Kindle

Reading my Kindle Touch

/ Whispering Gums / 76 Comments

Now, here’s the thing … although I am onto my second Kindle, I still do most of my reading in print form, which might make you wonder why I’m onto my second Kindle!

I upgraded to the Kindle Touch last year for one main reason, the Touch.  Because Touch is quiet whilst my Kindle 3 (aka Kindle Keyboard) would make a clicking sound whenever I turned pages and made notes. This rather disturbed Mr Gums when he was trying to sleep. As part of this upgrade, I also decided to buy the cover with the built-in light. I liked my old Kindle, but I love my new one – it’s quiet and I can read in bed without having a light on. However, I still mostly read printed books. Why?

Well, the main reason is that sense of the physical book and knowing where I am. Yes, the Kindle tells me I am 64% through the book, but as most Kindle readers have discovered I’m sure, that’s a bit fallible because it counts to end of the book which may include a lot of end matter. Frequently I discover I’ve finished the book when I thought I was only 92% through. I find it all very disconcerting not “knowing” where I am. And then there’s that thing that many readers do: you know, we’ll say “I’ll turn the light out/go clean the bathroom (sure!)/do my homework – when I’ve finished this chapter”. It’s easy to flick through a book to see how long the current chapter is, but a far more fiddly thing to do with the Kindle – until now.

Why now? Because, silently, wirelessly, those Kindle folk have updated my Kindle and one of the updates is that the Kindle will assess how fast I am reading and then report at the bottom left of the screen the “time left in chapter”. The percentage read is still there at bottom right. I have no idea when this was done, but I’ve only just noticed it! I love it … there are still aspects of the physical book, of being able to flick through it quickly, that I miss, but this is an excellent upgrade. Not only is it now easy to decide whether to read the next chapter, but I have a new game: Can I finish the chapter faster than it thinks I will!

And now, over to you Kindle owners out there:

Do you prefer your Kindle to print? Or do you still prefer print? What changes to the Kindle would sway you further towards it?

JM Coetzee wins the 2010 Queensland Premier’s Literary Award

/ Whispering Gums / 12 Comments

The Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards were announced last night, on the eve of the Brisbane Writers’ Festival.

The main award was won by JM Coetzee with Summertime, the third book in his fictionalised memoirs. The first two were Boyhood and Youth. I have this in my TBR but it has yet to arrive at the top! However, since it also won this year’s NSW Premier’s Literary Award, I clearly need to start levitating it.

As with the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and the Age Book of the Year awards, these awards comprise a whole swag of prizes. I won’t list them all here but, given recent posts on this blog, I would like to mention the David Unaipon Award for an Unpublished Indigenous Writer. This year’s was won by Jeanine Leane with a book called Purple Threads which is apparently a funny and sad tale of a household of indigenous women. I look forward to seeing it in print.

And, on a personal front, my Kindle landed today. I have downloaded Ford Madox Ford‘s The good soldier (because that’s the next classic I want to read) and Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park (because a Jane Austen has to be among the first). More anon …