南向き翻訳事務所 岩渕デボラ ブログ

I couldn’t resist. Within an hour of Amazon’s announcement that Kindle would now be available in Japan, I had already placed my order. It arrived yesterday, and within about an hour of that I had already downloaded two books (it came all set up for me and my current Amazon account: “Welcome, Deborah”). For the first time in my life, I was afraid of what I might do with a credit card.

The disadvantage of Kindle, of course, is that not all books are available in the format, and you can’t pass your favorite books around your best friends, but there are plenty of advantages to the Kindle reading experience.

As someone whose previously excellent  eyesight has been ravaged  by time and occupation, I find Kindle very easy to read. The background is not a gleaming white and the print doesn’t dance around the page on me. There is a little switch that allows you to make print smaller or larger, and the machine opens up to the last page you were on when you set it down. You can add bookmarks and make searches. The device is large enough for comfortable reading (I like to read lying down, and this avoids having to adjust my position to the side of the page) and small enough to drop in your purse to carry around with you.

At the risk of angering purists, the Kindle is a godsend for expatriate native English speakers. No long waits, no shipping charges, no ridiculous mark-ups. As a homeowner with limited and completely occupied shelf space–well, it goes without saying.  In the long run, this sort of reading device should benefit writers as well as readers. I shall soon be investigating the former!