Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (16 GB) – Now with a larger display, adjustable warm light, increased battery life, and faster page turns – Agave Green

I absolutely love this Kindle Paperwhite. The Agave Green color looks really nice in person and gives it a fresh, clean feel. It’s lightweight and easy to hold for long reading sessions, and the size fits comfortably in one hand without feeling bulky. The screen quality makes books look sharp and easy on the eyes, especially with the adjustable warm light. Battery life and overall durability have been excellent so far, and the huge book selection makes it easy to always have something new to read. Overall, a fantastic reading device that’s comfortable and reliable for everyday use.

I am someone who believes that there is something profound and special about a physical book. My favorite part about a book is its smell. It's not wrong to describe the smell of walking into a Barnes & Noble as pure euphoria. New books smell like potential, beginnings, and the possibility of something grand. Old books smell like legends, ancient wisdom, or forgotten secrets. Books have a weight to them as well. It's reassuring to know that this book you're holding is real — it takes up physical space in the world and this makes it undeniable. It's as if the power of the stories and ideas within are so strong that they have materialized into matter out of the aether. It's hard for me to hold, say, a Bible without a sense of reverence and awe. Even today when I walk into a large library I can't help but feel like I have walked into a holy place — a place of worship. Being surrounded by books has the same effect on me that a Xanex has on others. Books have an impact on me. I love them. This is why, when I started reading on a Kindle over a year ago, it felt like I was committing adultery. This nasty little plastic screen inspired none of the feelings that books gave me. It took the magic of books and sacrificed it on the altar of consumer electronics. Despite these feelings, I continued to use it. Now I have read a little over fifty books using my Kindle. I still believe that the Kindle kills the magic that physical books have, and it does. But for the first time in a year, I decided to pick up a book in paperback and read it. This experience of going back to real books has made me realize a few things about the Kindle and myself. First off, I realized with horror that I am addicted to my Kindle and its features. The people who designed the Kindle did so with intent. The Kindle's sole purpose is to read books — there are no other apps on it, there are no intrusive ads, and there is nothing to distract you from reading. Honestly, the device is relatively primitive compared to other consumer electronics, but that is a design choice and not a flaw. I would argue it is even easier to get lost in a book using the Kindle than it is with a physical book. And then there are the features — the glorious features. My favorite feature by far is the built-in dictionary. When reading a physical book and coming across a word I didn't know the meaning of, assuming I couldn't intuit the meaning from context, I would have to mark my place in the book, put it to the side, pull out my phone, and Google the word. This is tedious. It also breaks my train of thought and forces me to use my dreadful phone with all of its notifications and apps and stuff that sends me into a panic and introduces into my reading time the potential to sidetrack myself. I hate that. With my Kindle, all I have to do is touch the word and a popup with the definition appears and is dismissed just as easily, and then I'm off reading again — an interruption that is barely even noticed and my attention remains intact. Even better is the fact that my Kindle keeps a list of all these words that I've looked up over time, and I can review them anytime. I look at it occasionally and quiz myself — this is my idea of 'fun'. Now I'm a big fan of writing in my books — I underline, highlight, and write in the margins constantly. If I ever need inspiration or if I'm trying to remember something I've read, I will thumb through the book I found it in until I eventually find it. Sometimes when I get bored I will sit in front of my bookshelf and go through the books I've read looking at all the passages I highlighted to refresh my memory on all those inspiring things that I read in years past. It's a little tedious but not too bad. This habit of highlighting is not lost to me while reading on my Kindle. You simply press and drag your finger across the passage which will highlight it. But that's not the best part: Kindle will keep up with everything I have highlighted and organize it all for me by the book it was found in. So at any given time, I can see all of my highlights in any of the books I have read, and I can even share them to my Goodreads profile! This gets me visibly excited. The last feature I want to talk about is the backlit screen. If you do any of your reading in bed then you probably have a bedside lamp or a flashlight or some other novel light source designed for books. Maybe it's just me but I find it difficult to get comfortable in bed and read a paperback at the same time. Either my spouse is annoyed by the light while she is trying to sleep or I can't find the perfect position that makes it both comfortable and easy to read. The Kindle has a backlit screen with adjustable lighting and a "warm" light setting. This means all other light sources in the room can be extinguished and I can still get my reading done. No book-light required. The Kindle is so lightweight that I can lay or recline in any position comfortably. No more fighting with those books whose binding is stiff and unyielding. So now we come to the point of this post. A confession. It's a confession to myself and the world. As much as this pains me to say: The Kindle offers a far superior reading experience over books. I said it. I don't like it any more than you do, but it is simply true. The onboard dictionary, the highlights, the backlit screen, the insane battery life (I charge this thing once a month), all of it together creates the most consuming and productive reading experience available. I still feel subtle pangs of guilt when I look at my bookshelf. I don't think that will ever go away for anyone who truly loves books. But now my bookshelf has become a kind of "greatest hits" display. I still buy all the best books I read, and I now consider my bookshelf as a place of honor for all the greatest books. But I think of my Kindle as another appendage on my body — I never go anywhere without it. I love books. I love my Kindle. To my fellow book lovers out there who are still opposed to the idea of a Kindle, I say that you can love both. It will be okay. The Kindle isn't evil after all.

I was never one to jump on the kindle bandwagon. I have friends who are in book clubs and sometimes they recommend books for me to read. I dont have a lot of space to hoard physical books so I would read them on my phone or get the book from the library if available. Until one day my one friend got me thinking HARD about a kindle. My birthday was quickly approaching and what a great excuse to get myself a gift. I did my research on all the different kindles. Ive looked around different places, Ive watched some youtube videos on different ones, and I even talked to different friends who had different ones or had used different ones throughout time. I settled on the kindle paperwhite and I havent put it down since! Ive had this thing 4 months now and still havent even made a smidge in the memory. I got the bigger GB because i know I have a lot of digital book doc's as well and wanted to upload them. Currently have over 200 books on it (thanks stuff my kindle day) and hasnt even made a dent in the memory! im impressed! -You can changed the font and font size (you can also upload your own fonts too to use) -There are ways you can even add a background for when its asleep (youtube it). ive done both. -When you start a book itll ask you if you want to update your goodreads to "currently reading" and when you're done with the book itll ask you if you want to rate it! (1-5 stars). -You can create categories to organize your ebooks. -When you have a book AND the audible for the same book, itll keep track in your book if you listen without reading or vise versa. It keeps your current spot! -The light and the warmth are perfect! You can adjust either to your preference and even set a time for them to change. so for example, if you wanted the light to be a little dimmer and the warmth to be stronger at 8pm, you can set those changes to happen automatically daily! -Battery life is astonishing. For someone who reads every day sometimes both in the morning and at night (for hours straight sometimes) and I like to have the brightness sorta up so i can read better in darker areas, i can go weeks without charging it. it says up to 5 weeks without charging but with how much I use it, I would estimate maybe once every 2-3 weeks i gotta charge it. and it doesnt take very long to charge either! -Perfect size too! I love how thin it is and light weight. I get cute cases for it and just looks like the size of A5 notbook. its only roughly 6" and its so perfect to bring along on trips or outback in the hammock! -Oh another thing about the light, since its not an LED scree, when you go out in the sun, the screen looks lighter! Like its not dark like your phone would be when you step outside. the sun lights it up like it would be if you were holding a physical book! -P.S. its waterproof. have fun reading in the baths, floating in the pool or with your feet in the sand at the beach! I could go on and on about how much I love it. I just wanted to tell you all the things that sold me on a kindle all together. Its honestly the best! Even came with 3months free of Kindle Unlimited which I too am a huge fan of now! worth every penny!