Light My Kindle

A new Kindle competitor will hit the market in late February or early March from a company called Foxit. The eSlick Reader features some of the same qualities of the Kindle, with two possible improvements - choice of three colors and a smaller price tag.

It has a 6″ screen, weighs 6.4 ounces and comes in black, grey, or white. It also has mp3 capability. It has 128 MB of internal memory and is expandable by SD memory cards. In comparison to the Kindle, the screen is the same size, but the Kindle is slightly heavier. The Kindle is only available in one color, of course. It costs $229.99, compared to the Kindle’s current price of $359. They look like the hold about the same amount of material and are both able to expand their memory using SD cards.

It’s currently available for pre-order at foxit.com. We’ll see how it does against the Kindle and the Sony e-reader. It, like the Sony e-reader, has a major disadvantage in that they don’t have their own built-in internet or store. That makes getting books on the Kindle (via the built-in wireless connection and Amazon Kindle Store) still easier than all the other devices.

The popular newspaper USA Today is now available on the Kindle for a charge of $11.99 per month for a daily subscription.

To subscribe to USA Today on your Kindle, click here.

As a Stephen King fan, I was interested to check out this novel about an author’s widow dealing with her husband’s demons. It seemed to be a subject that King would know a lot about. After all, if anyone’s wife has to deal with some intense demons, I’d say it’s Tabitha King. You don’t just forget that your husband has created some of the scariest characters in fiction. But what does a widow do when she finds out that some of her late husband’s fictional demons were real?

Lisey’s Story follows Lisey Landon, the widow of Scott Landon, an incredibly popular author of thrillers. After Scott’s death, Lisey is besieged with calls from fans and collectors looking to secure unreleased works for themselves. One in particular is extremely pushy. All the while Lisey resists, not because she doesn’t want Scott’s work to find a home, but because it would mean she would need to clean out Scott’s office. She has been procrastinating, hoping to put off reliving memories for as long as possible.

As Lisey starts to clean out her late husband’s office, we learn more about Scott Landon through her memories. Scott had demons that Lisey tried to forget about. But when Scott’s fanatical fans start getting threatening, and Lisey’s sister winds up in the nuthouse, Lisey needs to remember Scott’s demons and his escape in order to save her own life and her sister’s.

While not my favorite King book ever, Lisey’s Story definitely shows off his excellent story-telling skills. I found that I wasn’t all that interested in Lisey’s crazy sister Manda or whether or not the crazy people seeking Scott’s unpublished works would get them out of Lisey, but I still kept reading because the journey Lisey was on was interesting. It’s an extremely long novel, but if you’re a King fan it’s definitely worth the read.

Lisey’s Story is available for the Kindle and in paperback

Let me start by saying that I like Palm products - I had a Palm Tungsten E2 for a while and loved it. However, I eventually got a BlackBerry, and the Palm went unused.

That being said, there’s a post on PalmAddicts that I don’t agree with that talks about how they use their Palm to get in some reading while waiting in line. They say,

What I have found myself doing lately is borrowing or buying a paper book and then download the ebook from either the local library or the huge New York Public Library or Queensborough Public Library systems. I’ll read the physical book at home but then if I am out and got some time I’ll pick up where I left off on my Centro.

That sounds like an interesting plan, but I don’t see how that’s any different from doing the same with your Kindle. They do point out that they would sometimes leave their house without their Palm before they got the Palm Centro (Palm device + phone), but I never leave my house without my Kindle. I also couldn’t imagine reading a novel on the tiny Centro screen. I have a hard time reading my Google Reader stuff on my BlackBerry’s screen, and it’s not much smaller than the Centro’s screen.

I can appreciate people trying to consolidate their electronic gadgets, however sometimes a dedicated device is necessary. I wouldn’t replace my 6 megapixel digital camera with my tiny BlackBerry cameraphone, so why would I replace my Kindle (a dedicated reading device) with my tiny phone screen?

My one other gripe with the post is their use of multiple book sources. With the Kindle, you could read it at home and out in the world - no need to find your place in the e-book when you’ve been reading the paper book and vice versa. With the focus of the article being on productivity (getting reading done while waiting in line), isn’t it a little counter intuitive to manage your reading this way?

I’ve had several people ask me if you can purchase the Kindle at Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, or other stores like them. The Kindle is only available from Amazon. You can read all about the Kindle’s features and purchase it on the Kindle product page on Amazon.com.

