I have been thinking of getting a Kindle for the longest time, and like my other purchases, I thought a lot about it, but decided that it's not a priority each and every time. So, what changed that led me to finally purchase it eventually?
Well, I noticed that I have been spending too much time on my phone before going to sleep. 😢Even though I knew very well that it was already past midnight and that my eyes were already tired, my thumb continued to swipe up through either the endless reels on Instagram or my feed on Reddit. The day came that I had the realization that this habit was really sabotaging my sleeping patterns. Because of this, it affected my mind's clarity the next day, which leaks through unproductivity and being in a bad mood for most of the day. I thought, this has to stop. But how? That's when I remembered the thought of purchasing a Kindle.
Instead of using my phone around bed time, I would just now resort to reading a book on Kindle.
And so after one year since canceling that initial order, I went and checked out a Kindle on Lazada (disclaimer: NOT an affiliate link!). After a few days, my order arrived! I was so excited with my new gadget. I loaded all the ebooks that I have (+ those that I purchased from Humble Bundle). One month in, I can fully say that this is one of the most satisfying purchases I've made in my life.
Top Reasons Why I Love My Kindle
I have read blogs and watched YouTube videos about reviews about the Kindle, and they often said the same thing -- that Kindle changed the way they read books. I thought meh, maybe they're just exaggerating a bit. That opinion changed when I finally got my hands on one. The Kindle is indeed life-changing! 😍
I'm consuming content without the eyestrain.
Within just one day of getting my Kindle, it has shifted my lifestyle to 180 degrees. On that first night, I swapped my phone with the Kindle and continued reading The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (which I have not picked up in months) and within just minutes of reading, my eyes felt heavy and I proceeded to sleep. I woke up the next day feeling more refreshed and rested. 😊
Compare and contrast. Left is the Kindle, the right one is the iPad Mini. |
The Kindle's battery can last for weeks or up to a month.
Of course the battery life would still depend on how you use your Kindle, but for me, that first full charge was able to last me for more than a month. It helps that I always put it to Airplane Mode ON especially if I don't need to sync it with the cloud. ☁️
My reading activity is synced with Goodreads.
As a certified bookworm 🤓📚, I religiously use Goodreads as my platform for tracking the books that I have read and want to read. I have been joining reading challenges since years back and I really enjoyed discovering new titles based on the recommendations of my friends or on the awards list.
Aside from tracking my reading activity, another of my favorite features is the Kindle Notes & Highlights section of the website. So, if you have purchased a book from Amazon and read it on your Kindle, all the highlights and notes that you do on the book will be synced with your Goodreads and you can access them from your profile there. I think this is a really cool feature, especially if you just want to write your thoughts about the book by sharing specific quotes from it.
I'm reading more books now than ever.
Thanks to the portable size of a Kindle, I could comfortably bring it inside my bag. Whenever there was idle time, say I was waiting for someone at the lobby, I just pull out my Kindle and start reading. For me, the equation is now like this:
idle waiting time = reading books
Aside from books, the Kindle can also be used to read manga/comics. 😍
I subscribed for the free trial of Kindle Unlimited, and to my delight, there were a number of Archie Comics titles available. These comics were such a big part of my childhood. I felt all nostalgic and downloaded several of them and read them on my Kindle.
It's a bit weird to read Archie comics now that I'm a grownup, and they still didn't age in the comics. 😅 |
I'm increasing my vocabulary.
During the time of the physical dictionary (gasp), you would find me reading a novel holding two books (the novel + the dictionary). I would tend to switch from the novel to the dictionary from time to time as I tried to search for the meaning of that unfamiliar word. Well, I don't need to do that anymore. On the Kindle, I can just do a long press over a word to highlight it and viola - the definition of the word would immediately be displayed for me. I have acquired new words into my word bank, most recently and notably of which is minutiae, i.e. I'm bored with the minutiae of everyday life. 😉
Amidst all these positive things that I found with the Kindle, there are still downsides, but for me they're just minor ones:
- No Bluetooth. I only bought the 8GB version and I didn't really intend to use this for Audio books, but imagine if you bought the 32GB one and you found out that there's no Bluetooth! The BT feature is there (you can turn it on under the Accessibility feature if you want the text to be read out loud via the Voice Assistant Reader) so it was a bit weird that the option to turn it on /off is not available on the main settings.
- Cannot be Connected to Audible. I guess this is the reason why there's no Bluetooth. If I am not mistaken, Audible is not available in PH. I also tried connecting my Kindle with the Audible store, but there's no option for that in the Kindle. ☹️
I'm really enjoying my Kindle, and by far, I have already finished a number of manga and novels with it (so look forward to more Book Reads posts on the blog)! Reading a book on a Kindle is a way way better alternative than mindlessly scrolling on social media on the phone. I'm just so happy I finally made the decision to purchase one. 😊
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