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Kindled: Five Favorite Forgotten Features

By on January 1, 2010

I’ve had a Kindle since January of 2008 and every time someone realizes that I own one they ask me all sorts of questions about it.  I’ve been promising to write a review for about as long as I’ve had my kindle but I just never felt that motivated.  I’m writing one now because most of the reviews of the kindle that I’ve seen tend to miss some of the major things I love about the device.  So, here are the five most missed advantages of owning a kindle…

1.  Tastes Great – Less Filling

Before my kindle, I would normally fill every bag I had with books.  I guess I’m not normal in this regard but I don’t usually read one book through at a time.  I tend to hop back and forth between a few books at a time.  (Am I the only one like this?)  This would prove to be a problem because I never knew what book to take with me when heading out the door.  In fact, it was not uncommon for me to have two bags.  One would be filled with my laptop, other items and a couple of books.  The other would be my “book bag” and it would be a sort of mini mobile library.  I would usually leave that bag in the car so I had it at both home and the office.  When I was flying somewhere I was always torn on which book to take with me and I would normally end up picking out a smaller book to minimize the weight issue.

Now, with my kindle, I have one light-weight reader that literally my mobile library.  My kindle can hold hundreds of books and I can access any of them at a moments notice.  Plus, the kindle remembers where I was so I don’t have to worry about using or losing bookmarks.

It’s funny that now it feels like a such a pain if I have to carry a regular book with me.  I feel like I’m carrying a piece of wood around.  It seems almost barbaric, like carrying around stone tablets.

2.  Yummy Free Samples

This is one feature that hardly gets mentioned that is absolutely huge for me.  The kindle is more than just a reader.  One of the huge benefits of the kindle is the back-end system Amazon designed to support it.  Not only can you download a book in under a minute, you can also download a “sample” of the book instantly too.  To use Steve Job’s line, this is insanely great.

I find that with my kindle I am reading all sorts of books that I might not ever read.  I routinely download all sorts of samples of anything that catches my eye.  Then, when I have a few free minutes I’ll start reading.  The samples vary in length but they normally include at least a couple of chapters which is usually enough for me to know whether or not I’m truly interested in the book.

Using this great feature I’ve discovered some real gems.  For instance, on a lark I downloaded the sample of The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham.  Honestly, I’ve always had some sort of respect for Billy but I never really gave him much thought.  I certainly didn’t think of his leadership skills in any real way.  All that changed when I read the first couple of chapters and I immediately purchased the rest of the book.  I now consider this book one of my all-time favorites and possibly one of the greatest books on leadership out there.  (Read my full review here.)

While I’m on the topic, I must stress that the ability to download a book instantly without a computer is amazing.  You can initiate the download via Amazon’s site or you can use the kindle itself to shop online for books.  If I’m somewhere and somebody I respect mentions a book they are enjoying I can usually download it on the spot.  It’s beautiful and I find that I use my kindle sort of like a playlist of books that I want to read in the future…or at least sample.

3.  It’s Free…Well, Sort Of.

When people ask me about my kindle they usually are pretty quick to ask me about the price.  I realize that it might seem fairly steep at first but I think it actually saves me money.  Yep.  You read that right.  It saves me money.  The truth is that I buy a ton of books and the kindle versions are always cheaper than the “wooden” versions…always.  Most of the time I save at least $4 a book.  Sometimes, the savings can be as much as $14.  Also, if you figure in the number of books that I decide I don’t want to read because of the sample, you can see that it starts to add up.  Of course, a lot of people don’t buy that many books in a given year and if that’s you then the kindle probably isn’t for you.  Truthfully though, if you’re not a big reader the kindle is obviously a waste of time for you.  If however, you buy a good number of books the kindle will start to pay for itself.

4.  Kindle for the iPhone

Just when I thought my kindle couldn’t get any better, Amazon surprised me once again.  Just over a week ago, Amazon released a new iphone app called (what else) kindle for the iphone.  At first I thought Amazon was trying to move away from the kindle but this app really just augments the kindle.  You can read all of your kindle books using this app but the iphone screen is just too small to do that for any real amount of time, in my opinion.  Still, if you’re somewhere and you have some free time but you find yourself kindleless this app does the trick.

Here’s the kicker though.  Amazon keeps your books in sync across both devices so if you read a little in one place it will be reflected when you fire that book up on the other device.  It also means that you can access all your bookmarks and notes from your iphone too.  Wow!

5.  I’m My Own E-Book Publisher

Another feature that gets almost no press is the ability to send yourself documents and pdf files.  When you activate your kindle, you also create a unique email address.   Something like dude@kindle.net.  With that email in hand, you (or any email address you authorize) can email you any html, doc or pdf file and Amazon will convert it for you and send it wirelessly to your kindle.  This is huge for anyone that does a lot of reading of long computer documents.  It’s also great if, like me, you have some out of print books in an electronic format.  I love the writings of a few dead British guys and most of their books are long out of print.  You can, however, find electronic copies on the internet and, with a kindle, you can “publish” them yourself.  It’s really cool.

The Good and the Bad

I think you can tell that I love my kindle but, obviously, no product is perfect and I do have a few pet peeves.  (I’ll post about them later if anyone is interested.)  Overall, however, the kindle has been an great device for me.

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