Despite disadvantages, Amazon's Kindle still worthwhile

Hello, my name is Ethelle, and I am a biblioholic: a compulsive collector of books.

I am a librarian by trade, and I love to read. I always carry a book with me wherever I go, and whenever I have a few minutes to wait, I usually pull out my book and read. I enjoy many things in life, but few more than reading. I love to disappear into a good story.

Before the advent of Kindle in my life, I had a purse book, a car book, a bed book and, when I traveled, I usually had five or six books in my carry-on, since my biggest fear is that I will finish the book I am reading and still have an hour left to the flight and nothing to read. So when I heard about the Kindle, I bought one right away, even though I live outside of the wireless-sync network.

I love my Kindle. It's portable: I carry my library with me, so if I don't feel like a mystery, or what have you, I can change genres. I love the instant gratification of it—I can read a review, or if a friend recommends a title, I can just go to Amazon.com on my Kindle, make an instant purchase and voila, it is on my Kindle ready for reading. I have the Kindle app loaded on my PC and on my iPad also, but for a reading experience on an electronic device, the Kindle wins hands down.

The pros of the Kindle include its obvious size and weight advantages over carrying a bundle of books. Also, titles are plentiful (more than 350,000) and cheap. The instant gratification is also worth noting—if you want a book, you can go online with your Kindle and order it with one click, and in 60 seconds it's downloaded. That is, if you live in Sioux Falls or are in a Sprint service area. And, of course, the internet access means I can check my e-mail whenever I want.

Another interesting advantage the Kindle has over a book is that a Kindle has a ''text to speech'' option—it will read to you, if you want it to. The voice is robotic, of course, but it's unique in that you can pick a male or female voice. It's perfect for when your eyes are strained or when commuting to or from work.

You can also highlight passages and take notes in the Kindle and download mp3 files and audiobooks. And, to top it all off, your Kindle library is available on other devices—your PC, Mac, cell phone, iTouch and iPad, for example.

However, I understand why some people are reluctant to switch to reading on a Kindle rather than straight from a book. There's a sentimentality of reading from a book that some people are afraid will be lost by reading from a Kindle.

And, indeed, the Kindle does have other disadvantages. For example, it is not good for any topic that requires color. Photos are grainy and gray-scale. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has said that color e-ink is coming, but it will not be commercially available for a while yet—perhaps a year or so away.

Another disadvantage of the Kindle is that you cannot share your e-books. This is a big problem for me since I do lend my books. Also, there are no page numbers. You can search for a sentence or a chapter, and it will take you there, but no page numbers. You can see how far you are into the book by a dotted line at the bottom of the page.

I also find the note-taking clumsy because of the small keyboard, but those of you who are proficient texters may not have this problem. And also, although I hope none of you would make this mistake, it's worth noting that you probably should not take your Kindle with you if you like to read in the tub. It isn't waterproof.

So there you have it. I love my books, but I also love how convenient the Kindle has made reading on the go. I also have an iPad complete with the Kindle app, but it is nowhere near as pleasant a print-reading experience as my Kindle is.

What can I say? I love to read!

Ethelle Bean is the Library Director at the Dakota State University Library in Madison, SD.