Another New Toy

Saturday was a wonderful day!  I caught up on some much needed sleep and when I awoke, the mail fairy left me a present.  My new Kindle!!  It was in a small little box with only a power cord, which nicely doubles as USB and wall plug-in.  It had some plastic protector sheets on the front and back and I figured the message on them was pre-printed to provide a "fake" screen.  Nope! The instructions for installation were on the screen as soon as I took it out to plug it in.  The instruction manual immediately popped up and took me through the quick start guide.  I was pretty impressed with the easy set up. And it only took an hour or two for the initial charge.  Which was perfect to allow me to take it for spin out by the pool in the afternoon.

...charging up.....

I sprung for the handy cover.  It's an orange leather with dark grey felt on the inside.  There are hooks in the crease to keep the Kindle in place and they power a light that pops out of the back upper right corner.  You need it to read in the dark.  The Kindle uses a different kind of screen/ink than a normal computer/phone with no backlight. So, you can read it in the sunshine with no glare.  But, you can't read it in the dark without a light.  The cover has an elastic band to keep it in place.  It's perfect, like a little notebook or journal.  My work purse is a little small, so I'm in the market for a new one now. 

I had already accumulated a few books on my wish list knowing that the Kindle was coming.  First up is a $0.99-er that I found in the spanish section, El secreto del tio Oscar.  I like to read a spanish book every now and then to try and keep my language skills up to date.  The other few include Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation; Brain Candy: Science, Paradoxes, Puzzles, Logic and Illogic to Nourish Your Neurons; Generation Kill; and Wanderlust and Lipstick: For Women Travelling to India.

I have more on my list but decided to hold off on buying them for now.  I think this will keep me plenty occupied.  Quite a variety of topics, I know. 

So far, it is weird to get use to not having a paper copy with a cover and picture, but I'm slowly adjusting.  One thing I already love is that there are no pages! Out at the pool with a slight breeze - no worries about holding down fly-away pages.  And reading in bed at night, I don't have to flip side to side to read each page, there's only one :).  It's pretty light weight and easy to use.  I have really just used it to read and haven't tried some of the other features.  I did try to look up some spanish words, but the dictionary is english only. 

Books tend to be pretty expensive here in Singapore, however the Kindle version ones seem to be $10 or less.  That was my main reasoning in getting one since I've found myself reading a lot more.  It's working out great thus far! Looking forward to having it on vacation.

A final pic to demonstrate the true size (and show off my new manicure ;) ).