Christmas 1963 my sister wanted a Woody the Woodpecker talking puppet. Santa brought her that and I ended up with some dorky Hippy Girl talking what-ever that is probably worth a fortune today. That night, Woody received a place of honor in family lore and legend when our grandfather Froehlich, Grandy, came in to tell my sister and I good-night. Woody told him to “Knock it off, knot-head,” which pleased Grandy to no end.
The following summer we were on a family visit to Louisville, Kentucky. My mother, grandmother, and cousin spent several long, arduous days antiquing. Annoyed, bored, and perhaps tired of my sister and I complaining that we had nothing to do, my father, Grandy, and our cousin’s husband took us shopping.
I mention this because this only the second time, and would be the last time, my father and Grandy took either my sister and I shopping for anything other than something related to a motorized vehicle. They took us to a “dime store” there in Louisville and allowed my sister and I to each pick out a new Skipper doll. We were allowed a wardrobe, and every item of Skipper clothing available to date. (We still have the stuff somewhere – I think).
Those were magical days, full of new toy excitement, days never to be repeated. As a child they were never repeated, but as an adult, I’ve been able to repeat the new toy fun with my new Amazon Kindle! I’ve had it about a month, long enough for me to master my new toy. Let’s face it, it is a toy. It’s something no one really needs, unless you are traveling and don’t want to carry a bunch of books. It is a piece of fluff. It is a tech accessory, adorable, chic, fashionable, and is the ultimate “must have”.
It is instant gratification. I think the Kindle and I were into the 2nd day of our obsessive relationship when my mother called and asked me to order J. A. Jance’s new murder mystery, Damage Control. It was the book-olic’s first taste of instant gratification. I downloaded my copy in a few minutes, and had finished reading the novel a day before the hard copy arrived from Amazon. I was hooked.
So far I’ve downloaded about 150 books, many of them duplicates of what I own but have yet to get around to reading. There are a number of excellent classics available for 99 cents. I’m a fan of the Indiana Jones style He-Man action adventure dinosaur genera. Those range from $4.99 to $9.99. It has caused me to “hate myself” (not really) downloading Jonathan’s Kellerman’s Compulsion as I write this review!
Article comments
1 - Karen
There are two easy ways to resolve the tiny CC charges issues once and for all. First, you could get Amazon's card - not only don't they care about how many charges you make at Amazon (or apparently how small they are), they give you triple points on Amazon purchases and then send you gift certificates to use at the store.
And those gift certificates are the second method of solving the problem. Using any credit card, purchase email versions of gift cards at Amazon. Then, enter the certificate number as a credit on your own account. This then results in all the charges going against your pre-paid balance, rather than the CC you have on file. It takes a bit of discipline, but with this method you can have an easier to balance statement AND possibly put yourself on an allowance for book buying.
As to all those 99 cent books - check out feedbooks.com, manybooks.net, gutenberg.org or mobileread.com. Most of those same public domain books are available there for free (and already formatted for the Kindle). True, it's a bit more work (you have to download them and transfer via the USB cable), but the ease of search on a big screen with a keyboard probably makes up for it. And if you download the guidebook from feedbooks.com, you can then download their books for free via whispernet (including updates to the guide).
2 - Jeff
I've been using a Kindle since they launched and bought my mother of 81 years one at the same time. She has a way of breaking most tech, but she has been managing the Kindle quite well. She loves the darn thing. Cranks the font to 5 and is reading about 1-2 books per week.
I set up her Amazon account (since she has no computer) and walked her through registration (that was a bit painful). The Kindle has an obvious and intuitive user interface. The wireless is wonderful. I think your Dad would love it.