What Apple did to music, Amazon did to books.  I read a lot, I mean a lot between personal, enjoyment, business, and technology there’s a bunch.  And physical books keep me from reading as much as I’d like to read.  With several books that I wanted to read coupled with all my travel, I got tired of carrying around all these big books.  I knew it was just a matter of time before I jumped in to the Kindle.  Why my research has not been exhaustive, I recently purchased a Kindle Wifi (no 3G, 6” B&W) model for the following reasons.

• It was small and light.  Could fit into my moleskin notebook that I carry around.
• E-ink, low power and I could read in direct sunlight
• I could read at night before bed.  Having light hit your eyes right before you go to bed disrupts your sleep patterns.  I don’t watch TV or read computers before I go to bed.
• 3500 books, periodicals, journals, emails, PDF’s could be stored on it.  Very convenient for carrying around and reading when I have a moment.
• It’s not a computer with a lot of stuff popping up or other distractions.  When I read, I want to focus and concentrate without interruption.
• Very easy to hook up to wireless networks to get content
• Didn’t want the 3G as that is old school.  Plus they charge you if you send personal documents over their 3G network.  I have a 4G phone in my pocket that can operate as a wifi hotspot.  If I want to connect, I fire up my 4G hotspot, connect and disconnect when I’m done.  4G speed vs. 3G is way better.  The entire book is on my device before I even get out of the Kindle store back to the home screen to read it.  No additional charges either.  If I have a long email that I want to read/study, I just email it my Kindle and it’s there with everything else.
• Lots of free content
• Long battery life.  10 days if I have the wifi turned on, 30 days if I don’t.  More than enough juice to read on a cross-country or international trip.
• Kindle format is like my e-book PDF format.  Kindle would be my “portable book format” PBF vs. “portable document format (PDF)”  Get all my reading sources to Kindle format and I’m good to go.  I’m even starting to favor books/periodicals that make it easy to read on my Kindle.
• Multi-device support .  I can download a free app and run on my Android HTC phone or my laptop.  Normally I just read on my Kindle but if I have a journal that has a lot of color charts and graphs I want to consult, I do that on my laptop.  Also good if I’m studying a particular book and need to go back and forth through the pages.
• I liked it so much, I am getting my wife one for Mothers Day and my 12 yr son one for school.  I would rather him reading than watching TV or playing video games.  He’s been begging for one and now at $139, the price is right!