Goodreads and the Kindle Voyage

I love reading, although I could definitely love reading more. I don’t read as many books per year as I’d perhaps like to. I go through stages of rapidly reading book after book, but after that I could easily go for a month or two without reading another. Which I’m not happy about. I’d certainly like to make an effort to read more this year – that’s not a New Year’s Resolution, just a note to myself. At least, I’d like to try to be consistently reading books without big breaks in between.

Something that really does enable me to read more efficiently and quickly (and therefore gives me the potential to read more books overall!), however, is my Kindle. Now I know e-readers and e-books are a controversial subject among most readers, but although I do love physical books – particularly well designed books or books with especially nice covers – what I really love is the actual act of reading. Whether it’s on paper that gives of a nostalgic scent or on a well-lit e-reader screen, it’s the words and the content that count. And it just so happens that I have been using a Kindle e-reader for 4 years and I love it. That’s not to say in that time I haven’t read physical paper books as well, I certainly have, but I’ve probably read more on my Kindle than I have on paper.

Now, my Kindle Keyboard was starting to look a bit dated. So, although it functioned perfectly well, after Christmas this year (last year technically, but saying last year sounds like it was ages ago), I decided to treat myself to a new Kindle. The Kindle Voyage. It arrived in the post on Friday last week and, my god, I don’t regret splashing out a little on it because it is awesome.

That video sums it up pretty well. One feature the reviewer doesn’t mention there, which within less than a week, I absolutely love is…

• Squeeze In that last Chapter – See at a glance how long it will take to finish a chapter or book. Time to Read is personalised based on your reading speed and is constantly updated as your speed and habits change. (Perfect when deciding if you can squeeze in another chapter before bedtime.)

My other favourite features, that weren’t applicable to my Kindle Keyboard are…

• Read comfortably in one hand – Lighter than most paperback books, hold Kindle Voyage comfortably in one hand for long reading sessions. (Didn’t realise how much of a brick my Keyboard was until I held the Voyage!)
• Adaptive light – When reading in the dark, the adaptive front light slowly lowers the display’s brightness over time to match the way the eye responds to darkness. (I haven’t done too much night-time reading yet but my old Kindle didn’t even have a light.)
• Sleek yet durable design – With a magnesium back and a chemically-reinforced glass front, Kindle Voyage is both durable and sleek. (Good to know as I broke my KK by accidentally leaning on it, thankfully it was still within warranty at the time.)

New #Kindle Voyage arrived today. A definite improvement on my old Kindle Keyboard, that looks ancient alongside. pic.twitter.com/02wljHVaaf
— Emma Prew (@emmaprew) January 9, 2015

Right, now we come to the other part mentioned in the title of this post. Goodreads. Goodreads is a ‘social cataloguing’ website for book readers all around the world. You create an account and list books that you’ve read, want to read and are currently reading. You can link with Facebook, Twitter etc. and add your friends to share book lists and see what others are reading. You can browse books by genre and receive recommendations for other books that you might enjoy, based on what you’ve already read and rated.

I signed up last night and stayed up well past my average bedtime inputting books that I’ve read. Obviously, there’s plenty of other books that I’ve read (a lot in childhood or my teenage-years) that haven’t made their way onto my account. They probably never will. BUT I will try to up date it as and when I read books from now on!

It’s a similar idea to Shelfari. Although Shelfari is at first glance more visually appealing, it is quite a clunky website and lacks in features. Goodreads, however, has far more useful features – recommendations, for example. Most importantly, it has a mobile app! I had a Shelfari account previously but I wasn’t very good at updating it as I finished a book. But with the mobile app version of Goodreads, this shouldn’t be a problem anymore. Now all I need is syncability with Kindle…

Emma’s bookshelf: read recently 

Emma's favorite books »

Did anyone notice how I tried to make the title of this blog sounds like the title to a book? Liveship Traders, much? No? Okay…

Robin Hobb

I’m going to go out there and say it… Robin Hobb is my favourite author. (Although Lian Hearn, with her fantasy-come-feudal-Japan-themed books, is hard to beat.) I’ve just finished reading my ninth book of Hobb’s, Ship of Destiny – which was the last in the Liveship Traders trilogy and it was, of course, awesome. Pirates and dragons – what’s not to like?

