Sam Walton

Well, I’ve had my Kindle for some time now so I thought I’d follow up my previous post with a more informed review.

What can I say? It’s fantastic. My initial impressions have been confounded, and I’m throughly pleased with the device. I’ve done more personal reading - that is reading which has not been dictated by  an educational agenda - since I got it than I have in the 2 years preceding. In fact I managed to read 8 books of varying lengths in a period of two weeks.

This is, however, a mixed blessing. Sure, more reading is better than less reading, but so too is more battery life better than less. Whilst I’ve heard of people getting a month between charges I’ve been fortunate to get anywhere near a fortnight this past month or so. But that’s not really a fault of the device, rather it’s my own enthusiasm for it.

If only there was some  way to harness the kinetic power put into pressing the switches to charge the device…

The no-glare claim is 100% true, as many are no doubt aware. Reading it in the bright sun abroad was no hassle, and the amount of strain on my eyes whilst reading was probably less than it would have been reading a bright white paper book.

And my favourite feature - one I had no intention of using when i got the device - has to be the ability to subscribe to magazines and newspapers. I’ve had a number of trials and subscribed to Analog - a science fiction and fact magazine, which I would heartily recommend to all and sundry. Receiving a  new copy of a magazine whilst just off the coast of Africa is wonderfully convenient.

All in all my only regret is not buying one sooner.