I am not a fan of reading books. My first novel is I think Harry Potter. If I remember it precisely that was it was summer vacation on junior high. Our family decided that we took a trip to Medan with a ship. It’s like a cruise but nothing fancy about it. It’s 4 days journey with nothing to do. So out of the ordinary I bought the first harry potter books that everybody keeps talking about.Then I remember that it took me 3 month or so to finish that book.
Reading is kinda boring. I might fall a sleep every 10 page or so. I couldn’t remember any other books that I’ve finished except for that harry potter books. That’s was until I found a very good book called The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master. It was a book that got me so excited. The book is really inspiring for a developer. It teaches how to compose program like in a way you compose an art. I highly recommended that book if you enjoy programming. That book is not available in Indonesia back then. So I printed each chapter one by one. I bring the chapter anywhere I go. If I have a little time i sit read that chapter. After finishing another chapter then I print the next chapter and so on until I finished the book.
It surprised me that the book was 352 pages. The thickest book that I ever read. I start thinking that reading was not that bad. I began to search more similar book on amazon. I stumble upon Getting Real: The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application [Paperback] which I also like very much. I read a couple of first chapter like the way I read the Pragmatic Programmer books. But this time I think hey, I do really like reading this kind of books. So I asked my wife if we can afford to buy a kindle. Because that we would not have to print the book any more.
I can’t buy it from Amazon because I don’t have any credit card. So I instead i bought that from e-bay. I remember that it’s just a couple of week before amazon launch kindle fire. At first I really regret that I don’t really read tech news. I should have known that kindle fire is about to released. But thinking it now, I’m really glad that I bought 3rd generation instead. I got it for $120 with $40 shipping it’s like $20 less then the no ads version. Yes when I synchronize it to wifi and every time I turn on my kindle, I will get some ads. sometimes it’s a new book promotion, discount, sometimes it’s AT&T commercial. My friend told me that I’ve sold my soul for $20. Yeah.. true, at the moment $20 was a lot. so I don’t mind
Any way this is my kindle. And it one of the most productive piece of electronics that I owned. It does not have fancy touch feature, It does not have a market app where you can install games and application. There is rarely software update, you can not watch movie. There is no GPS, accelerometer or compass. The screen is grayscale. But despite of that less feature it only does one thing and also pretty good at it. which is for READING.
The battery is amazing, it could last for months. It’s have electronic ink. So it’s look like an ink on piece of paper. It does not have nor require a back light like lcd so it doesn’t tired you eyes. You can still read on direct sun light on the beach just like an ordinary book. and best of All it fits on my back pocket. In case of reading a book, my kindle is far more better then any latest tablets out there. This piece of electronic does not outdated as fast as tablet. There is a new functionality, new hardware every month, but my kindle is still the best way for me to read a book.
Almost every day I commute to my work with train or subway. It took like 40-50 minutes to get to my office. I’ve been working here in Rotterdam for almost 5 month now. I finished like 3 books just by reading on my way to commute. I rarely bring bags to the office. I use desktop so I travel light. Usually its just my lunch box and my kindle on my back pocket. I really love this kindle. probably it would still accompanying me for at least for one to five years more. Hopefully nothing breaks.
Any way I’ve read a couple of books with my kindle. Here is some interesting books that I’ve read:
- Getting Real: The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application
- Rework
- The Passionate Programmer
- Pragmatic Thinking and Learning
- Raspberry Pi
- Pro Puppets
- The Total Money Makeover
There is a saying. A knowledge is like a wild animal. and book (writing) is they way to tame them. Hopefully I could read book more and write an post about it. So then I would remember and tame the knowledge in my mind.
Thanks for reading
