I have now purchased six Kindles, the last two being version 2. I recommend them. Especially if two or more people share an account, the cost per book is considerably lower than paper. The standard price is supposed to be $9.99 but many good books cost more. However, many cost less too, including many worthwhile authors who are free. It is instructive to immediately search the Kindle Amazon store for any author or work that you are curious about. It can be surprising what is available. Any book you see on Amazon that is not available in Kindle format can be requested to be made Kindle-ready with a single click. Over time, such requests build up and may be honored.
I am giving a presentation in late April about the advantages and limitations of the Kindle. I bought one a year ago and I was motivated to actually shell out the $400 (current price is $40 less) to get a book and avoid adding one physically to our shelves. The device is now in a new format and it seems better. Enough so that I bought myself a new one while still using version 1.
Important advantages:
1500 books weigh less than 10 oz. altogether in one place
A reader can switch between many books faster and more easily than using paper books
The Whispernet system allows immediate downloading of books into the device without any hookup to anything
Files can be housed on a computer if desired
The device is very efficient at making notes and bookmarks in books. The file of notes can be downloaded into a computer for further duplication, transmission, etc.
Important disadvantages:
You pay for something that cannot be read except on the device, so it can't be loaned or given away.
It takes a little getting used to.
It has long battery life and is fast-charging but is helpless and useless with a charge.
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Kindles allow a reader to move back and forth between several books more quickly than paper books do.
The current Kindle 2 can read aloud most its text. Publishers can block this ability if desired, in case they would want to publish the book in audio form. I find that buying an audio book, narrated by a good professional, is worthwhile, even if the book can be read aloud by the Kindle. I am a big fan of The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series and the reader of the audiobooks, Lisette Lecat. Her abilities far outstrip a mechanical reader and are worth the price.
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I wanted to experience subscriptions that are regularly beamed to the Kindle. I chose the Atlantic Monthly for $1.25 a month and two blogs. My nephew, an information architect, advised me to try the Amazon daily blog, free on the Kindle. I also looked for something that appealed to me and chose O'Reilly Radar ($.99 a month on the Kindle but free on the internet), from a leading computer publisher. Naturally, blogs have lead to more blogs. I want to try to be stingy about adding blogs of interest. The Kindle is not as good for exploration of web pages so I put feeds links in the bookmark toolbar of Firefox. But today's reading of Amazon and O'Reilly have lead me to Chris Anderson's blog "The Long Tail" and the blog "Collecting Children's Books."
It changes the nature of the Kindle device a little bit when something is downloaded regularly, something fresh, such as a newspaper, magazine or blog. Reading books or other text without hyperlinks in them is fine on the Kindle. Reading blogs and other hyperlink-strewn material works best on a good computer with a good internet connection.
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There are several books on using the Kindle and on getting free books for it. I recommend Stephen Windwalker and his Kindle Nation blog: http://kindlehomepage.blogspot.com/ The Kindle and its Whispernet system for downloading books acts like a cell phone and can receive email and do web searches. As such it can also get Google and Google or other web email.
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Kindle 2 comes with a single cable which can charge the device and also connect it to a computer. Windwalker and others explain how to insert your own pictures in place of those that come with it. Music can be downloaded into the Kindle for playing while reading or at other times if desired. Kindle 2 can read text aloud so you can hear it if you want and if the rights to audio are not blocked by the publisher.
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Every time you are interested in a work or an author, I recommend checking for the work or author by either searching in the Kindle store from the Kindle or looking at the Amazon.com web site in the Kindle book section. Every work that is listed on Amazon but is not available for Kindle has an icon on the web page which you can use to ask the publisher be notified that book is desired in Kindle format. The number of books available has more than doubled from 90.000 to 240,000 in less than a year. Checking classic authors and famous books like the Bible is worthwhile, too. They are often available from Amazon for free or low charges like $1.00.
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If you have a book of your own in an electronic file, you can publish it through Amazon for free. You might not get any sales, though. It can be a bit of work to get the file in good shape, with a clickable table of contents and such, but it can be fun and instructive.