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Goodbye paper books - Hello Kindle!

Two weeks ago I did it. I bought my first e-book on Kindle and it was amazing! I know I might be late in the game, but I'm so impressed from the experience that I have to share this.

I read many books. I have five books lying around waiting to get read and, as you can imagine, they take up a lot of space. When the Kindle first came out I was thinking of buying one. But it wasn't available in Germany then.

Two weeks ago I discovered Kindle for iPhone (and Mac).

I downloaded it, got the new Seth Godin book 'Linchpin'. Seconds later I was actually reading it! One click and there it is.

The whole experience is truly 'Apple-like'. Pure. To the point. No distractions. You want a book? Go to Amazon. Click on it. And you have it. That's great.

After two weeks using and reading on my iPhone I am still in love. Why?

First, it only takes seconds. Amazon made a good job of selling paper books. Most of them get delivered in one or two days for free (at least in Germany). But now it takes just seconds. How cool is that?

Second, it takes no extra space. If I have one or one thousand books, it doesn't matter. It takes the same amount of space. And since I have my iPhone pretty much everywhere I go, it means that I have all my books with me everywhere I go. All my books in my pocket - that's amazing!

Third, you can actually work with the books in a more efficient way. A bookmark here. A note there. A highlight on this and that page. And when you are done you see all your bookmarks in a list. No searching for the right page or carrying a marker with you all the time.

And last, but not least, as far as I know it's greener. I've read that it takes 34 kg CO2 to have a book produced, printed and get it into your hands. That's the equivalent of driving 105 miles for every book in your bookshelf (if the car emits 200 g CO2/km - many emit less). I think that's pretty cool too, and it makes my experience even better.

I regularly find myself proved wrong. And I am happy about it.

I have known Seth Godin for years. And by 'known' I don't mean in person (obviously), just that I've read about him many times. I knew he was in marketing and I was often close to buying his books (they were actually in my Amazon shopping cart). But something always stopped me. Probably because I had some kind of poor perception of him. I can't tell why, but I guess I must have read some 'bad stuff' about him or his books.

Finally last week I had the chance to watch the Shopify contest video (Part 1, Part2, Part 3), which is an interview with Seth Godin. And after the first few minutes I was blown away. Such a smart, thoughtful person and I had ignored him all these years. And just because of stuff I'd read somewhere, or my first impression, which was obviously wrong. 

I am pleased about this, because I consider myself a pretty open-minded guy, and it's only through such experiences I realize that even I am thinking in stereotypes.

I guess what I've learned from this, besides the fact that Seth really knows what he is talking about (I've watched a few of his speeches now), is that I have to make up my own mind about stuff more often. Sure it's easier to come to a decision based on stereotypes or things I hear from other people. And it's even easier if you can generally trust your gut. But in the end I sometimes find myself very happy that my first impression was wrong.