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I do something strange (and lazy) when I read physical books. Very often, I’ll flip pages ahead to see if a paragraph break / scene change is coming up or if a chapter is ending soon. If I have one of those easy, achievable goals in my sights then I keep reading until at least that point. If not, I will often stop where I am in the book until another time. Am I the only weirdo who does this?

Anyway, I have discovered an unexpected benefit (at least for me) to reading e-books on the Amazon Kindle. On a Kindle, you can only see one page of text at a time. So, the next psychological goal is always just one page away. I see a new page and think, “Oh, that’s so short, I can read that.” Then, when I click to the next page, I think, “Oh, that’s so short, I can read that.” Before you know it, I’ve read a ton. And, I don’t even try to page ahead to find a break or chapter ending because, let’s face it, changing pages on an e-book reader is just too damn slow for that sorta thing.

I think the Kindle is actually making me a better reader. Thank you Jeff Bezos!

I’m in love with the Kindle. For what I want in an e-book reader, it’s pretty ideal. But, your mileage may vary depending on your needs. I don’t care about reading newspapers, magazines or blogs on the Kindle. And, I certainly have no desire to web browse in grayscale on the Kindle or use it to listen to randomized MP3s. I have computers and an iPhone for all of that.

I just want a fast, easy way to buy e-books that is at least a little cheaper than buying them physically. Thus far, the Kindle seems to fit that bill. One day in, here are my initial thoughts.

Good

• Finding, buying, and downloading a book from the Amazon Kindle Store is amazingly easy and fast. I can go from wanting a book to having a book within two minutes.
• While the prices could be cheaper, they still beat the price of physical books by a good bit. The most expensive books I’ve seen are $9.99 and many books are just $6 or $7. You also save the gas you would likely burn going to and from a physical store. which is nice for consumers and the environment.
• I like that if you delete a book from your Kindle, you can download it again later for free. Very cool. Apple iTunes could learn a lesson here.
• I also like that I can buy an e-book either via the web or via the Kindle and the Kindle downloads it immediately either way.
• Being able to download free samples of books to the Kindle is nice.
• The Kindle’s display is crisp, easy to read, and doesn’t seem to tire my eyes.
• The Kindle is thin, lightweight and easy to hold.
• I know it’s a small thing, but I love the random images the Kindle displays when it’s in sleep mode.
• The battery life, especially with wireless off, is amazing.
• I had read that many are frustrated by the time it takes e-book readers to turn pages. It hasn’t bothered me at all.

• Being able to sort and filter content on the Kindle is nice, but you can’t assign your own categories as far as I can tell That’s a big oversight. The Kindle can hold 200 average-sized books. I can think of several categories I want to have. Read and Unread. Fiction and Non-Fiction. Work and Personal. Biography, Mystery, Suspense, Humor, etc.
• I wish the Kindle was designed so that most of keyboard was hidden when not in use. There’s a core set of five or so keys on the bottom row that I use often (Home, Text Size, the two keys for Sleep and Wake). The rest of the keyboard I never use unless I’m shopping for a book. But, I’m constantly pressing other keys accidentally while reading because they’re in the way. Granted, most of the keys don’t actually do anything when I’m reading, but it’s distracting to constantly feel keys depressing and wondering if they’re going to do anything. I hope a third party vendor makes a shell that can pop on/off or hinge up/down to hide and reveal the keyboard but always leave the core keys on the bottom row available.
• Small thing, but I also hope a third party makes a rubberized port protector to cover the USB, power, and headphone ports to keep dust, sand, dirt, etc. from going into the ports.
• The click-wheel needs to be just a little bit bigger. It’s a little hard to grab and manipulate.
• There are seven books I want now (or at least in the near future), but only five of them are available on the Amazon Kindle Store. In Amazon’s defense, the Kindle is a new product and they are adding more e-books everyday. So, this should improve.

• While the vertical buttons on the side of the Kindle make it very easy to page forward and backward, they also make it very easy to *accidentally* page forward and backward. I can understand wanting to translate some of the physical experience of a book to an e-book reader. But, this was just a poor design decision.
• $400 is a hefty price tag, even for a device this impressive, If Amazon can get it to $249, they’d have a much larger market and could reap the rewards of selling more content.
• The carrying case kinda sucks. It’s attractive enough, but having to stretch an elastic strap on and off the case every time I want to use the Kindle feels inelegant. And, without the elastic strap in place, the Kindle flops around in the case. Perfect opportunity here for a third-party to do a kick-ass case.
• Amazon charging to subscribe to blogs that are free on the web is just stupid. Ugh. If you need to charge customers for more extensive data network use, just offer that as a freakin’ option.