I Love My Tablet, But Oh You Kindle!

I may be the only person in America to say this, at least judging from the blogs and tech stories I read. But I really think the Kindle is a better device than a tablet. Now, to explain. I'd had a Kindle 3 (the keyboard model) for 2 years. Two weeks ago, I purchased a Nexus 7. It's a great device, this Nexus. I can check email, Twitter, Facebook, news and favorite blogs on the go. I can watch Netflix and not bother anyone else. I can set the backlight and read in bed and not disturb my wife. I've got the Kindle app and paid version of Moon Reader+ for epub books. It's a do-it-all on-the-go device, and I like the form factor and the all-around capability of it. But it's lousy for reading. It just does too much. And not enough. It does too much when a pop-up tells me I have email, or some app has updated, or there are new tweets for me. Those are distractions from simple reading. They're like phone calls and knocks at the door when I want to be left alone. Reading is an immersive thing, or ought to be. A tablet gets in the way of that. It does too much. And not enough. You want to search with a tablet? The Kindle app won't be much help. Most Bibles for the Kindle, for instance, have "direct verse look-up." Begin to enter the name of the book you want, along with chapter and verse, and the Kindle shows a list from the index. Just pick the verse you want. The Kindle app hasn't got that; nor, for that matter, does the Kindle app have an enabled index feature. And good luck trying to read in full daylight. So there you have it. If what you want is a reading device, forget the hype that tells you a tablet is the best choice, because it isn't. Trust me on this. If you want to read, have an e-reader, and choose to get a tablet, be sure to hold onto your e-reader. You won't be sorry.