Written by: Phuc Huynh
In a world full of mindless distractions and entertainments at every turn, reading has taken a backseat to the action, that is, until the Kindle 3, an e-reader that uncompromisingly devotes itself to one important task: to deliver the ultimate reading experience that offers hours of enjoyment and entertainment while building vocabulary and knowledge. The ultimate reading experience comes with a variety of choices that cater to every preferences: a 6” or 9” E Ink display, with a choice of graphite and white, 2GB to 4GB storage that can hold up to 1,400 books at 2GB or 3,500 books at 4GB, with Wi-Fi connectivity and/or free 3G, weighting from 5.98 ounces to 18.9 ounces, with interface choices from 5-way controller, multi-touch, and keyboard. Contents range from books, newspapers, magazines, audio books, games, to documents. Read-to-me and built-in dictionary are some of the features included on the Kinde. There is a one year limited warranty and service. The Kindle 3 has reminded the 21st century how rewarding and fun reading is and places personalized libraries possible in the palm of a teenager, college student, parent, and grandparent.
I own the Kindle 3 and spent many wonderful hours reading free classics offered by Amazon.com and contemporary books such as Steve Job’s autobiography. I’ve managed to build a larger vocabulary, improve my grammar and pronunciation due to the Kindle’s built-in dictionary and “Read-To-Me” feature. I have successfully convince my friends to buy the Kindle 3 for reasons such as to improve their vocabulary, to read long novels in Spanish or English, to use as a travel companion, to hold many PDF files without having to print, to read a newspaper without it engulfing their faces. I’ve also tutored a few non-Native English speakers and have recommended the Kindle 3 to be an excellent assistant for learning how to pronounce words. The Kindle 3 is a great product for the causal reader, book lover, to those wanting to improve their language skills.
The Kindle 3 is best suited for novel readers—magazines, newspaper, cartoons, comics, and games are better read alongside vibrant colors and are better served on other E-Readers or the IPad. There are also a few setbacks with the Kindle 3 such some e-books are that badly formatted, difficulties in annotating passages because the physical keyboard requires a lot of strength to utilize, and the read-to-me voice is a monotonous female or male that does not lend itself to tone of the book. That’s where the Nook outshines the Kindle 3, you can put an audiobook on it and read it side-by-side the text. This better serves children who want to hear the different tonicity and voices to imagine the people and descriptions in their mind. Do note that the Nook does not feature a “read-to-me” feature and so you would have to purchase an audiobook instead—and that’s why I pick the Kindle 3. For me, reading is about my experience, my perception of the stories and the characters, it is how I imagine the scenes and interpret the words. My experience as a reader comes first and foremost to the Kindle 3.
Physical books can be cumbersome to hold and read sometimes, the Kindle 3 offer itself as an alternative way to read—especially for those on the go. Sometimes a physical book in one’s hand is a desired thing—but I’ve on a study abroad program before and let me tell you, lugging around eight books is painful when you’re traveling around. I ended up ditching all of my beloved books because of the sheer weight of it. Had I had a Kindle 3 then, I can still enjoy them comfortably and conveniently.
The Kindle 3 is worth every penny I’ve saved up to own despite its shortcomings because it has made me read a lot more than normal. My reading has gone up a good 50% this year and I consider money well spent on something that enriches my thoughts and ideas. Now that’s entertainment for the train, plane, bus, beach, park bench—every hour that is wasted waiting around for a doctor’s appointment, a tardy date, the DMV can be spent wrapped up in a finely crafted stories that the Kindle 3 devotes itself to bringing to its owners hand. The Kindle 3 delivered an excellent reading experience and has aided me in doing the one thing I could never do because of so many distractions: to read a finely crafted novel.