Kindling...

[flexagon]

I jailbroke my Kindle today so that I could put custom screensaver images on it. Hah! Sweet success. There's a whole tumblr blog devoted to Kindle screensaver images that is oddly hypnotic, and I swiped a few from there rather than put in the hours to create my own. (One day I'd love to create a whole series of Sandman images. I think HR Giger would translate very well to the Kindle screen too.)

I adore this one just as much as you think I do:



As for actual Kindle usage -- the thing was a godsend when I was stuck with unexpected, extended travel last week. I had brought only the Kindle and a copy of Marcelo in the Real World, and of course I chewed through the latter on the plane on the way to Montana (highly recommended, by the way). So the Kindle's ability to download new books on the fly was fabulous. Even more fabulous was downloading numerous free first chapters of books from the airport and the airplane when I felt restless and didn't know WHAT I wanted to read. Sure, I'll take a chapter of this and a chapter of that and...! I haven't used it since my return (except for the jailbreaking and screensaver hack) because I've been reading Drood in dead-tree format. Paperback. And that's fine. But it's going to be painful to read my hardcover hardcopy of A Dance with Dragons, next. It weighs 2.6 pounds to the Kindle's 8.5 ounces.... that's nearly 5 times as heavy. It's also 6 times as thick, wider and longer.

I want to understand a little more about re-downloading rights. Things seem to be evolving; it's now possible to lend some Kindle books to other Kindle users for 14 days, and starting later in 2011 it will be possible to borrow Kindle books from libraries too. And yes, the Boston Public Library has Overdrive. All very cool, but doesn't answer the question of what one does when a Kindle dies. Judging from history, some fateful day I will leave the cap to my water bottle a little bit unscrewed. I'll put it in the purse with my Kindle, and that won't be the day I want to find out what items are eligible for re-download and which are not. As far as I can tell, purchased books are safe as they're archived on Amazon and can be downloaded again; but how many times?

Comments

[elbren]

this is why I went with a pocketbook instead (the ukrianian "kindle") - that and it's cheaper. I get my ebooks from google, and they're ePub and PDF which I back up to the computer.

[elbren]

also, no hacking needed to put whatever images I want on it. however, it's the older version eink screen - not the "pearl."

[flexagon]

I have to admit, for me the screen was basically THE deciding factor.

I did some more research; the download limit for purchased books is basically unlimited, except that you can only have a book on six devices at a time. Even assuming the worst case for management of books destroyed Kindles -- like, you can't remove or unregister them from a dead device -- I'd have to destroy six of them before I ran into this problem. So I'm less concerned now.

I'm glad to hear from a Google eBooks customer. :) I have friends on that team and you're helping to keep them employed.

[elbren]

for me the problem is - what about when amazon goes out of business, or changes its policies?
Google won my business with the easily-accessible public domain stuff -- lots of folk conveniently shared my interests a century ago. I do wish they could post the orphan works, but I understand why courts think it's not fair to give them exclusive right to that material. if I were in charge, you'd need to pay a dollar a year to keep your work in copyright, and if you don't, it becomes public domain.

[elbren]

or not even pay, but just send a notice that there's still someone who cares, which could even be done online.

there's an awesome book I have, bought on ebay

[elbren]

Grr. I blame the iPhone. continuing...
for too much money, that is completely unavailable. few libraries have it, and its content is not duplicated anywhere. it was published in Japan in 1950, google has it, and I should have grabbed the PDF in that window when it was up. it's important scholastically and the paper is as crappy as you'd expect out of reconstruction Japan and one day I'll get it carefully scanned and post it for the good of all.

rant done.

I'm glad the kindle made your folks and your trip happy, and I hope you enjoy bulk-free reading that doesn't increase your count of physical objects!

[flexagon]

*grin* Nice rant. :)

what about when amazon goes out of business, or changes its policies?

If Amazon goes under I think I'll have enough warning and time to pick up hardcopies of the books I care about THAT much. I'd certainly have more warning on that than on my house burning down, which is the way I'd lose my version of your Japanese book (it's a very rare, out of print book aimed at tweens, but same idea).

I have, of course, thought about the issue. And I've noticed that when I do book purges, which is frequent, the majority of the books I get rid of are the ones I most recently got. Not all books that are worth reading are worth reading twice, and not all of the ones that ARE worth reading twice are worth worrying about whether I'll still have them in 10, 15, 20 years. I decided I'm willing to pay twice for that kind of book when it comes along, as becomes necessary; in exchange for the ease of reading a lot of otherwise-heavy, only-worth-one-read books on the Kindle in the meantime.

[elbren]

excellent points, especially about the warning time.

[islenskr.livejournal.com]

Great picture! I think I'm going to have to try that. Also, I think *you* should try that and post a pic. With all manner of geeky books. That would look great.

[flexagon]

Game on! I think we both ought to try it. :D