The Kindle, 3rd Generation – The Easiest Way To Create More Reading Time

I’m one of those people who absolutely loves reading, but always has trouble justifying the time sink associated with the activity. I usually feel like I should do something more productive, such as write more fantastic articles or watch episodes of Dexter. Recently, though, I decided I would try to change all that (the lack of reading, that is) and try an experiment that I hoped would allow me more time to read, while not taking away from the slew of other activities I fill my day with, such as avoiding customers.

The experiment was very simple: buy a Kindle, and see if owning one would increase the time I spent reading each week. I had pined for an e-reader ever since they first hit the street, but it’s only recently that I felt e-reader technology had hit a point where I wouldn’t feel bad dropping money on one. The slow page refresh rate between page turns had been a deal breaker for me, as was the poor contrast on many of the previous generation e-readers, including the 2nd generation Kindle. In addition, Amazon dropping their prices so dramatically didn’t hurt any either.

So what have I learned in the two weeks that I’ve owned an e-reader? I learned that my hunch was correct. My belief was that being able to carry around a durable reading device which I could use with one hand would make it convenient enough for me to read at least a few chapters a week. After having used the Kindle, I discovered that not only was I able to read a few times a week, I was actually able to read nearly every day. I finished 1.5 William Gibson novels in the first two weeks alone.

The reason the Kindle allowed me to get in so much extra reading time is simple – I could spend my commute time reading, instead of listening on other people’s conversations or staring off into space.. The commute was perfect for decompressing after a long day of work, but when I felt like reading I was always worried about not getting a seat and having to balance on a moving train while holding a book two-handed, a problem that goes away with the Kindles one-handed page turning.

Not all of you have the luxury (or curse) of taking a train or bus to work each day, but the Kindle (and any e-reader worth its salt) has many other features which I believe makes it far superior to paper books, or “dead tree” books as the hippie e-reader fanatics like to call them.

• The Kindle is lighter than an average paperback and can easily be held with one hand for lengthy stretches of time.
• You can turn pages using just one hand, making the device perfect for wanking off to Anime .pdfs on your way to work.
• The battery lasts nearly a month on a full charge, and only uses power for page turns.
• You can store thousands of ebooks and documents on the Kindle at any given time.
• The graphite colored Kindle looks bad-ass, and by association you’ll look like a bad-ass reading on one.
• Women like having sex with men who own Kindles.
• The Kindle is very thin, and could maybe be used as a pry bar, but probably not.

If those features don’t make you want to own one, I don’t know what would.

The Kindle is one of many current generation e-readers available, but in my opinion, it’s the very best; it has many useful characteristics, such as being light-weight and easy to use, and sports a non-stupid name, unlike the Kobo e-reader that Chapters released.