Cooking with Kindle
I now have my new Kindle 2 and the free Cooks Illustrated Kindle Cookbook. I have been cooking from it and have to say the Blackberry Cobbler is wonderful. I am a little frustrated by the lack of ease of navigation and am wondering if anyone has any tricks. I do want to thank Cooks Illustrated for the lovely cookbook!
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20 Comments:
I have it also. I think it's the nature of the beast that it's not going to be as easily gone thru as an actual book. While for regular books, I find myself preferring the kindle (It's so awesome), but for stuff like cookbooks, it kinda sucks.
What I did was go thru it and bookmark everything I was interested in. Go to the table of contents and to the index. The sections aren't that long so it gets you where you want to go a bit quicker.
As a note, I'm livid at how much they're charging for their online subscription and have cancelled my account, but their doing this? Sweet.
chisai at 7:31PM on 03/24/09
I don't have a kindle. I like actual books, a personal preference because I make notes in them. The recipe from CI is always a winner. I have been subscribed to CI since it first began in 1993. Every year I get the annual and I make notes in that too. Maybe a thread on CI?
JerzeeTomato at 7:44PM on 03/24/09
@Jerzee, you can do notes in the kindle! Seriously, it's amazing. But not for cookbooks.
chisai at 7:51PM on 03/24/09
The mechanism to enter in notes and data in general is not very good. And cooking is generally messy. I typically print out what I need - makes notes - and scan the notes back into the computer.
Saying that - I own a first gen kindle and love it - outside of cookbooks and books related to my work - I will not buy a book unless I can get it in digital format. However these are clearly first generation devices which lots of room for improvement.
bravian at 9:40PM on 03/24/09
Wow - ya'll are the first people I've heard about that actually bought a Kindle. Besides using it as a cooking reference, what about the reading experience? Do you feel comfortable with it instead of a book?
Curious - that's all. thx
Ribster at 5:30AM on 03/25/09
@Ribster, as a thing to read with, the kindle is great. I surprises me to say this, because I never thought I would, but I really do prefer it to a real book. I know that sounds weird. After the first 10 minutes or so of thinking, "I'm reading a machine," it's like reading a more comfortable book that needs only one hand. You can change the type size, you can add notes.
Don't get me wrong. It's not perfect. Since all the books are DRM'd you don't actually own the book, you're essentially renting it because you can't share, lend, etc. unless you have other kindle users on your account. There are no folders, but there's a fairly easy way to circumvent that by tagging (which I can explain should you decide to get one), and unlike the K1, there's no SDS card. On the other hand, it holds 1500 books so as far as I can see, they're not really necessary. Amazon holds everything you own from them in their files so you can just remove books from the kindle and still keep them, which is great for read/unread.
To keep this OT, never spend actual money to buy a cookbook for it because for that kind of stuff, it's terrible.
It's also kind of dangerous if you're a book freak like me. Buying a book is instantaneous, so it's pure crack.
chisai at 6:21AM on 03/25/09
I'm so ignorant about the Kindle. Does it have graphics as well, or just text?
juliebugsmama at 9:43AM on 03/25/09
The kindle has graphics but they're B&W, as is the kindle. CI's illustrations are sort of okay, but that's about it. Again, another reason not to use it for things like cookbooks.
Graphics created specifically for the kindle look really good, but not so much with everything else.
chisai at 10:20AM on 03/25/09
I love love love my Kindle. I am a bookaholic, and now I can get a fix in less than a minute.Best sellers are the price of paperbacks at Costco a year later. I take it with me everywhere. One of the coolest features is that it remembers where you were on everything you are reading. I see this as the future of schoolbooks when they get the costs down. Thanks @chisai for the help in navigating the cookbook. I haven't stopped reading long enough to learn the tricks.
ocarol at 11:53AM on 03/25/09
Does using a kindle as a reader have any benefit over using an iPhone? Just wondering!
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 2:10PM on 03/25/09
Oooooo! Great post topic! I've been looking into getting a Kindle or Sony eBook recently. I am excited to hear all this feedback!
Martini Me at 2:30PM on 03/25/09
I have a first gen kindle and love it. And speaking of textbooks, I am in school as well and forgot to buy one of the books for my class, and it wasn't available in a bookstore and I was going to be traveling that weekend, lo and behold, I could buy the book on my kindle. The only bad part about it was that it was still textbook priced, so rather than the $9.99 price for most books, It was about $40. Still cheaper though than buying the actual book.
I have also found that using the kindle in such a manner as trying to quote from it, is a little challenging. It's hard to page through a book on kindle.
I also can't imagine using it took cook with. I'm just too messy. I'd be afraid I'd spill something on it and kill it. I downloaded the CI and just can't see myself using it unless I was making something very specific.
But all in all, I love it. I love having 5-7 books at a time waiting to be read. I love being able to shop the kindle store while on an airplane waiting at the gate and buying a book instantaneously. I love that I'm not limited to John Grisham novels.
cbw at 2:43PM on 03/25/09
@Hillary, the iPhone has a much smaller screen and is backlit, which, for me, is much harder on the eyes. It's also not terrible comfortable to curl up with. The kindle is really easy on the eyes. It's like reading paper.
@Martini - I've never used the Sony, so I have to input other than I don't think it has a wireless connection, so no spur of the moment downloading of books (which would probably be good for me because I really need to keep myself in check).
chisai at 2:48PM on 03/25/09
I LOVE my Kindle. I find it very easy to read and handle and the instant gratification is wonderful. I eagerly downloaded the CI book but quickly realized it won't be great for cooking. It's too bad but I am a pretty messy cook so I would probably end up spilling stuff all over it anyway. I haven't done any note taking yet but otherwise have found it quite easy to use, and I am about as techno-impaired as a 39 year old can be. I have an itouch, which I love for the internet and music (and the scrabble game) but the Kindle is much easier to read. Highly recommend it.
mrsmoosie at 4:55PM on 03/25/09
I love, love, love my Kindle, but not so much for cookbooks. I've decided that I'll buy actual books when it comes to cookbooks. My wishlist is full of cookbooks!
IndyGal at 5:21PM on 03/25/09
It seems that you can get some version of almost every recipe online somewhere. I buy cookbooks only when I have determined that I cannot live without them. I have all the classics and am out of room for books. For my Kindle CI recipe for cobbler, I jotted down my shorthand to take into the kitchen so as not to slop stuff all over the Kindle and now I have taped that one into the cabinet where I keep the salt and baking powder.
ocarol at 6:01PM on 03/25/09
ocarol,
Kindle fits perfectly into a quart size Ziplock bag. Great solution for in the kitchen or reading poolside.
giftideamom at 8:56AM on 03/26/09
I've had great luck with the Kindle app (and the eReader app) on the iPod touch. Like @giftideamom, I stick my iPod in a ziplock to prevent damage. The CI book isn't as navigable as a standard cookbook, but the TOC links to individual recipes, so I was pretty satisfied. The Nigella Lawson mini eBooks (for FEAST) have worked similarly.
littlestcapy at 10:37AM on 03/26/09
@chisai - thank you for the info about the no wirelessness of Sony.
Martini Me at 12:59PM on 03/26/09
You are all so smart! I love this place.
ocarol at 2:54PM on 03/27/09