Just wanted to post an update regarding the Kindle. I mentioned last time that I had not tested the battery life with the 3G and Wi-Fi turned off. Well I have had time to test it now, I didn’t charge my Kindle since the last article I wrote and the battery lasted until about May 10th. That is a month and 1 week which is longer than Amazon had listed in the specs for it. I’m definitely not complaining but find it odd that in this day-and-age, an electronic device out-performs the specifications set forth by the company that created it. I am VERY happy that I have bought a Kinda now and when the newer generation comes out I may even decide to upgrade!

Having had my Kindle for about over a month now, I thought I should write a little review.  First let me start by saying that it took me a very long time to decide to get an eBook reader, not to mention how long it took to decide which one to get if I did.  Needless to say, after doing some research and asking the opinion of my Facebook friends and family, I decided to get the Amazon Kindle 3 Wi-Fi + 3G.

When I first received my Kindle, I was kind of put off by its size.  With the screen being barley larger than a normal sized paperback book, and the entire thing being smaller than a normal hardback book, I expected that I would have troubles reading it and possibly issues with the battery capacity.  Boy was I wrong!  It turns out that the screen is very easy to read due to the anti-glare feature of the screen and the contrast of the grey scale color scheme.  The battery capacity is not an issue either as it has lasted me nearly 7 days when I leave the wireless turned on, and without the wireless turned on it has lasted me even longer.  I am still testing how long it will last without the wireless on, but according to Amazon, it should last for nearly 30 days.

So far, the wireless has worked without problems.  It was simple to get connected to my wireless router even though it is encrypted, non-DHCP, and protected by a MAC filter.  The responsiveness of the Wi-Fi is comparable to my laptop computer but not quite as fast.  The 3G connection is faster than what my phone has, an HTC Touch Pro 2, and it also gets a better signal than any phone I have ever owned.  I have been able to get a 3G connection in many places that my phone can’t, including at work and in Casa Grande, AZ.

I will also have to say that I am impressed with the collection of books that Amazon has available for free, and the non-free ones too.  I have browsed through their collection many times looking for books that I have always wanted to read, and books that I have read in the past, and so far a majority of the books considered Classic Literature have been available, but some of the newer titles that aren’t so popular, or are non-fiction, are not available as Kindle eBooks.

Even though they have a large collection of eBooks, I will have to admit that I am disappointed by their quality.  Whoever they have converting the books over to the digital format they use does not do a very good job of proof reading what they have done.  I have found many spelling mistakes and words that don’t belong in several of the books I have read so far.  So far it hasn’t made them unreadable and I can usually determine what word it should be, but is very annoying when you have to break you concentration to try and figure out what you just read and what it means.

Everything being said, I am very happy with my purchase and have been reading away at the eBooks I have already downloaded.  I have about 45 eBooks in my collection so far and there are more I want to add but I have made a decision to not add any more until I read most of the ones I already have downloaded.  Of course, all of the titles I have chosen are free ones as I haven’t wanted to read any newer books in a long time that would require me to pay for them.

The list of books I have read so far and my review of them:

Adventures of Pinocchio – I’ve never read this book before, but have seen the Disney cartoon many times.  I found it very surprising that the Disney book skipped a lot of the story and made a lot of changes to the parts they decided to keep.  After reading this book, I think I like it better than the movie, but I still have a fond place in my heart for the cartoon.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – This is actually a collection of several short stories bundled together in one book.  I have always been a fan of Sherlock Holmes stories so I definitely liked this one.  I had only read about half of the stories that were in here before, and the other half did not disappoint me.  I would recommend this to anyone that likes Sherlock Holmes books.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – This is another book that I have never read, but I have seen the Disney cartoon many times.  I also found it very surprising the amount of story that Disney left out and the changes they made.  After reading this book, I think I like it better than the movie, but I still have a fond place in my heart for the cartoon.

Around the World in 80 Days – Yet another book made in to a movie that I have never read, but have seen the movie.  I watched the original movie of this, not the recent remake though.  I will have to say that the movie was very similar to the book but they definitely left out a lot of the parts that most people would consider boring or not pertinent to the story.  I, however, think that the book was definitely better than the movie and had they left the missing parts in to the movie, it would have been better for it.

Beauty and the Beast – There seems to be a theme of Disney movies made from books that I have seen but not read as this is yet another one.  This time, the story is fairly short compared to the cartoon.  Disney definitely used their artistic license to add to the story.  I liked this book, but feel that it was made better by the changes that Disney added.  It is still worth the read though.

A Christmas Carol – I am running out of ways to say that I have never read this book before but have seen the movie versions of it….  This one though has live action movies and a Disney cartoon, of which I have seen many.  It is interesting to see the changes made by the movie industry to the story, none of which detract from the story.  I personally like the book better than the movies as it has a much more authentic feel to it and I was able to immerse myself in the story more than when I watched the movies.

Great Expectations – I have read this book many times, and it is the first book I read on the Kindle.  As always, it never disappoints me!  It is definitely one of my all-time favorite books and I was very disappointed in the movie version, even though it was a good movie.

The Picture of Dorian Gray – This is a book that I have wanted to read since I saw the movie.  I knew that if the movie version was a good as it was that the book had to be better.  I am sad to say, that in this case, the movie is much better.  The book seemed to drag on and on and really used way more words than it needed to in parts.  I would still recommend reading the book, but would recommend seeing the movie even more!

If you would like to see the collection I have gathered so far, click here.