After years of dragging my feet, I have finally purchased not one, but two, Amazon Kindle e-reader devices. The first was a cheap ($15) Fire tablet from a pawn shop. I had no intention of buying anything, just a passing curiosity, but then I saw it and thought, Why not have a dedicated reader? I liked it. Furthermore, I enjoyed having a smaller tablet to read myself to sleep with every night, rather than a large iPad or my phone. However, the weight of the tablet, the highly reflective, smudgy, glass screen and the fact that the tablet had the capability for distractions (apps) had me wondering if I should just go back to what I had using the iPhone instead.
I came across the Kindle Paperwhite edition yesterday and took another look at the possibilities. This is a minimal, reading-focused, no distraction reader that has a wonderful glare-free screen that weighs less than nothing. Perfect. So I left the store and stewed on it. Not two hours later, I went back and purchased.
After signing in to a new Amazon account (ugh, I despise Amazon) I realized there were constant ads on the Home Screen. Nope. After researching online, I discovered they can be removed for a $20 fee? I chatted up an Amazon rep, and they were able to waive the $20 instantly. Now it is perfect again. I have no intention of purchasing digital books from Amazon ever again. I learned this way back in 2013 when I canceled my original Amazon account and discovered I could not take my books with me. Digital Rights Management (DRM) be damned. For the past few years, I have enjoyed reading books from public libraries using their Libby app on my iDevices. But now I can read in their app or send to the Kindle instead. Brilliant. Now I need a solution to export all highlights and notes I make on the Kindle to other software platforms to use as a reference. I hope that with the proper tools such as the Kindle, I will be able to exceed my reading goals again.