I am a voracious, if slow reader.  I may spend as much as 8 hours in a day just reading.  That doesn’t happen every day, maybe 1 in 7; however I always want to have a good reading library at hand at all times.  However, books take up space and don’t seem to like the warm, moist climate most of us choose to cruise in.

I always have a small library of paperbacks and hard-bound books on board.  Some of the books are for reference (e.g., cooking and engine repair), and are a semi-permanent library.   Others are for general reading and are acquired through book exchanges at marinas or just through other cruisers.  Unfortunately the books available from these sources are determined by the preferences of the other book-reading cruisers.  My observations of the book exchanges I’ve experience over the last 5 years tells me two things:

1. There are a lot of woman cruising these day.  That’s a good thing.  The downside is that the book exchanges seem to be over-stocked with Chick-Books.
2. Men on cruising boats seem to be Sci-Fi readers.

Those two observations don’t produce a lot of books that I want to read.

So I’ll keep participating in book exchanges, but I need another source of reading material.

The Kindle is an E-Book device from Amazon.com.  It provides storage and display of hundreds of books, periodicals and documents.  Books and periodicals are purchased through Amazon.com, the documents can be from your computer.  It is an amazing device.

This is the Kindle II, which has a 6" diagonal screen.

Amazon.com also offers the Kindle DX, which has 9.7" diagonal screen and allows your to rotate the display between portrait and landscape orientations.

I decided to go with the II rather than the DX primarily because the DX is almost $200 more expensive ($489 vs. $299).  I wasn't sure how good the market was for these devices on eBay should I decide it wasn't really what I need.

My Kindle will be a repository for those books and documents that are not generally or immediately available from book exchanges, fellow cruisers or English language books stores overseas.  Most of the Kindle titles will be non-fiction which is poorly represented in book exchanges or books on subjects in which I am particularly interested, and I don’t want to wait until a title shows up in a book exchange.  Also I may purchase books from my favorite authors shortly after they are initially published.  The Kindle will also reduce the physical size of my book library in a similar way the iPod reduced the physical size of my music library.

When I depart on my next cruise I will load up the Kindle with books of this kind.

I will still frequent book exchanges and English language book stores and will maintain a small library of paper backs and hardbound books on board.

• Very easy to use and easy to read.  I have found the Kindle very easy to operate.  I can increase the font size to the point where I don’t need to use my reading glasses.  The picture on the right is of my Kindle with the font set to a size I can comfortably read with my drug store glasses.  I could actually reduce the font and still read this text with my glasses.  Reducing the font puts more text on the screen and minimizes the number of time you have to change pages.  Changing pages is the only time the Kindle uses battery power (other than when connected to the wireless network).

• (For me) Easier to read than a book, or maybe just easier on the book.  The Kindle can be held and read with one hand.  Books can be read with one hand until you need to turn a page.  With a Kindle the page controls are on the left and right side of the unit, so no matter which hand you use to hold it you can turn the page with just the thumb on that hand.  I'm right-handed so I do have to juse my other hand to backup a page.  Using the menu (turning to the Table of Contents, or to a bookmark) does require both hands.  Of course the twitter-generation will probably figure out a way to do that with one hand.
  I can lay the Kindle flat on a desk or table and still read it with no hands and not lose my place.  This is useful when I'm using a reference book to aid in doing something else (e.g., working with a computer program).  With a book I usually have to place a weight on the pages to keep it in one place (unless I've already broken the back of the binding).  I wish more of the technical references I use in computer work were available on the Kindle.
  Also, when reading a book on the Kindle I don't risk breaking the binding when I put it down temporarily.  Usually I just lay the book open-side down to save my place, which puts pressure on the binding.  Nor do I have to dog-ear a page to save my place.  I try to use bookmarks, but they never seem to be within reach when I want to put the book down.
• Long battery life (if wireless turned off).  I don't really know how long it will last.  I usually plug it into an outlet after having read a book.  With the wireless on the battery appeared to run down in about 3 or 4 hours, but I didn’t keep track.  I only turn on the wireless when I need to access the Kindle Store.

• Huge library of books available.  I think Amazon.com is currently (2009) offering over 300K titles.

• Reasonable price on books.  Most current edition books sell for $9.99, cheaper than the paper back version at most bookstores. 

• Can be read in direct sunlight.  The screen is not an LCD, it does not depend on backlighting.

• Don’t need to use the PC or MAC to order/download books.  The Kindle is a wireless device and will connect directly to the Kindle Store.

• The Kindle can hold many documents at one time.  It will hold over 1,500 books.  I expect to be able to load it with enough books to provide reading material for a 1 year cruise or longer. 

• Works that have been read can be archived to Amazon.com and retrieved to the Kindle at a later date.  No need to clutter up the index with books I have already finished, but I can always go back and read them again.

• Books can be purchased Worldwide.  In recent (December, 2009) advertising Amazon.com has stated that books now can be purchased and downloaded worldwide.  When I purchased my Kindle it was restricted wireless connections from within the USA.  Turns out it still is.  The Amazon.com advertisement is for a different product Kindle(Global Wireless) and my Kindle has now been re-branded at Kindle(U.S. Wireless).  The Kindle(Global Wireless) is a new product targeted for customers outside of the USA or US residents who frequently travel outside of the USA.   However through the Kindle for PC software described below, I found I can purchase reading material outside of the US.  It just takes a few extra steps.

