Quick Review: Kindle on iPod Touch

The Kindle application (Amazon) for the iPod touch brings the printed word to the iPod. Amazon has a great store for buying electronic books at making them available for the iPod. The question I had was: would I even consider reading a book on an iPod (or an actual Kindle for that matter)?

Once I installed the app, I took the plunge by stocking up on free books. Many public domain and some more current titles are available for free. And of those books, I wanted to read a book with and author and subject that was unfamiliar to me for something new. So, I tried "Persuader" by Lee Child. It has positive reviews on amazon (and apparently a very positive review by Newt Gingrich).

Of course the real question here is not whether the book is good, but did I read it? The answer is "Yes". Reading is surprisingly easy. The iPod Touch's Kindle interface was easy to use and ledgible. The number of words on a given page wasn' t large, so there's a lot of "flipping", but that's okay. I didn't have to fumble with a booklight. I didn't have remember where I put the book. I didn't have to make space to bring it with me. If I had a spare moment, I could pull it out and read a little. In many cases, a real book is a more satisfying experience (you can even get real book autographed), but there are also other considerations. For example, what to do with a book when you're done? I admit I'm a packrat when it comes to books, which is one of the reasons I don't read as much - I have to do SOMETHING with the book when I'm done. The Kindle experience allows you to delete you copy and allow you to download it again some other time if you want. So, the kindle approach will make its way into my life.

Now, the question becomes, will I ever BUY a kindle book?