More Kindling

I’m halfway between Anchorage and Seattle, sitting in First Class on Alaska Airlines, trying to read Groundswell by Charlene Li and John Bernoff on my Kindle. A few observations:

Mechanical aspects
The text is clear. This puppy has great resolution. You can enlarge or diminish the font, and I’ve adjusted mine to a comfortable reading size.

The contrast is less than ideal. The background is a muddy gray. I would prefer a crisp white. This gray screen makes for a much less pleasant reading experience. It becomes easier to read in better light.

Kindle is lightweight, lighter than a paperback, so holding it up has not been a problem.

The ersatz leather cover is handy protection for the device, but I haven’t found it convenient for holding the unit while reading. In fact, the Kindle slips out of the case if you’re not careful.

The top 2/3 of the Kindle is taken up with buttons: Next Page, Previous Page, and Back. I’m a klutz with technology. More than once I pressed the buttons when all I wanted to do was hold on. This is happening less frequently as I become accustomed to holding the unit.

The reading experience
With printed material, I tend to be a boisterous reader. I begin a book by reading the index, the table of contents, the cover flaps, and the references/bibliography. I riff through the pages, pausing for illustrations and chapter headings. Once I dive in, I highlight text with a yellow marker. I scribble an occasional marginal note. If I’m bored, I jump ahead.

Kindle doesn’t accommodate these functions well. Jumping to major sections requires returning to the top menu. Riffing through the pages isn’t an option. There’s no way to scan for illustrations.

In lieu of yellow highlighting, Kindle lets me embed comments. I find this less visceral. Also, I can’t indicate intensity.

Li and Bernoff’s book is off to a slow start. I’m a couple of chapters in and thus far, I haven’t read anything I didn’t already know. I don’t think I’m their target reader. If I were reading a regular book, I’d page forward. That’s a punch-and-wait process with the Kindle.

At one point, Li and Bernoff write about an upcoming chart that’s loaded with information. It’s going to explain a lot. When you get there, you discover it is totally illegible. Maybe 2-point type. And the enlarge-font feature doesn’t work on graphics. There’s no zoom. Reading a book laden with detailed graphics would be impossible on a Kindle.

I began to question whether I was going to read this book at all. I decided to jump over the second section to the third and final group of chapters. Unfortunately, I can’t figure out how to do that. Again, it’s probably me; I can’t always make my iPod do what I want.

On the ground, I checked the reviews of Groundswell. The rest of the world seems to love it. I’ll continue my Kindling in a few days. Maybe I’ll buy a few titles to read on my flight to Sao Paolo next week. Maybe.