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By Joanna

strangers.jpgI am always fascinated to speak with people who notice my readers when I’m out ‘in the wild’ with them. I feel like sometimes I am a little too ‘expert’ for my own good—I’ve tried many devices, read hundreds of books this way, I blog, and so on—that I wonder if the ‘average’ newbie coming in from 0 on this would really find it all as fun and easy as I do. So when a lady on the bus approached me just after I pulled put my Kindle to ask em about it, I was more than happy to show her the ropes.

Her first question was about the font sizes, although she didn’t call it that. ‘Is that one of those book computers?’ Yes. ‘And is it true you can make the writing be smaller or larger any time you want to?’ Yes, again. I went into the settings and showed her the options, and also pointed out that I could have it read to me too.

Next, she wanted to know what was the ‘better’ brand to buy. I said I didn’t think it was an issue of ‘better’ since all of them are slightly different. My Sony was a wonderful device, but my Kindle is too. And there were two very specific reasons why I upgraded.

If was more of a music person, I’d be happy taking an ipod to the gym, so text to speech would not have been an incentive. And if I didn’t read in French, I would not have cared about the dictionary. Those really were the only two reasons I upgraded and I have used these two features enough since I got the Kindle that it has been worth my while.

She wanted to know about where to buy books, and I explained that it depends on what you read (for example you can read pretty much any classic or public domain book for free with very little effort). She asked about prices too and whether it would be more expensive or less expensive than a hardcover new release.

I explained the upcoming ‘windowing’ issue in very layperson terms to her (the book will start out at $15 or so, and then be lowered later) and she seemed to think this was completely fair and she would be happy to either pay the higher price and read it now, or else wait until later and read something else in the meantime (she suggested that this waiting period would be the time where she would read the free classical books I mentioned.)

Always interesting to get a take from an average, non-techie ‘man or woman on the street.’ I scribbled a web link or two on the back of her subway transfer so we’ll see if she turns up at any of my on-line haunts!

 
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