Okay, there are hundreds, nay thousands, of Kindle reviews out there… but what does a true geek think about it?ADHERER

Some of you may recall the commercial some time ago where the mother enjoyed reading tech manuals to her infant child to put them to sleep.  For the life of me I can’t recall what the commercial was about, but the concept stuck with me, because I am just like the lady in the ad.  I read tech books and manuals for fun.

If you’re into reading best sellers, mystery novels, etc., then you need a Kindle.  You’ll love it.  There’s really no better way to get your fix for linear-reading content.  By ”linear-reading” content, I mean essentially novels and the like.  Anything that you read from front to back, in a linear fashion, that’s what I’m talking about.

But if you are into manuals, how-to articles, etc., then the Kindle may not be the best place to go.  Let’s look why.

First, let me point out that my usual reading fare is programming books.  Whatever language I happen to be into at the moment (Perl, currently) I will get my hands on all of the books I can to delve deeper and deeper into the subject.  But the main thing that programming books need to reveal is code.  And that’s not always the best thing on the Kindle.  Case in point.

Perls of Wisdom by Randal Schwartz is one of my favorite Perl books.  It’s a collection of his past articles, which may make you feel ripped off that it’s recycled content, but the content is oh-so-wonderful!  I highly recommend this book… but not in its Kindle format.  Here’s why… following is a portion of code from the book as shown on the Kindle:

Note how impossible that is to read.  And it’s text, so you can zoom it in, right?  Wrong!  Not in this case.  This portion of code is stored, oddly enough, as an image so I cannot be enlarged at all.  Incidentally, here is the next page:

See how much more readable that is?  Does that make any sense at all?  Same settings for both pages, but totally different all based on how long the longest line in the image is.  It’s quite odd.

Don’t get me wrong; some programming books in Kindle format have the code as text, so it is possible to read it more easily.  Of course, the formatting gets a little wonky there as the text will wrap, making the code a little less readable.  But at least you don’t need a magnifying glass.

By the way, it doesn’t get any better on the Kindle iPhone app:

Imagine that on a tiny 4” screen.  I am hoping the iPad will make this better.

In any case, another thing to look for if you’re a geek and want to read programming books is price.  Programming books are very expensive… usually $40-50 or more each!  Perls of Wisdom, incidentally, is $15.39 in Kindle format from Amazon, and $23.09 in paperback… pretty decent savings, there.  And to be sure, Amazon seems to be setting the electronic prices of these books quite well.  Let’s look up a few others that I have:

So, it appears that considerable savings could be had here.

Incidentally, Mastering Perl in electronic format (DRM-free) from O’Reilly is $31.99.  Whereas that’s a lot more, I could be assured that my O’Reilly version will work anywhere, which will be a big deal if the iPad Kindle app gets blocked.  I do hope Apple isn’t that mean-spirited.

Okay, enough about all that.  Let’s talk about the Kindle itself.  It’s running for $259 right now on Amazon for the 6” screen version (Kindle-2).  It uses e-ink technology for the screen, so it’s just like paper.  Well, it’s like a dull gray paper.  As you can see in the pictures above, the background isn’t exactly a true white.  This makes the contrast a little low and readers with aging eyes like mine will want to increase the font size (this is a great reason in and of itself to use an e-reader).  As well, I find that the light needs to be pretty bright.  Fluorescent light works better as it’s a brighter white and adds contrast between the e-ink and the gray background.  Incandescent lights don’t work as well.  You may wish to invest in a book light; several are made specifically for the Kindle in that they’re padded so as not to scratch the Kindle’s surface.  A case for the Kindle is a good idea too.  I got the stock one that Amazon pushes… er, I mean, suggests.  It was like $25.

Reading PDFs is not good on the Kindle.  PDFs are designed with a page layout in mind, and that page is generally an 8.5×11” size.  So the Kindle will basically show that at half size.  Of course, that’s not to say that you can’t send the PDF to Amazon to convert to Kindle format for you, but that depends on the PDF.  I have some manuals in PDF format that have stuff in the margins and the Amazon conversion software can’t figure that out and so the prose gets all wonky.  Another word of caution: converted documents like this are only available on your Kindle… they can’t be brought into the iPhone app.  And some books you purchase are “Kindle only,” which means you can’t download them to your iPhone.  Just a word of warning.  I don’t understand why this is, but I have at least one such book.

In the end, I really love my Kindle.  I think it’s a great way to take all your reading content with you.  It’s not very good as a research tool, but not truly horrible at it, since you can search in a book, which an actual book won’t allow; it’d be only as good as the index.  But I love taking my Kindle with me wherever I go and reading as time permits.  And if you have troubles staring at a computer screen for hours at a time due to the backlighting (I don’t, but many do, including my girlfriend), then an e-ink display is what you’ll need if you plan to spend any serious time reading.

Right now, I am planning on getting an iPad, which I won’t replace my Kindle with.  Although, I may make sure to get my books from a DRM-free source so that I can read them anywhere.  I know the Apple Bookstore is going to use epub, but I am hoping they don’t add DRM to their books.  If that’s the case, then I could see myself buying books from the Apple Bookstore and moving them to Stanza on my iPhone (or the Apple iPhone Bookreader, assuming one will be made available) and also to my Kindle.  Then I would have my books wherever I am with whatever gadget(s) I have with me.  But as long as the Kindle books are rife with DRM, I am keeping my purchasing of them to a minimum.

Meanwhile, I am getting an EntourageEdge for my girlfriend.  She can read her textbooks on the e-ink display and make notations on them.  I think she’ll really dig it!  I’ll let you all know how that is when it arrives.