Pulp to pixels

When my mom started asking me questions about the Amazon Kindle, I assumed that she was interested in getting one for herself. That proved to be true--she has one awaiting shipment--but first and foremost she was inquiring because she was thinking of getting me one for my birthday.

This took me quite by surprise. The item is more expensive than gifts I'm accustomed to getting from my parents, and it wasn't something I'd hinted (or stated outright) that I wanted. My preference is for the physical book, but a device that aids reading like the iPod does for listening to music became more appealing the more I considered it. My literary tastes lean toward the classics, and with a treasure trove of those available for free for the Kindle, this e-reader starting looking very attractive. (It didn't hurt that a couple trusted friends have spoken highly of it too.)

Since the third generation was recently released, there's been a bit of a wait required since a Kindle was ordered for me, but in a fortuitous bit of timing, it arrived yesterday on my birthday. I haven't had a lot of time to fiddle with it yet, but I can already tell that this will prove to be a very useful tool to have. I downloaded a couple free classics and started reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, only putting it aside when I knew I needed to get some sleep. I will get a lot of use from this, and not just out of a sense of guilt that I let my parents buy it.

I haven't done a lot of searching for titles, but the Kindle strikes me as a pretty good place for knitting books and patterns. True, it isn't in color and wouldn't necessarily be as good of a resource for some patterns, but for portable use it's a smarter device for checking instructions than a laptop or smart phone. For that matter, it may be handier than a printed copy. You can still make notations on the Kindle.

Although I own a physical copy of The Knitting Answer Book, I think I'd happily purchase a Kindle version if one became available. It could be easily searchable and not take up as much space in a bag.

Have any readers applied their Kindle as a knitting tool, and if so, how so?