For the Love of Lit

Posts Tagged ‘ebooks’

Okay, I’m a day or so late on this one, but did you guys hear about the two new Kindles that are being released?!?

The 3rd generation Kindle will be priced at $189 and available in while or gray, and the new Wi-Fi Kindle will be only $139 ($139!!!).  One of the main differences between the two is that the $139 one only runs on Wi-Fi and the regular $189 Kindle runs on either Wi-Fi or AT&T’s 3G broadband network.  The Wi-Fi Kindle’s battery life is longer too if you keep the wireless turned on all the time.  I personally never turn my wireless on anyway unless I want to browse the Kindle store because it does make a significant difference in the battery life.

Some of the other enhancements that Amazon has made are: better E-Ink contrast, double the storage (now you can store 3,500 book… wow), quieter page turning buttons (the ones on mine aren’t LOUD, but they do “click” a little bit), and an updated selection button that is easier to use.   They’re also rolling out an update to the Kindle software (they’re doing it in waves but it hasn’t come available to me yet) which will somehow let you post things to Twitter or Facebook from your Kindle.  Not sure exactly how that works, but I want to try it!

Everyone is comparing the e-readers to tablet computers like the iPad, and Amazon is adamant that they do not want to be compared to the iPad because they’re two totally different products and they want to keep the Kindle simple for people who just want to read.  They don’t even seem interested in touch screens or color screens right now like some of their competitors.

So what do you guys think?  Are you going to go online and order one when they come out at the end of August?  Once again, I’m a little ticked that I got mine when it was more than double the price… but oh well.  I still love it and have no regrets!

(I swear I’m not being compensated by Amazon for this – I just heart my Kindle and think that e-readers are an amazing invention.)

I ran across an article that I wanted to share about how the Kindle is being used to promote literacy in children in third world countries.  There’s an organization called Worldreader.org that recently brought 20 Kindles to a Ghana classroom and they will be doing trials of the program in other areas as well.

It’s a really interesting concept, I think.  Just think about how many more books a child could have access to by using an e-reader that otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to physically get.  They could use the text-to-voice option to learn new words or pronunciation.  Obviously, there are some downsides like taking care of the Kindle itself to prevent damage.  Check out Worldreader.org’s blog for more information on their trials and current projects including some interesting stories about how the Kindle was used in Ghana and how the kids adapted to it.

On Facebook, there was some debate in response to this article asking why they aren’t doing this here in the US and instead, spending the money in a country overseas that doesn’t help the children here with literacy issues.   There does seem to be a lot of talk (and possibly some action) about adding e-readers to US classrooms for the same reasons.  I’m sure this is a subject that we will hear more and more about in the coming years with the advent of the Kindle and other e-readers plus other technology like the iPad.  What are your thoughts about e-readers in the classroom?

I saw a news release today on Amazon Kindle’s Facebook page that they once again lowered the price for the Kindle 2!  It has went down in price from $359 about a year ago, to $259 late last summer, and now to $189.

One hundred eighty-nine dollars.   FREE two day shipping.  600,000 books.  Most of them under $9.99 and a whole lot that are FREE or super duper cheap.  Seriously.  If you don’t have one of these but you’ve been pining away for one for the past two years, then you need to run, not walk, to your nearest computer or smartphone with an internet connection and buy it.  Now!

In other news, it kind of stinks that I got mine at last year’s price, but what can you do.  I’ve had mine for a year and have 108 books on it.  I’ve read most of them and a large number of them were free.  So I still see that as a win.

My local paper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, just published a list of fiction and non-fiction books for summer called “Summer Reading: From beach blankets to cool mountain evenings, vacation days call for a good book“.   You can click on that link and go and read the whole article and descriptions of each book, but here is a quick list of the books and links to the books on Amazon:

Fiction:

• “Spies of the Balkans” by Alan Furst
• “A Fierce Radiance” by Lauren Belfer
• “Truth” by Peter Temple
• “Seven Year Switch” by Claire Cook
• “The One That I Want” by Allison Winn Scotch (I just read this and loved it!)
• “The Outer Banks House” by Diann Ducharme
• “My Name Is Memory” by Ann Brashares
• “American Music” by Jane Mendelsohn
• “The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake” by Aimee Bender
• “A Visit From the Goon Squad” by Jennifer Egan
• “Broken” by Karen Slaughter
• “Everything” by Kevin Canty
• “The Same River Twice” by Ted Mooney
• “Kraken” by China Mieville

Non-fiction:

• “Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Marriage of the Century” by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger
• “Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America” by Jack Rakove
• “Broke, USA” by Gary Rivlin
• “The Facebook Effect” by David Kirkpatrick
• “The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull and the Battle of the Little Bighorn” by Nathaniel Philbrick
• “Three Chords for Beauty’s Sake: The Life of Artie Shaw” by Tom Nolan
• “The Promise: President Obama, Year One” by Jonathan Alter
• “Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in A Connected Age” by Clay Shirky
• “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains” by Nicholas Carr

Need a last minute Father’s Day gift?  I’m sure a lot of bookworm dads out there may like some of these titles!

Are you going to go out and pick up any of these books for your summer vacation?  Or do you already have a stack of books in your beach bag ready to go?  Please feel free to share your recommendations!

I had a field day recently doing Kindle pre-orders of books by my favorite chick lit authors.  Here’s the list that I pre-ordered:

• “Promises to Keep” by Jane Green, release date of June 15
• “A Desirable Residence” by Madeleine Wickham, release date of June 22
• “Fly Away Home” by Jennifer Weiner, release date of July 13
• “Last Night at Chateau Marmont” by Lauren Weisberger, release date of August 17
• “Mini Shopaholic” by Sophie Kinsella, release date of September 21

Those are all of the ones that were high on my radar; I hope I’m not missing any!  Looks like I’ll have a busy summer ahead of me.  Keep an eye out for these at your favorite bookstore and you can be sure I’ll be blogging about them as soon as I finish!