Ever since I was in elementary school, I’ve been an avid reader. The place I loved to hang out at wasn’t the mall, the movies, or the nearby McDonalds; it was the library. My library card was a treasured possession. I would bring home books on sleight-of-hand tricks, how to draw by Ed Emberley, and my favorite fiction series, Encyclopedia Brown. Today, I still have a love for reading but the library card is no longer a treasured possession; it has been replaced by my Kindle. I got my first Kindle in 2010 and carried it with me everywhere. After awhile, I wore it out and had to buy a new one in 2013. I consider it an indispensable part of my leadership development. Here are my eleven reasons why I love my Kindle.
1. Portability – I currently have a six-inch e-ink display that measures 6.5 inches high and 4.5 inches wide, small and light enough (6 ounces) to hold in one hand. It fits right into a pouch that I use to carry my wallet, backup drive, and water bottle. The footprint is very small and doesn’t take up much space, but it’s with me wherever I go. It has 2 GB of memory which means you can carry over 1,000 books. This is a bibliophile’s dream! Remember how cumbersome it was just to carry one physical book? That is gone with a Kindle! While waiting in line at a bank or market, I can take out my Kindle and read a few pages, which makes the time go by fast.
2. Cross Platform – Not only do I have a physical Kindle, but I also have the Kindle application on my iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro. I’m able to sync a book I’m reading across four platforms. So I can start reading a book on my Kindle, pick it up on my iPhone and iPad, and finish it on my MacBook Pro. This means I don’t always need to have my Kindle with me in order to read a book.
3. Variety of Books – As of today, there are 3.7 million books available for the Kindle. That’s a very impressive number. And the variety of books is just as impressive. When I was taking graduate classes, I was able to download some of my textbooks to my Kindle. When I was looking for Christian biographies, it seemed the number of subjects were limitless When I searched for Christian leadership books, many of them were on Kindle.
4. Search Function – One of the main reasons I switched my reading to Kindle was because of its search function. How many times have you read a book and then years later, you remembered a line or quote that would be appropriate for something you’re currently working on? Going back to a physical book would take time and possibly lead to frustration when you couldn’t find what you’re looking for, but with Kindle you can search the book in an instant. This has made research for a book or article a breeze.
5. Low Prices – I don’t like paying full retail price for a book. Amazon is able to negotiate with publishers to reduce prices due to bulk purchasing. It goes even further when it comes to Kindle books. Because there is no need for paper printing, the price is reduced for a digital version.
6. Sampling – If you’re interested in a book but not sure if you want to purchase it, Kindle offers you the opportunity to sample the first 10% of a book. You find the book on Amazon and click “Send a Free Sample” on the right side and it will appear in your Kindle. This is akin to the time you used to go to a bookstore and read a few pages of a book before purchasing it.
7. Instant Download – Once I order a Kindle book, it only takes a few seconds for it to appear on my Kindle device or applications. I don’t have to wait a few days, or if you’re in Hawaii, a little over a week, for a book to arrive. I can start reading a book within a minute of ordering it.
8. Highlighting – I like to highlight parts of a Kindle book that is either useful to me personally or can be used for a future book or article. What Kindle then does is collect all these highlights in one place and you can find them at your kindle.amazon.com page. From there I can copy and paste straight into a piece I’m working on. It will also prepare a bibliographical reference at the same time.
9. Free Books – If you do a Google “top 100 free Kindle ebooks” search, it will take you to a link where you can find some really good books for free. A lot of them are romance novels, but every once in a while you will find something you like. I once found a collection of books from theologian R.C. Sproul. Another time I found a book by popular Christian speaker Francis Chan. Then there are a number of classic books that are available for free such as A.W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God or Andrew Murray’s Teach Us To Pray. I’ve also found some fiction thrillers by first-time authors who are in need of reviews.
10. Kindle Unlimited – This is a $10/month subscription that allows you to borrow an unlimited amount of selected books. I’ve only had this for two months but already I’ve found it valuable. I like fiction thrillers and I was able to find a new author, borrow his first book, finish it in three days, return it, borrow his second book, finish it in five days, return it, and now I’m on his third book. I’m also reading several other books that are offered under Kindle Unlimited. The only limitation is that you can only have 10 books in your possession at one time. In order to borrow another book, you have to return one.
11. Space – I think this is one of the benefits of Kindle that makes my wife happy. No longer do I have stacks and stacks of books all over the place. I can have over a thousand books and it will only take up the space of a DVD case.
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