You have to keep the battery charged. Because e-readers are battery operated is a reason why I avoided using one for so long. I remain annoyed by how laptop batteries only last a few hours. Who only uses her acim for three hours a day? I figured e-readers would be the same, but actually, the Kindle’s battery will last a good month (although using the audio feature will wear down the battery sooner).
A disadvantage is that there’s no warning when the battery is low-the Kindle will just suddenly stop working, but the advantage is that while it takes a couple of hours to charge the battery, once you plug in the charger, you can still use the Kindle while it is charging. If you are leaving home for an extended time, you might want to charge it before you go. Otherwise, the battery running down shouldn’t be an issue.
A lot of people have told me they look at computer screens all day so they don’t want to stare at one in the evening when they are reading for pleasure. I completely understand that, but at least with the Kindle, the screen is very easy on the eyes. It is not lit up from the back and claims not to have any glare-although in direct sunlight I have seen a bit of glare, but it’s very minor. Kindle does not light up its screen like a computer, or like you would experience with an iPad, but if you want to read in the dark
This issue is the only one that really annoys me. You can bookmark passages in Kindle and then look just at what you have bookmarked-great if you want to take notes as you read, but as with the issue of no page numbers, you can’t quickly get from one page to another. For example, if you want to see how many pages Chapter 6 is, you have to hit the page turner button repeatedly to get to the chapter’s end. Then you have to hit the back page button to return to where you were, and unfortunately, often the screen page you were on has shifted where the words are on it so it’s not always easy to find your place (the first word at the top of the screen might have been “happiness” before you flipped forward, but when you flip back, it’s now on the second line so harder to spot).
This situation is not as convenient as putting in a bookmarker. Reading a book with end notes, consequently, would be a real nightmare even if you bookmarked the end notes. I miss just being able to hold thirty pages in my hand and glancing back and forth easily-maybe a split screen option for such comparisons will eventually solve this situation. Still, I think there should be some way e-readers can list page numbers, and have a “Go To” feature, just like in a pdf document, so you can choose the page you want to go to. The search features are not quite the same.
Durability: Like anything electronic, if you drop your e-reader, most likely you could break it. I’ve dropped plenty of paper books over the years and never had an issue beyond a bent page. I have yet to drop my Kindle because I’m paranoid about doing so, but I know people who have dropped theirs without it being an issue. They have also bought the leather covers which add some cushioning and which connect to the e-reader so the cover is always on it. Probably a worthwhile investment since the screen especially could break without a cover for it.