For a long time I had been flirting with the idea of getting an e-reader.  I was one of those people who knew everything there was to know about e-readers for a long time, and I had my money on what looked like the most promising prospect out there, Apple’s rumored e-reader that was to be announced in January of 2010.

If you recall, January 2010 came around and Steve Jobs showed us all a giant iPod touch.  Granted, it was a really cool giant iPod touch, but still, it didn’t have an e-ink screen, something that my heart was set on.

I went back to the search, which by that time was focused on Plastic Logic’s “Que,” which, although intended for business purposes, would handle a novel or anything else quite nicely.  However, when they released the tentative pricing information, the Que was in the $700-800 range, and for that I could have bought a more versatile giant iPod touch.

So I considered the Nook.  The price range was right, Barnes and Noble was claiming to have approximately 100 bajaillion books, and I was more than a little intrigued.  I had misty daydreams of me sitting on a perpetual vacation, reading away on my e-reader, faster and more efficiently that I ever had before.

But there was something about the Nook that I just didn’t trust.  It’s always been my experience that when you throw several technologies together, like e-ink and LCD screens, they bicker and fight and refuse to get along.  I held off and didn’t make a decision, thinking that there would eventually be some big change in the e-reader market that would allow me to enter the paperless book revolution.

Then Jeff Bezos spoke.  A Kindle 3 was on its way.  The skies had opened up, and to paraphrase Alfalfa, God said, “I like you, Miss Mutton.”

I ordered one as soon as I could put the money in the right place.  (I’m broke; don’t judge.)

It took forever for it to come, because for some stupid reason, Amazon decided to have the release on a Friday, which meant that if you had one-day shipping, it would get to you on Saturday.  BUT, FedEx and UPS don’t deliver to most places on Saturday.  So instead of you getting it, it sat in the distribution facility.

Anyway, I finally did get it, and I have been impressed.  Technology usually doesn’t impress me because I’m usually on the cutting edge of it, but the Kindle 3 was just cool.

So, here’s why I love my Kindle 3:

  • I’m already familiar with it, and I was from the minute I took it out of the (disappointingly plain) packaging
  • It really does disappear in your hands like Jeff Bezos said it should
  • The text is sharp and clear and easy to read
  • It has free 3G for life, so I can read my blogs and websites wherever I am
  • Most classics are free, and lots of them are good quality formats
  • I read way more often with the Kindle, so instead of watching television, I read
  • Lots of books are cheaper than their paper counterparts (but not all, as I’ll post on later)
  • It’s possible to stock up on massive amounts of genre fiction for very little money (most of it self-published)
  • Kindle can read to you on many books, so if you have to do something else with your eyes, you can keep reading
  • 3,500 books will fit in a device the side of a slim paperback
  • With Whispernet, you can read on your phone, computer or Kindle and open each one to the last read page
  • I can lie in bed on my side and read for a while
  • My own documents can be added, so reading for school or work is easy, especially with the Fujitsu ScanSnap with Finereader (which turns images or .pdfs into Word documents or rich text files)

I’m sure there are others I haven’t thought of, but those are some of the highlights that immediately come to mind.

I’d recommend the Kindle to anyone, too.  With the new price points from $140-$190, it’s not a huge investment anymore.  (The Kindle 2 was $360!)

In short, I love my Kindle!