Thoughts on Kindle

Experience So far

I have been using kindle paperwhite for a while and it’s been great.

Does carrying kindle look outlandish?

kindle_cover Quora Question I have a cover/pouch for my kindle which I can fold like a leatherback diary. Even when I am reading I can hold it like a normal diary/book.

It doesn’t look outlandish at all.

kindle_inside

Why do I prefer ebook readers quora answer

I find it more convenient to read from e-ink based ebooks readers (have used kindle) over physical books for most of the cases. In case of overly diagrammatic books with equations or code examples (technical papers), I still prefer physical copies because ebooks are not that great yet in that regards.

If I had to reason out my preference for kindle like ebook readers:

  1. Ease and convenience: My reading list always contains more than a handful of books. This would be very inconvenient with physical copies.

  2. Availability: Getting a physical copy of a book it’s not always easy based on what part of the world you live in. With ebook readers, they are mostly just a few clicks away.

  3. Cost Effective: Electronic versions of books are mostly cheaper than their physical counterparts. Even if you don’t have even bucks, you know where you can get them from ;)

  4. Psychological factor: Now this could be something weird about me but when I am reading a physical copy of a book I am constantly aware of my reading progress. Like, oh it’s almost half, oh a few pages more and so on. With my kindle, I always disable all the progress/time indicators while reading. That way it gives me a ‘calm’ while reading the book. If I don’t like the book it just gets left behind and if it’s engrossing I would be finishing it off in no time.

  5. The beauty of e-ink technology: I was a fan of ebooks even before e-ink readers and used to use smartphone/tablet for reading. Having e-ink based reader now has taken all the digital stress away. Kindle has replaced my smartphone as a bedtime buddy.

Some tips

  1. Kindle supports certain versions (mobi,kindle format). Install Calibre to convert pdfs, epubs and other formats to mobi. Calibre comes with a CLI tool called ebook-convert and the general syntax is: ebook-convert book.pdf book.mobi

  2. Kindle has USB support for data transfer. But one of the handy ways to do so is to use the kindle email address. Every registered kindle device gets an email address and the documents sent to that email address are delivered right into the kindle. My sample kindle email id: sudip.post_xxxxxx@kindle.com

  3. I regularly use Pocket to save articles for later. I find it so handy since it’s synced across the devices. Pocket to Kindle is a service where you can schedule the pocket saved articles to be delivered to kindle email in a regular interval. Pretty neat!!

Is it bad for the eyes? quora answer

Backlights on kindle paperwhite are not actually behind the display screens flashing light towards the reader/screen. They are actually on the side lighting ‘over’ the e-ink. If you have natural light, it’s enough to light on the e-ink. The backlight is essentially designed to imitate that natural light.

When you have something (LED) flashing light towards screen from behind it’s essentially competing with the natural light. That’s the reason we increase display brightness when our surrounding is more bright/sunny and decrease when it’s dark/night. With kindle paperwhite display it’s the exact opposite. Kindle light is not actually competing but working with natural light. You don’t need it if your surrounding is bright and need it during dark/night.

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