my kindle.

Beware: This post will be both a love letter and a serious review. I hate it when people give 1 star on Amazon but when you read their reviews, you will see that they're just too stupid to set up this device. Here's to those people, maybe I can help you with your problems in this entry.



1. Yes, that's all there is – the packaging.
The Kindle comes in an Amazon parcel. And that's it. No pretty packaging. It's ecologically pretty good, but for a person who loves packaging design, it's pretty much a disappointment. I also don't like that the parcel that gets send by post says "Kindle" on it.

2. This was a gift, so it's registered to a different account.
This shouldn't even be a problem. You all know how to google, right? And guess what? Amazon also has a forum set up which helps you solve Kindle problems. Before I even got the Kindle, I knew what I had to do to get it set up to my account.
See: When a person buys you this as a gift, they can either mark it as a present to your account, or they just buy it. (See, that's what parents tend to do. They know Amazon, but they don't know Amazon THAT well.) But that's no problem. Just log into the buyer's account, go to the Kindle section, and delete the Kindle from this account. See? Just took you about 30 seconds. Then you log in to your account and just add the Kindle (the serial number is in the Kindle and also on the package) to your account. Easy-peasy.

3. I need to buy books – or: how do I get books on that thing?
See the Kindle section on Amazon. They also offer Guttenberg books, meaning FREE BOOKS. All those classics you never read because they have what feels like a thousand pages in old English, now they're all yours! Yes!

4. Refreshing the pages aka the annoying blackout.
One thing that I thought would annoy me, but doesn't so much. But that's basically because I found the button that made it go away for 4 pages in a row. Every few pages, your screen will refresh which results in a mili-second of a black screen. In the settings you're able to determine if she screen should refresh itself after every page or not. I chose "not".

5. Why is there no keyboard?
Because you just bought a 99€ reading device that's for READING, not typing. There are 3 tasks you will need that keyboard for: 1. searching for words/sentences in a book, 2. searching for something in the Kindle store because you're too lazy to do it on your computer, 3. sorting your books by collections. And seriously. You've lived with cellphones and iPods for years before everything had QWERTY, did you lose the ability to type with a non-physical keyboard yet?
The keyboard was the thing that always made me go "well, except for…" with the other Kindles. I'm glad it's gone, I really hardly ever have to use it.

6. Pages full of books. My OCD dislikes. 
There you have it. After downloading all these free books, you have pages and pages full of unsorted books. That's when my OCD kicked in. This is where collections come to the rescue. You can make "folders" and fill them with your books. So that everything has it's order, and your home screen looks all nice and tidy. Sigh.

7. Every time there's another picture – or: The screensaver.
Yes, there is. There should be about 20 different images. And it looks pretty neat. Don't hate.

8. It's naked.
Yeah well. We're all born naked. Though wool hats and washcloths make great selfmade covers, you should prefer to protect your new love with a proper case. Because you will put it in your purse, or your uni backpack, and it probably won't be alone in there and other items might scratch your precious Kindle.
Get a case! I won't tell you which one. The original Amazon covers look nice (purple!), but they're also quite expensive and lack one thing I felt was important: You can't really "close" them. After getting high on Lebkuchen on Christmas Eve, I went online to look for a better case than the Amazon one. Problem: Most of them were SO UGLY. But then I found this one "normal-looking" one, which you could order directly from the manufacturer: GeckoCovers offers cases for all the popular e-reading devices, and they offer free world wide shipping. My delivery from the Netherlands (lucky) took 2 days to arrive. It's fake leather (but doesn't smell at all), has two little pockets on the inside and an elastic band to properly close the case and protect the Kindle screen. The leather straps and bands that hold the Kindle inside aren't as pretty as the original Amazon case, but hey, it's 15€ cheaper as well.
The outside is of smooth fake leather (while the inside is all smooth) and has a little gecko imprinted on it. (Hate big logos, this one is kinda cute!) The case closes to the back. I'm really happy with it.



9. Go enjoy your favourite new gadget!
I certainly did. It's great. The reading experience is good (no problems with the eyes), the Kindle is light and small and great to handle. It's not as intuitive as an Apple gadget, but almost. I actually love that it doesn't have a touchscreen but that you flip the pages with buttons. It's beautiful as well – of course! I've already read 1 1/2 books.

Feel free to ask me if you have any more questions. ;) Do you have a Kindle or another e-reader? Do you love them as much as I do?