For me the Kindle was not going to be an easy sell. I love books; no, I mean I really love books. I am one of those people who are constantly reading. I only buy hard covers – the feel, the experience, the paper, the binding, I love it all, and this is why my experience with the Amazon Kindle began with both excitement and more than a little irrational fear.

I have a very large library full of hard cover books. What if the age of the printed book is really coming to an end? Could I live happy ever-after with an eBook? The entire reading experience is different in so many ways. None of the attempts at eBooks had worked for me so far. Reading on a notebook computer or similar device is abysmal. Only with a printed book, did the reading mechanism totally vanish from consciousness as my mind absorbed the words and then the dreams of the author.

I am a scientist, engineer, and entrepreneur. I am no stranger to technology. I am also a novelist with four books completed, two published and many more in various stages. Over the past decades, there have been many attempts at developing what we now call eBooks; and every attempt failed. From a purely technical standpoint computers should be the perfect means of reading books; the evolutionary triumph of human tool building ingenuity. So, why have all our modern attempts failed to best a 5th century invention called a book?

I am drawn to eBooks because they're a much more socially conscious and responsible way to read. Reading eBooks saves trees and slows global warming. This may sound silly to some. After all it is just a small difference per book, but what if hundreds of millions of people switched? The difference could be huge – no shipping with fossil fuels, no manufacturing of paper with heavy machinery and chemicals; just a single reusable manufactured computer tablet, a small amount of electricity to transmit each eBook, and a small amount of juice to read it.

So what is using the kindle really like? After having read novels and newspapers and blogs on it for months, I can sum it up in one word, “invisible.” When you are reading a book on the Kindle, it really does disappear as your mind is absorbed by the story. The experience is almost as good a printed book! You don't notice the mechanics of reading and disappear into the story.

I'd give the Kindle a 4.5-star review. It is a gutsy move by Amazon but it is also not without problems. To understand the Kindle, you really have to think about it as a “book service” AND not an eBook reader. It is really and truly meant to be an extension of Amazon's store. The Kindle is packaged and marketed to be the iPod + iTunes solution for eBooks.

Surprisingly, many people have panned the Kindle without having held one in their hands, let alone used it for months. Some people have condemned the Kindle because it doesn't have a full featured web browser or support competing DRM ebook formats. The Kindle is an Amazon ebook reader service, not a computer. It needs to be evaluated as an alternative way to read books from Amazon, not open MS Word documents, watch a movie, or email a friend! These critics are missing the point. The critical question is whether the Kindle a great way to read books? The answer is a resounding YES.

My Kindle arrived at my door a week ahead of schedule at the end of November. I know, I know, I got lucky. I opened the very fancy box and the first thing that struck me while the plastic-wrap and cardboard were strewn everywhere was how small the Kindle really felt in my hands. The next thing that hit me was this screen is amazing; it really is almost as easy on the eyes as a piece of paper. No eye strain, no problem reading in any light suitable for a printed book.

The first thing I did with my new Kindle was buy my latest novel, Immortality. I promise, Amazon, I did not do this to boost my Kindle sales stats by one. I purchased my own book because I wanted to see how it looked and read on a living, breathing Kindle. Up until now, I'd only seen the Kindle edition of Immortality on a Kindle eBook simulator which ran in a web browser. So what better book to begin my Kindle experience than with an ebook I've known so intimately as a hard cover. It was a pure thrill to see my novel on that paper perfect screen. Is this the dawn of the eBook revolution I have been both longing for and fearing since the idea of eBooks was first suggest so many decades ago? I'm afraid I am beginning to think so….

Over the ensuing months, I've actually re-purchased Kindle editions of hard cover books that are now collecting dust on my “to be read” shelf. That's how good the experience has been. I was willing to buy second copies just so I could read as much as possible on the Kindle.

The question about Kindle's possible success may be answered by looking at why eBooks have failed to catch on until now. Think about eBook generation 1.0, a.k.a. the notebook computer. You can't curl up with a whizzing, heat generating, heavy, eye-blurring LCD screen-machine that washes out in bright light; and then somehow ignore its nagging presence as your read. The single most important factor in writing a successful novel is the author must get the reader to suspend disbelief and dissolve objective reality. That's hard for a person reading a novel to do with a distracting screen-machine in their hands that could be as hot as a toaster and maybe running out of juice just when they get to the exciting bits.

After many years of wandering in eBook wilderness, eBook generation 2.0 came into camp promising to solve all usability problems by going to a dedicated device that did only one thing, display eBooks. While these new devices were a big step in the right direction, most were still hard on the eyes, had poor battery life, and complicated DRMs making books purchases a challenge at best. eBook proponents grew dispirited as this generation of machines came and went with little substantive improvement.

Today we have eBook generation 3.0. Many of these dedicated eBook readers finally deliver all needed usability. But another key piece was still missing until the Kindle. eBook success was only possible when offered with a wide variety of reading material. All models of eReaders that cleanly jumped the “usability hurdle” now stumbled on this second hurdle. They can be so limited in book selection that you lose interest fast. What good is an eReader if they don't offer lots of books you want to read? Maybe the reader would make a nice secondhand gift to a friend once you've polished off the four books that interest you, but secondhand gifts are what toaster-ovens were originally invented for….

The Kindle does in fact excel in all the areas needed to be a successful eBook reading service; and because of this, Amazon has a good shot at turning a very stubborn page in writing and written history.

The Kindle does become invisible as you read. It really does. It disappears differently than a printed book, but is almost just as invisible. I'd give it 95% on the old invisibility scale. I agree the Sony is a prettier package but once invisible who is really going to care how pretty it is? Don't judge an eBook reader by its cover.

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