• Multiple Kindles on a Single Account.  You can have up to five Kindles on a single Amazon.com account, all of which can concurrently read any of the books in the account.  Thus a family or group can share their Kindle books.

• Can Display Documents in Other Formats.  You are not limited to just the documents and books purchased and downloaded from the Kindle Store.  With the latest version of the Kindle firmware (2.3) The Kindle will display documents in a number of different formats, the two most useful for me are pdf and MS Word.  When I learned this I quickly transfered a couple of pdf files on my computer to my Kindle (see below).   However the pdf files were not listed in the Kindle Home Page.  Checking back on the firmware update announcement I found the small print.  Although the firmware update will take place automatically when I connect my Kindle to the Kindle Store, not all Kindles will be updated at once.  Amazon.com promises that eventually I will get the update, but until then I cannot display native pdf files on my Kindle.  I can, however, still display these documents on my Kindle by converting them to the Kindle format.  This does involve a few more steps.

• Cannot be read in the dark.  The Kindle does not have a backlight on the screen, which partially accounts for the long battery life.  If I want to read a Kindle book in the cockpit at night I will have to wear one of my head lamps.  For night watches, in the past, I've used audio books on my iPod.  I can listen to a book being read while performing the normal watch functions.  The Kindle does have an audio capability - an electronic voice, which I have not tried.  I understand the audio runs down the battery pretty quickly.  However, audio books are pretty expensive on the iPod, so I will likely give the Kindle audio capability a good test in the future.

• Amazon.com is the only source of books.  A huge library, but still one source (see the Orwell Fiasco, below).

• Graphics are difficult to view.  This not a good medium for books that are richly illustrated with detailed graphics.  There is a zoom feature, but on the initial books I have read with detailed graphics the zoom did not provide sufficient enhancement. The picture on the right is from the Robert Perry book on yacht design.  This is a graphic rich book, with line drawings of many of Mr. Perry's designs.  These are the kind of graphics sailors, like myself, love to gaze at for hours and investigate all of the detail.  Not much hope of that on this screen.

• The “Orwell Fiasco”.  In July, 2009 Amazon.com discovered that the publisher from whom they obtained copies of many of the works of George Orwell (e.g., 1984) did not actually have the rights to those works.  Another publisher did.  Amazon.com handled this situation in precisely the opposite way it should have been handled – they made it their customers' problem.  Amazon.com deleted the works from the accounts of those who had purchased the works and refunded the purchase price, without notifying anyone of the issue.  These works suddenly disappeared from those persons' Kindle the next time they connected to the Kindle Store.  All annotations made by the users to those works also disappeared.  For some people those annotations were the basis of a thesis or student paper they were preparing.
  The proper way to have handled this was for Amazon.com to negotiate with the two publishers to protect the rights of the customers who purchased the works.  If that failed then notify the users that within x days the rights to those works would be rescinded so they could preserve any notes and annotations made on their Kindle.
  It would appear Amazon.com management let their lawyers dictate their actions – always a sign of poor management.  This incident happened a few weeks after I purchased my Kindle.  If it had happened before that purchase I would likely not own a Kindle for some time, if at all.  Amazon.com has promised to handle this type of situation differently in the future and not remove any book from a persons account without first notifying them.

• The device is not inexpensive.  My Kindle cost $300 – a fairly expensive, if tiny bookshelf.  The price now (December, 2009) is $260.

• You cannot share (i.e., exchange) books with other Kindle owners.  No Kindle swap meets.  So nearly every item on the Kindle will cost at least $10.  There are a number of Public Domain works that are free, but other large books may cost more than $10 (e.g., the Perry book on yacht design). 
  I did recently learn from another Kindle user that there is a limited sharing ability with the Kindle - within a single Amazon.com account.  Each account can have up to 6 Kindles, each of which can concurrently read any of the books purchased in the account.  So sharing is possible within a family or group, but not with strangers (unless you want them to have access to your account).

• Battery Meter Not Reliable:  Although the battery discharges very slowly (when not online), the little meter at the top of the screen that is supposed to show the amount of charge remaining is not very accurate.  On several ocaisions I have started reading with the meter showing the battery was only half-discharged, then less than 10 minutes later I get the warning that the battery is nearly dead and must be recharged.  I suspect that the meter takes several minutes of operation before it registers accurately.  I have lots of other battery-powered electronics whose meters are accurate within a few seconds of operation - e.g., my Sony and Fugifilm digital cameras.  This may be a function of the batteries chosen for use in the Kindle, which may have been dictated by the Kindle form factor.

In December, 2009 I started experimenting with transferring documents from my PC to my Kindle.  There were a number of reason I want to be able to do this. 

• To purchase and download books from the Kindle Store when I cannot connect with the Kindle (e.g., when outside of the USA)
• To access documents on my computer in their native format (e.g., pdf, MS Word, etc.)
• To convert documents from their native format to the Kindle format.