Tuesday Ten - Kindle Edition

This year for Christmas, my husband gave me a Kindle. I've been wanting one for awhile, but I've also been on the fence. I love the idea of having a lot of books with me all at once in one little device, but nothing really beats flipping a page in a real book. Now that I've finished my first book on the Kindle, I thought I'd weigh out the pros and cons.

First, the five things I love about it*:

• Flexibility. No, the Kindle itself isn't flexible, but when I read with it, I am. My husband and I went down to his aunt's house for Christmas dinner, which is almost three hours away. I brought the Kindle and when I was tired of reading Emma, I switched over to Sherlock Holmes. On the way home, I opted for some David Sedaris. I wouldn't have been able to do that if I just brought one book with me.
  
• Easy reading. Reading on a Kindle is exactly like reading the pages of a real book. There's no backlight, so it doesn't feel like your staring at a computer screen.
  
• Free books! I can get all the public domain books for free off the Amazon website. (I'm not 100% sure, but I believe this is true for all e-readers.)Now I can buff up on the classics whenever the mood strikes me. Moby Dick anyone?
  
• It's lightweight. I'm currently reading The Book Thief in paperback, and boy, my arms can sometimes get tired holding the book open. With the Kindle, It's always the same weight no matter how far along I am in the book.
  
• Highlighting/Notes. I'm sort of protective of my real books. I don't like to bend pages, I try not to crack spines (sometimes it happens though - sorry, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), and I DEFINITELY don't write in my books. The highlighting/notes feature is a great option for me on the Kindle. I think I'm going to use it to read books on the craft of writing. Then I can highlight and type notes until my heart's content!
  

On to five things I don't like about the Kindle:

• I can't see what people are reading. I went on a cruise this past summer and I loved walking around to spy on what people were reading. As more and more people turn to e-readers, it will be harder to do this.
  
• Authors can't sign Kindles!. Technically, I guess you could try to get them to sign your case, but even if an author would do it, that seems less personal to me. I like opening up my signed books and seeing the signed page that's addressed to me. It's more fun that way.
  
• Bookmarks. When I open my Kindle, I see some dots below the title of the book that tell me how far along I am. Then, when I open the e-book, I see a percentage of reading progress. Maybe it's just my mind-set, but I like to know what page I'm on. As I use the Kindle more, I have a feeling I'll get used to it.
  
• Purchasing e-books. The other day Borders was having an amazing sale on e-books, but there is something called a DRM embedded in Sony e-books that make them untranslatable to the Kindle. I understand why Amazon does this, but it's a little frustrating to be bound to one retailer.
  
• Lending books. Amazon just instituted Kindle to Kindle lending, but none of my friends read enough to invest in a Kindle. Now if I have a really good book I want to share, I have to tell them the title and hope they pick it up at the library or the book store. Either that, or I lend them my Kindle, which will NEVER happen. I trust my friends, but not that much!
  

Do you have an e-reader? Anything you like/dislike about it? *Most of these are true for all e-readers, I just happen to have the Kindle.