Reasons I won’t buy the Amazon Kindle just yet

If you’ve visited the Amazon.com website recently, you’ve probably seen the ads for their latest gadget, the Amazon Kindle – Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device.

Kindle: Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device

What this is is an electronic gadget that you can use to read your books, but more than that, you can shop for books and download them right onto the Kindle without connecting to a computer, you can subscribe to and read newspapers, and more. Amazon has a fully fledged Kindle Store where you can buy books and such.

Now the first thing I did when I saw the Kindle was to say… pfft! I spend way too much time in front of a computer screen as it is, why would I want to read my books off of a screen too? But because I can’t seem to contain my curiosity about all things geeky and techy, I explored some more, read almost all 980 reviews on Amazon (yeah I know I’m weird), and here are the things I learned about the Kindle. I am going to break them down into reasons why I may buy the Kindle one day and reasons why I won’t buy it just yet.

Reasons why I might think about buying the Amazon Kindle down the road:

1. It’s a gadget, and I’m a geek – need I say more?
2. I love reading, and I usually have a problem when traveling because I want to try and fit my whole bookshelf into one small bag! – The Amazon Kindle can hold over 200 books at once!!
3. It has an electronic-paper display that provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper, so it won’t hurt my eyes. It adjusts to the lighting for ergonomic purposes.
4. The Kindle offers free book samples, so that I can download and read first chapters for free before I decide to buy. Plus I can shop anytime and the downloads are fast. Add to that, the wireless connectivity to Amazon is included in the price, I never have to pay any monthly fees or such for the wireless connectivity.
5. Top U.S. newspapers including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post; top magazines including TIME, Atlantic Monthly, and Forbes—all auto-delivered wirelessly.
6. I can access more than 250 top blogs including some of my favs like Slashdot and TechCrunch, all updated wirelessly throughout the day. It also includes access to Wikipedia. And remember all this is at no extra cost.
7. The Kindle is lighter and thinner than a typical paperback, clocking in at only 10.3 ounces.
8. It has a long battery life. Leave wireless on and recharge approximately every other day. Turn wireless off and read for a week or more before recharging. Fully recharges in 2 hours.

Reasons why I won’t buy the Amazon Kindle just yet:

1. It’s a device, and I have enough of those.
2. I like books, I like the way they feel and smell, I like touching them, flipping through them, book-marking them, placing them on my shelf and reaching for them after some time to re-read them, seeing all the marks and notes I made before.
3. They don’t have all my favorite authors and genres on the Kindle titles yet, so I’ll wait and see how many authors/publishers jump on the bandwagon before I go for it.
4. The books you buy using the Kindle are copyright protected such that you can only read them on the Kindle, which, if you think about it a little deeply, is kind of unfair and a big disadvantage.
5. It’s $399.00… yeah I know I’m going to be gainfully employed soon, but still…

So, hmmm, let’s see… I have 4 reasons for not buying the Kindle just yet, and 8 reasons why I might consider buying it down the line. What do you think the odds are that I’m going to end up owning one of these Kindles?

I think the biggest reason why I would NOT buy the Kindle is because, bottom line – it’s not a book. And I love books, in fact I would say I downright have a fetish for books.

But the Kindle is definitely in my list of drool-worthy gadgets to keep an eye on.