I've been able to actually use my Kindle 2 for about a week now and my overall opinion is a positive one. This is going to be a really short review, but DST is kicking my butt. I hate switching time and wish we could just stay on one year round. But I digress.
Kindle 2. What I don't like. The screen is a little gray for me. I know it's shaded to make long reading stints doable--too white a screen would be worse--but this is just a little dark for me. I know all about eye strain. I've got my computers set up to tint my WordPerfect screen a pale blue. But this just seems dingy. Plus there's a little bit of ghosting going on that bugs me.
I also prefer to read a book with real paper. There's no doubt about it, K2 isn't as nice as an old-fashioned book. I can't see this as a way that I'd buy my keeper authors. For them, I'm still going with paper.
What I do like. I love, love, love being able to have multiple books with me all the time. I already have quite a collection of fiction and nonfiction on there and I can skip to whatever I feel like reading. I started reading a research book at work last week, but I decided that I didn't feel like research. If I'd put the book in my bag and brought it in, I would have been out of luck, but with my K2, I just selected a fictional story instead.
I love being able to instantly download what I want. At work, I decided I needed info about Japanese history, so at lunch, I popped on the K2 and had a couple of sample chapters sent to me. Totally love the instant gratification. I also had some fiction recommendations and was able to immediately download and start reading.
The size is great and it's not too heavy which means I can hold it for a while while I read. There's no prying open a book and holding the pages open with my hand which helps with my tendinitis--big time. It's easy to turn pages without disrupting the flow of reading.
Another plus is carting my work around with me without needing a computer. Big plus when my books come in over 400 pages.
All in all, I'm very happy with my K2 purchase. I wish there were more research books available in this format because this is clearly how I want to read my reference material. I'm running around the Amazon site, clicking "Kindle Me Please." :-) I can't wait to see what this looks like at the 5th or 6th generation. Could be really cool!
