Kindle

Wander has a hard time picking out presents for me. For my birthday I made it easy for him. I told him that I wanted a Kindle. I'd been debating whether to get the large or small version, and ended up opting for the small version, because the large one is obscenely expensive.


One of the first things I did with the Kindle was to hack the screen saver so that it would display my pictures instead of the authors.

Then I went on a shopping spree for free books. When I got to about forty books, I decided that I had better stop, as it would take me forever to read them. I also converted a book of my own. A while ago, I downloaded "Raggedy Ann Stories," formatted it in large print, and printed and bound it for Sparkle to read. However, printing and binding a physical book is a lot of work, and doesn't allow for easy changes if you discover an error too late. How nice to simply have an electronic version of the book that can be updated on the fly. The book converted nicely, including table of contents and pictures.


One of the features of the Kindle that I liked was the ability to adjust the print size. Sparkle is capable of reading longer works than she usually attempts, but doesn't of the vast expanse of tiny text unbroken by pictures. With the Kindle I can give her books at her reading level, with the font adjusted for her eyes.

Sparkle loves reading from the Kindle. She has even inspired her sister to sit and "read."



However, make no mistake. It is *my* Kindle, not Sparkle's. Oddly enough, one of my favorite uses of the Kindle is during Sparkle's spelling lessons. I put her spelling sentences on it once a week, and then I don't have to print the sentences or hunt up a scrap of paper during the week. If she wants to use a word that I don't know how to spell, I just look it up in the built-in dictionary.

I'm experimenting with the getting a field guide for the Kindle to take on our nature walks. However, so far I haven't found a free one that I like with lots and lots of pictures. The versions of "Handbook of Nature Study" that I've found for the Kindle have horrible formatting and are missing the pictures.