilt like most people do.

The only almost-human interactions he has are with his sister Debra, who also happens to be a police detective. He actually cares about her and wants to protect her.

The first novel in the Dexter series follows a strange crime spree where the killer drains all the blood from the victims and then stacks the cut-up body parts neatly in plastic for the police to find. Debra desperately wants to catch this guy to improve her career, and she asks Dexter for his help since he has a strange “knack” for knowing what a killer might do next. Unfortunately, Dexter has been having some strange dreams and some even stranger experiences that makes it very hard for him to help his sister.

The book is interesting. It wasn’t my favorite crime novel of all time, but I’ll definitely read the others in the series. I really enjoyed the characters and the story. One thing that really, really bugged me was the author’s heavy use of alliteration (ie: darkly dreaming Dexter). He uses it constantly and it’s really annoying. The book is, however, fast-paced and has a great mystery, so I can overlook the arbitrary use of alliteration.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys crime thrillers, watches any version of CSI, or who wants to watch the show (I always recommend reading the book before watching the show or seeing the movie).

Get yours for the Kindle or buy it in paperback.

According to a WENN report from this morning, there are plans in the works to introduce an age-based rating system for books as there is for movies, TV, and video games.

Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy that the recent move The Golden Compass was based on, is fighting the plans. He says the rating system would be damaging to young readers.

I happen to agree. As someone who skipped straight from the kid-friendly Goosebumps series to the teen series Fear Street when I was only about 8- or 9-years-old, and then skipped right up to Stephen King novels at eleven, I believe my reading skills would have suffered if I was prevented from reading the books I chose. Granted, I pulled most of these books from my mother’s bookshelf or the library with her permission, but my point still stands. It’s hard enough to get children interested in reading in the first place. Preventing them access to certain content would only make things worse.

For example, what rating do you suppose the first Harry Potter novel would have had? Safe for all ages? How about the seventh Harry Potter novel? Surely it would at least get a PG-13-equivalent. How many of the devoted Harry Potter fans would be prevented from reading the last few installments until they were older?

Worse, what if this ratings system were to be applied to non-fiction books as well? Would children be prevented from learning about the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II because the content is too mature?

As an avid reader, I feel that a ratings system for books would be as bad as the banned books list we see every year. Of course young kids should read certain content (and sometimes I think I shouldn’t have been reading King novels at such an early age, but I turned out okay), but it shouldn’t be the responsibility of the library or the local Barnes & Noble to police what kids are reading.

What do you think - should publishers put ratings on books? Should there be laws that require bookstores and libraries to comply?

This one will probably be obvious to Kindle owners who have had their Kindle for several months, but it was great news to me when I figured it out.

All magazine and newspaper subscriptions for the Kindle come with a 14-day free trial. Yes, I said all. And yes, I said free. Everything from The Boston Globe, to Fortune magazine, to The New York Times comes with 14 days free, whether it’s a bi-weekly or a daily.

The trial is a perfect way to gauge your reading time, and your interest in the subject. For example, I signed up for The Boston Globe but only read one or two days during the trial. It turns out that I only really appreciate the Sunday Boston Globe. However, I signed up for the trial of Fortune magazine, a magazine I had only occasionally read before, and now I read it consistently.

You can start your free trial by choosing a newspaper or magazine through the built-in Kindle Store on your Kindle, or visiting the Kindle Store at Amazon.

The Los Angeles Times has a fascinating article about the claim that e-books, and therefore e-book readers such as the Kindle and the Sony e-reader, are greener than traditional paper books. According to studies cited by the article, each paper book “releases 8.85 pounds of carbon dioxide.”

However, very little is known about the environmental effect of e-books and e-readers. Tyson Miller, founder and director of the Green Press Initiative, explains that in order to figure out the eco-friendliness of e-books, one would have to study the lifecycle of the e-readers. The lifecycle analysis would need to cover the amount of energy needed to power the e-reader, what goes into the production process, and if the product is recyclable.

Click here to read the full article.

I am a huge fan of Stephen King’s writing. I’ve been reading his novels since I was eleven-years-old, far too young to be reading them, actually. I started with the novella The Langoliers and continued on with the rest of the Four Past Midnight compilation and on to Carrie, IT, and more recently Duma Key and Black House. His articles in Entertainment Weekly are always my favorite of the last page stories (although I’ve really been enjoying Diablo Cody’s contributions as well).

Needless to say, I was thrilled to see that Amazon has a dedicated Stephen King store. There’s a King discussion board, spotlights on some of his more recent novels, and even a video of King discussing the origins of Duma Key (”I started to imagine a little dead girl standing on that road–twin dead girls, with their hands linked. The image came from nowhere…”).

While there are links to Stephen King hardcovers, paperbacks (at a 4-for-3 deal), and audiobooks, there’s no dedicated link to buy Kindle versions of King’s novels. It’s a shame, because the first books I bought on the Kindle have been King books. The reason is simple - I know I’ll re-read them someday, so having them saved on the Kindle is great.

Click here to visit the Stephen King store or click here to search for Kindle versions of Stephen King books