Wow, has it really been since December that I last blogged? I guess I’ve been busy… Those of you paying attention (not that I actually believe there are very many of you) will probably understand what I’ve been so busy with. It’s probably been the hardest 6 months of my career. But hard work pays off, right? Watch the Windows Home Server Team Blog for some exciting news any day now…
Even though I have been busy, I have had a chance to read a few books. Well actually, according to my purchase history on Amazon, I’ve read close to 30 since December! Almost all of these were on my Kindle, which I have grown quite fond of.
I still think the industrial and mechanical design of the Kindle sucks. Even after so much use I still cannot pick the damn thing up without accidentally turning a page. The page flip buttons are just horrible. But I’ve gotten used to the UI design and it’s workable. The reading and purchasing experience is still amazingly good.
I’ve used it on the beach in Hawaii, on airplanes, in bed, on the couch, and even in the car while waiting to pick up kids and stuff. It is so convenient to have an entire library of books at my fingertips. It works great even where Wispernet is not available; just plug it into a USB port and you can put books on it anywhere. In fact I did this just this week while I was in Taipei.
Sometimes I buy books directly on the device and sometimes I buy them from my computer. One-click shopping on Amazon.com is pretty darn dangerous!
When I started out I was very conservative about buying books for it. I’d buy one at a time and not another until I finished. Now I generally buy 2 or 3 in a shopping session and seem to usually have 3 or 4 unread books "waiting to be read at a time". For example, right now I have the following waiting to be read:
- The Lost Fleet: Courageous by Jack Campbell (I’m almost done with this book)
- The Lost Fleet: Fearless by Jack Campbell
- The Lost Fleet: Dauntless by Jack Campbell
- Accelerando by Charles Stross
- Glasshouse by Charles Stross
- Rise to Rebellion: A Novel of the American Revolution by Jeff Shaara
- Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath, Dan Heath
It’ll probably be a while before Amazon comes out with better hardware. When they do I’m sure I’ll be one of the first to buy. For now, the friction-free book buying and great reading experience make it easy to put up with the poor hardware design.
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