I am actually quite impressed with the cover. On the original Kindle, I didn’t like the cover it came with. It was pretty much a leather jacket with elastic bands to attempt to keep the Kindle within. The cover wasn’t even as wide as the Kindle (1), so the edges stuck out making the propensity to hit the Next page button a likely occurrence. This cover is different. On the inside spine of the cover are two doo-hickeys which allow you to snap the K2 into place, and it doesn’t fall out, even if I just hold it by the edge.

Next, the moment I had been waiting for. I unzipped the box holding my K2. The way Amazon.com packages the Kindle, it appears to be thicker than what it actually is. I tried to prepare by looking at photos of the K2 all over the internet, but somehow, I still wasn’t prepared for the thinness in actuality. If they make it any thinner, it simply won’t be there. Once you put it into a cover, however, it feels just like a slim volume book. Once I had it in my hands, forget the quick start guide that comes with it, forget learning about how to use it, forget checking to see whether it needed to be charged first – I just had to turn it on.

As I think I may have mentioned, I pre-sent Misfit McCabe to my K2, so as soon as I turned it on there was my book, which was a very satisfying feeling. I also downloaded the Smashwords Kindle version of Misfit McCabe so I could compare the two versions. The top picture is the version which was formatted using the Amazon Digital Text Platform (DTP) service and the second picture is the Smashwords version. They both look very similar, except the DTP version has more left white space than the Smashwords version. This was entirely my fault being so new to the game when I did the DTP version. I have corrected several formatting errors with DTP, but have not purchased the book again so I can see the newer version in action.

Originally written for the LL Book Review

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LK Griffie
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit: Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other e-book formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The LL Book Review

The post The Arrival of K2 appeared first on Be the Cat.

What’s the big deal? Here are some of the reasons I have wanted a Kindle since I heard about them: in no particular order

• The ability to carry hundreds, if not thousands of books with me at one time
• Dust reduction. I have a severe allergy to dust, and the pages of books decompose and create dust. If I can convert the majority of my books to Kindle – I can reduce the amount of dust created.
• No more waiting for a book. I don’t like to shop in stores, so I eliminate the trip to the store. I can get a book downloaded direct to the Kindle at a moments notice, should I desire. And since I buy the bulk of my books from Amazon anyway, I don’t have to wait for them to be delivered.
• Conversion of PDF files to read on the Kindle. Since I review books for the LL Book Review, the bulk of my reviews are done from PDF’s, which believe it or not, I prefer versus reviewing directly from a book. This way, I won’t have to scroll back through the document when I leave off because the Kindle will keep track of where I am for me. I’ll also still have the PDF file so when I need to extract a quote from the actual work, I am able to do so easily. With a hard copy book (whether hard bound or paperback), I have to type any quotes I use – which while not difficult certainly takes more time and is more prone to error than the simple copy and paste method from the PDF’s.
• Reduction of eye fatigue. With the e-ink technology, the Kindle is more like looking at the page of a book than looking at a computer screen, so this will reduce the amount of eye strain. Plus, when my eyes are getting tired, I can always increase the font size.
• I will be able to get books from Smashwords.com as well as Amazon, because Smashwords has a Kindle format available. Plus, more sites like Smashwords are opening up, so one of the purportedly negative things about a Kindle, which is you are tied to Amazon, is quickly going away.
• The ability to highlight, bookmark, and make notes throughout a book. While I am not a student, I see this as having huge potential from the textbook angle. Plus, sometimes you just want to mark something to come back to it at a later time, or put a note as to what you were thinking for sharing with someone later.

Well, those may not be all of the reasons I am excited, but should be enough to start with. It was a choice between the Kindle 2 and the Kindle DX, and I did have to think long and hard about which one to get. Both have definite pros to them. My final decision was made due to the size of the Kindle 2, making it more portable. I didn’t want to carry around what amounts to a letter size device. If I had been getting it to strictly keep at home, then it would have been the Kindle DX all the way. What a wonderful pre-birthday birthday gift from my mom. Thanks Mom – I am now a part of the e-book revolution. My mom has read Misfit McCabe on the Kindle, now I can too.

____________________________________________________________________________
LK Griffie
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit: Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other e-book formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The LL Book Review

The post Waiting on Kindle appeared first on Be the Cat.