Robin Hobb is a US fantasy writer, best known for her trilogies set in The Realm of the Elderlings. Readers were first introduced to that world with the publication of Assassin’s Apprentice, the first volume of The Farseer Trilogy, in 1995. […] The Farseer Trilogy was followed by The Liveship Traders trilogy, a tale set in the same world, but in Bingtown, a trading city far to the south. Chronologically, these stories occur after the events of The Farseer Trilogy and are influenced by the events Fitz has set in motion. Ship of Magic (1998), Mad Ship (1999) and Ship of Destiny (2000) comprise that trilogy.
– Fantasy Book Review

I don’t think I’ve ever been so hooked on a book, series or author as I have been with both this trilogy, and the Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies I’d read prior to this one. Incidentally, it’s only when reading this last book that I realised it was set between the other two trilogies and that I probably should have read it before Tawny Man. Because although each trilogy follows its own characters (with couple appearing in more than one series) and storylines, they all take place in the land of the Elderlings – did I mention these are fantasy books?

This is also one of the only series[es] that I’ve read entirely on Kindle. I bought the first Farseer book when it was a bargain price of £1.99, not long after I’d ventured into the world of ebooks. And I’ve never looked back. It would be nice to own physical copies of the books but the versions I’ve seen don’t have amazing book cover designs. Certainly not as awesome as the covers at the top of this blog post – read about those cover[s] in someone else’s blogpost here.

This is my next series to read. Four books this time!

And when I’m done with that, there’s another Farseer/Fool book and it is brand new!

p.s. Yes, it has been almost a month since I last wrote a blog post. That’s because I’ve been too busy reading to even touch my computer!

I love Amazon

Now I wouldn't normally post something like this on my blog but I have experienced brilliantly efficient customer services from Amazon and I thought it worth sharing the story so that others in the same situation might benefit as I have.

Basically, as you probably know if you read my blog regularly or know me personally, I got a Kindle for Christmas and I love it. I love reading as much as I love the physicality of books and with a Kindle I am able to read far more, whilst limiting what books I actually purchase in physical form – which is now mostly graphic design related books or maybe something like a graphic novel.

But on Friday night a tragedy occurred and some how, I'm not quite sure what I did, my Kindle's screen was broken. I didn't drop it and it was in its case but I think it got pressed a little too hard and bam, broken with faint horizontal lines residing on the screen to prove it. So after panicing for a bit and phoning my dad to tell him I'd "done a bad thing" – my parents gave me the Kindle for Christmas – I consulted Google and discovered that lots of other people had suffered the same e-reader fate.

AND, here's the best bit, if your Kindle is within warranty you can phone Amazon up through a special Kindle-only helpline explain that your screen is broken and they will send you out a new Kindle free of charge. So I phoned the Kindle customer services on Saturday morning, or rather I should say they phoned me after I tapped my number into the online form. The woman I spoke to was very helpful, understood my problem and said I'd be posted a replacement Kindle that day! On a Saturday.

And hey, it arrived early this afternoon. If that's not great customer service I don't know what is. I've had no reason to dislike Amazon in the past, but now I love them.

ps. don't let this put you off getting a Kindle, they are amazing. I just need to get a sturdier case and be more careful with mine.

Books books books

I like books and I like my Kindle. Most of all I like reading. I sort of set myself a New Year's Resolution this year to read more, which I'd like to think is inevitable with my Christmas gift of a Kindle. So far this year I've read four physical books and four ebooks. I could have quite happily have read the physical books on my Kindle instead but I borrowed or got them from the library thus it was free to read!

I plan to buy a few more books on my Kindle soon. In fact, this morning I bought a new one. I like getting lost in a good story, it doesn't matter if I'm reading it in a massive hardback book (like the book I just finished) or on a paper-simulated screen. It's the story that matters. Of course, as a designer, I appreciate the design of books a lot but your average paperback doesn't exactly have much graphic design to it, aside from the cover. It would be quite nice if my Kindle showed me book covers… but then it is black and white.

Kindle

I, lover of books, have got an Amazon Kindle. Which is not to say I am going to stop buying physical books, or enjoying them as I do. But I like the idea of being able to read a lot more, and take multiple books or articles with me. 

So far I've downloaded about 15 free classic books, such as Dracula and Pride & Prejudice. Most of which I've barely read any of before. On the screen in this photograph is a tale of Robin Hood.

Very good Christmas gift.