To be fair, other e-reader devices can be purchased at places like Best Buy, Target and Borders Book Stores, but the Kindle is an Amazon-exclusive product.

In this busy travel season, lots of Kindle owners are probably wondering how to travel with their Kindle. I’ve already covered how to reading your Kindle on the plane, but I’ve also been asked how to take your Kindle through airport security.

While I have read reports of some users experiencing problems with their Kindle screens after taking it through airport security, I personally have not had that problem. In fact, fellow Kindle blogger Joe Wikert has brought his Kindle through airport security - and through the x-ray machines - several times, as he commented on my previous post and never experienced screen issues.

If you’re concerned about your Kindle’s safety, you could ask the security agents to check your Kindle by hand, as they do for film. However, know that not all Kindle owners have had screen issues due to x-ray machines at the airport.

UPDATE: I traveled over the 2008 Christmas holidays and accidentally forgot to shut my Kindle off before bringing it through airport security on the way back - it was in sleep mode. Luckily, my Kindle didn’t suffer any damage due to the machines. That’s one fewer thing to worry about in your travels!

As always, feel free to send any Kindle questions my way at cj@lightmykindle.com.

There is a wonderful review of the Kindle on E-gear.com. The author discusses the downfalls of the Kindle (not being able to share books, can’t take it to author signings, etc.), but insists that he loves it despite all these issues. He cites the excellent Kindle store shopping experience, the ease of reading with larger text, and the built-in dictionary as some of the great features that make him love it despite the drawbacks.

My favorite part of the review, however, is his description of the connections he has made over the Kindle. He says,

A curious series of occurrences have transpired since I started using Amazon’s Kindle over the past few weeks. The first time I took it out of my bag on the commuter train I take to work in Philadelphia, the stranger sitting next to me asked how I liked it. He said he’d gotten one for his wife for Christmas and was hoping he’d made a good choice. Later on that same train ride a woman came up to tell me she too had a Kindle and that it was the best gadget she’d ever bought. Since then, I get questions, comments and compliments nearly every time I take it out in public.

He calls this occurrence “kindleship,” and I think it’s an excellent phrase. I have experienced this several times during my commutes to and from work and I have to say that there really does seem to be a camaraderie among Kindle users. I don’t know that it’s any different from the feeling I get when I see someone on the train reading the same book or a book by the same author as I am, but it is an interesting thing to experience a bond over a gadget.

Have any of you experienced “kindleship” in your travels?

Stephen King has listed his ten favorite books of 2008, based on books he read this year, not books released this year. On this list are The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Dean Koontz’s The Good Guy and Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America. You can read the full list at EW.com. I will definitely be checking out some of the books on King’s list, as a recommendation from him has never steered me wrong.

One especially interesting bit of the article is King’s note about Robert Goddard’s novel. He says,

In Pale Battalions, his second novel, was the first book I read on my new Kindle.

For some reason I’m fascinated with learning what people’s first Kindle books were. Incidentally (as I’ve mentioned before), mine was On Writing by Stephen King. What was your first Kindle book? Why did you pick it?

Another question about the Kindle that I frequently get asked is if you can read it on the plane. The simple answer is yes.

The more detailed answer is yes, but with a few exceptions. You have to keep the wireless switch turned to off during the entire flight. This means that you won’t be able to browse the Kindle store, purchase new books, or download new content while in the air, so buy your books while waiting to board.

You can also only use the Kindle during the times when other electronic devices - iPods, portable CD players, laptops - can be used. This is usually only restricted during takeoff and landing.

I’ve used my Kindle on the plane before and it was a wonderful experience. I bought my book - The Mist by Stephen King - while waiting to board. As soon as the seatbelt sign was turned off and people started using their laptops, I turned on the Kindle and read my book without my arms getting tired from holding it up or my neck getting tired from looking down at the book in my lap.

As always, feel free to send any Kindle questions to me at cj@lightmykindle.com.

I received my Collector’s Edition copy of J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard in the mail yesterday. I am thrilled with the quality of the product. It really is a beautiful edition of the book. You can read more about the origins of the book in my previous post. Below are pictures of the unboxing. You can see the Kindle in some of the shots for a size comparison.

[Images thanks to MJJDesigns]

You can buy your Collector’s Edition copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard exclusively at Amazon (it’s also available in a paperback edition, but is not yet available for the Kindle). I’m definitely looking forward to reading my copy (perhaps while wearing white museum gloves) and will post a review when I finish the book.