Chapter 2. Reading (and Listening to) Books
AMAZON CEO JEFF BEZOS has always had one big design goal for the Kindle: to make it disappear in your hands so you can enjoy your reading. Even though the Fire is the heaviest, most feature-packed model in the family, it meets its dad’s main objective. Whether you’re a Kindle veteran, an occasional smartphone reader, or even a hardcover lover, you’ll find it easy to read on the Fire.
Three things in particular make the Fire a good alternative to print. First: choice. There may be bigger online catalogs, but no one beats Amazon when it comes to titles people actually want to read. Google’s eBookstore boasts four million titles, but if you ever wade deep into those virtual stacks, you’ll find lots of shoddily-scanned snooze inducers. Meanwhile, Amazon has deals in place with more or less every publisher around. If an ebook edition is available, chances are Amazon’s got it.
The Fire’s second big attraction is Amazon’s appetite for innovation. The company is constantly looking for ways to make ebooks more useful and more delightful. With the newest generation of Fires, you get things like X-Ray (a visual index of key people and terms), Whispersync for Voice (coordinated reading and spot tracking between audio- and ebook), and Immersion Reading (highlighted text as an audiobook plays).
Finally, you’ve got to give the company credit for keeping its ...
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