I was in the airport last week and while waiting to board, I was sitting next to a guy named Jay who was staring intently at his Kindle. I had the latest TIME ( Which is only $20/y through Amazon, Not the newsstand price of like $5 per copy, if you click on the link and subscribe. Think about it, if you buy 4 magazines @ a bookstore or newsstand you could have purchased a subscription for an entire year) and was flipping through the short articles in the front pages when I noticed that he was reading the same articles as I was. I was dumbfounded. This guy had the same TIME magazine that I had but in digital form. Wow.
We started to talk and I asked him a flurry of questions about his Kindle and he was so happy with this gift from his wife that he freely told me everything I wanted to know. He had the Kindle for about 3 weeks and was in love with it. Since he travels 2 weeks out of every month this was the perfect tool for him to catch up on all his reading. He did stress ALL. I asked him what he likes to read and he gave me this list of magazines: TIME, Newsweek, Foreign Affairs, PC Magazine, Barron's Slate and Fortune. Then came his list of newspapers: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Investor's Business Daily and the Philadelphia Daily News. And if that wasn't enough he also had these books: Sh*t My Dad Says, They Call Me Baba Booey, The Last Boy, Dark Mission, Adobe Photoshop CS5 Classroom in a Book, Assorted Sudoku Puzzles for Kindle, Vol. 1, 8 Minute Meditation: Quiet Your Mind. Change Your Life and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This was quite a diverse list of literature if i do say so. I was amazed that all of that can fit on such a small device. Jay said that his Kindle wasn't even anywhere near half full. He also said that he spends about 40 hours a month traveling and he needs to combat some severe boredom and you can't spend all that time on a laptop doing work, at least not if you want to keep your sanity.
Jay seemed like a really down too earth guy who is making the best out of his situation. He's not the power traveler in the $900 suit that thinks he owns the place. He just had some golf wear on that looked extremely comfortable. He mentioned that he saves a ton of time and money by not going to the Newsstands to satisfy his need for amusement. Since most Kindle eBooks are almost half off the cover price and magazine and newspaper subscriptions are a fraction of their regular pricing it is a no brainer for him. Jay has the 3G version and said that it made more sense for him to be able to download content from just about anywhere, rather than waiting to get home or at work. If he feels the need to read something different, he just types it in the search and within a couple of minutes he has it.
One thing that Jay suggested was that since this is still a fragile piece of technology one might want to protect it with a cover like the Kindle Lighted Leather Cover that he has. Of course these come in many colors and styles so you can feel free to personalize your Kindle experience. Take a look at some of these covers: Skinit Protective Kindle Skin, Diane von Furstenberg Kayley Canvas Clutch, Cole Haan Hand-Stained Pebble Grain, Belkin Pleated Kindle Sleeve.
I will have to look into the Kindle a little deeper before I take the next step. But if I was commuting anywhere, had a nice lunch hour, had a porch with a rocking chair or some free time I would buy 1 of these and say goodbye to killing trees for amusement. The Digital age is here so why don't we all take a look at the Kindle and consider what its like to be paperless. You Gotta Have A Kindle.
