I was in love with my Kindle when I got it. The words were so crisp and clear and I could put rooms full of books on it! I took it everywhere, showed everyone, and talked about it all the time, but I didn’t use it a whole lot. I read a few books on it but still found myself reading a lot of books from the library.

This wasn’t because the reading experience was any better with paper books. I actually thought reading on the Kindle was more enjoyable. I’m just cheap And I read a lot, a whole lot. But I’m not rich. I can’t afford to buy every book I read. I’ll buy a book if I think I’m going to want to refer back to it in the future, but for the most part I read a book and I’m done. I knew this about myself before I bought my Kindle, I just thought I could read borrowed library ebooks on it.

My library has an account with Overdrive so I am able to check out electronic books and audio books. (You check them out and they expire after two or three weeks. No late fees!) I thought I was going to be able to check out all kinds of library books for my Kindle and be in book heaven forever and ever.

Amazon had other ideas. They put some serious restrictions on what you can and can’t do with your Kindle and the ebooks you purchase from them. If you own a Kindle you can only read books purchased from the Kindle store. If you purchase an ebook from Fictionwise, legally, and with your own money, you can’t read it on your Kindle.  If you want to utilize the free books from your public library, that you support with your tax dollars and late fees, too bad. If you didn’t buy it from Amazon you can’t read it on your Kindle.

But maybe you’re rich. You don’t need to use the library and you certainly don’t want to waste your time shopping the internet to save a couple of bucks on every book you buy. Yay you! 2 years later a new ebook reader comes out with a color screen so you can see the pictures in your photography books and the pretty decorating ideas in Better Homes and Gardens Magazine. This new ebook reader makes it really easy to take lots of notes, too. You can even cut pictures and sections of text and paste them into a project folder for later reference. This new ebook reader is everything you’ve ever wanted! (I wrote this way before the iPad came out. Seriously! I was actually writing about the rumored Microsoft Courier. I want it way more than I want an iPad.) But it’s not made by Amazon. If you buy this new reader you’ll lose all of the books you purchased for you Kindle. Or, you’ll have to keep your Kindle forever if you want to access those books in the future. LAME!

THAT is my major beef with my Kindle.
Things I like about my Kindle –

• BIG page turning buttons – I crank up the font and can read on the treadmill. Because the buttons are so big it’s easy to turn the page while I’m running. (I’m not sure about the new version of the Kindle. The buttons are larger than on other ebook readers but I’m not sure if they’re as treadmill friendly.)
• Book prices – Amazon almost always has the lowest price on ebooks
• Books purchased books are stored by Amazon – If you buy an ebook from Amazon you can download it to your Kindle over and over again so if you need to free up space, your Kindle crashes and erases everything, or you upgrade to a new KINDLE you’re OK. (If you upgrade to another brand, you’re in trouble. But we’ve already discussed that.)
• Sharing books – You can have up to 6 Kindles on your account and all Kindles have access to the same books. If you and your spouse have Kindles on the same account you buy one book and load it on both Kindles.
• Book selection – Amazon has more books available than any other ebook seller.
• It reads to you (Kindle 2 only) – It doesn’t sound like a robot, either. Well, not too much. You can choose male or female and even give it a British accent! How cool is that!?! Not sure I’d use it but I still think it’s cool.

Things I don’t like about my Kindle –

• No memory card slot – (I have the Kindle 1. It has a memory card slot. The New Kindle 2, does not.) I like being able to expand the memory so I don’t have to try to figure out which books to delete to make room for new books.
• No replaceable battery – If the battery dies you need to send it in for expensive repairs or you need a new Kindle. (Again, I have a Kindle 1. I can replace my battery.
• Can’t move books purchased from the Kindle Store to another brand of reader.
• Can’t read books purchased from other sources.
• Can’t read free ebooks borrowed from the library.

Photo by goXunuReviews

I’ve mentioned before that I own a Kindle and was going to post a review. I haven’t posted it yet because, despite owning my Kindle for over a year, it’s taken me until now to really decide how I feel about it. I’ve also owned a Sony Reader so will review that as well. But first I thought I should explain why I made the switch from paper books to ebooks.

I am a book lover. I love the smell of a new book. I love the feel of a book. I love the weight and the texture. I like to play with the pages as I’m reading. You can’t get that with an electronic book. I’ll keep my tree killing, space taking, paper books thank-you-very-much. This is probably the biggest objection I hear to ebook readers. “You can’t get the same experience from a cold, unfeeling piece of plastic” and it’s true.

But…

Did you know you can put thousands of books on an ebook reader? That’s a whole library full. A LIBRARY! And you can take them ALL with you. Everywhere.

Photo by ccacnorthlib

At any given time I have 20-30 books checked out of the library. Business books, craft books, writing books, organizing books, cook books, fiction books… I never know what I’m going to be in the mood to read. Anytime we go out of town, even just for a few days, I have to decide which books to bring, and which to leave home. What if this story is lame? What if it’s so good I can’t put it down and I finish it before the trip’s over? What if I’m I the mood to work on my writing, or what if I get motivated and want to learn how to improve my business? I will be so bummed if I don’t have the right book with me! So I used to pack a bag with the top 10 (or 15, I’m not a very good decision maker) and will probably need shoulder surgery some day because of it. (I couldn’t even go to my daughter’s soccer games without at least two books because, what if?) And that’s why I made the switch from paper to electronic books.

Most ebook readers use e-ink. It’s really amazing stuff. The words are so crisp and clear, very much like words on paper. When I turned my Kindle on for the first time I looked at the screen from every angle for at least half an hour trying to figure out how it worked. (Ok, maybe only 3 or 4 minutes but it felt like a long time. And no, I never did figure out how it worked.) There’s no backlight or anything so it’s just… amazing! How do they do that? Go to Best Buy or Target or Barnes and Noble, anywhere that has ebooks on display, and check them out. Even after a year I am still amazed.

Photo by Horia Varlan

There are some things that I miss about paper books, though. You know how you can flip through the pages to find a diagram or a phrase that you know is on the right side towards the middle of the book? You can’t do that with an ebook. Well, you can, but it’s slow. This is the one time I really miss my paper books.

I just remembered that there’s a search function so you can search for a particular word within a book. I haven’t used it but will see if that helps and report back.

Another thing I miss about paper books is… um… color pictures?

So color, smell and flipability. That’s what paper books have on ebooks.

Oh, and about 5,000 pounds.

Alright, so you’ve purchased a domain name and have spent a few days looking at themes. You’re dieing to get your blog up and running now, right? Good, because that’s what we’re going to do today.

First though, you need to do a little more research. Before anyone will be able to view your blog you’ll have to find a host. A host provides space to store your website or blog information. I searched message boards and review sites for a week or so before finally deciding to go with HostGator. They might or might not be the best or the cheapest but the reviews were good and I found their prices very competitive. My experience with them has always been great. They’ve always been quick to respond to even my lamest questions and have been able to help me solve any issues right away. For that reason I can highly recommend them but it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if you wanted to do your own research.

After you’ve found your host it’s time to upload Wordpress to your site. I use GoDaddy and HostGator so my instructions are specific to them, but the steps should be similar no matter what combination of companies you’re using. The first thing you want to do is change the domain name servers (DNS) for your domain. I think it tells the web browser where to look for your site information. Find out what your particular name servers are. If you have HostGator your DNS will be given to you in your welcome email. (If you lost it, email support.) Next, go to Godaddy.com, hold your mouse over “domains” click on “my domains” in the drop down box and select the domain you want to work with. Make sure it’s unlocked, then click on the name servers to change them. It can take a few days for some internet service providers to update so be patient if you don’t see anything on your site for a while. Your host should have a way for you to view it while you’re waiting. (With HostGator you just go to . )

Gosh, I am so sick of listening to myself type. I know this post is a little dry and technical. We’re almost done and when we are you’ll have a brand spanking new blog to play with!

Now we’re ready to load Wordpress on your site. HostGator, and I’m sure many other hosts, has a great product called Fantastico that lets you upload Wordpress with just a few clicks of your mouse. If you have HostGator go to www.yourdomain.com/cpanel and log in. On the main cpanel page there is an icon for Fantastico De Luxe. When you click on that you’ll be taken to a page is a list of website programs that you can have loaded on your site. Select Wordpress and follow the directions. Make sure you write down all of the usernames and passwords it asks you to choose. You might even want to make an extra copy or 2 just in case you lose one. You need to take very good care of these. Then you’re done! See. Easy.

You did it! I’m so excited for you. Now go to www. yourdomain.com/wp-login to start playing with settings. I predict a sleepless night for you.

Spend the next few days thinking about how you want your blog organized. What categories and sub-categories would you like? What special features would you like? Take a look at some other blogs to get some ideas.

One thing you’ll probably learn about me pretty soon is that I obsess about things. When there’s something I want to learn about or do I’m pretty much consumed by it all day, every day until I learn everything there is to know, or until something new grabs my interest.

This week my obsession is called www.lazyperfection.com. I’ve spent every spare moment working on the layout and the organization and all of the little details. For instance, see that area on the right side that says “Subscribe to Lazy Perfection”? It took me at least an hour to figure out how to get it just the way I want it. Maybe two. Working on a website can be frustrating. I’m not a professional website designer so I have to search Google for instructions on how to do everything, and if it doesn’t work I don’t always know why. It feels great when I get things to look the way I want them to, though. Then I can go to bed. Usually at 2 AM.

I figure there might be some lazy people out there who would like a blog of their own so I’m gonna help you out a bit and point you to a few websites and products that have helped me out.

First, there are 2 ways you can set up a blog. You can go to blogger.com or wordpress.com and sign up for one there. Almost all the work is done for you. It’s easy, it’s free and you can be up and running within minutes. Sounds perfect, right? It is if you’re just creating a blog to keep family updated on what you’re doing. If you’re creating a blog for a business though, or want to reach a larger audience, you should host your own blog. While there are a lot of things you can do to customize your blog on Blogger.com and Wordpress.com you are limited to things they provide or approve.  I’m a control freak. I want to be in charge of every aspect of my blog. It’s more complicated to host your own blog but it allows you to control every aspect of your image. Below are the basic steps you’ll need to take to set up a self hosted blog.

Step one: get a domain name. I buy my domains from GoDaddy.com. They were the cheapest when I started. There might be something cheaper now but I’ve used them for years, have never had a problem and don’t want to fix what ain’t broke.  It’ll cost you about $10 to buy a domain name for a year. As I mentioned in my previous post, it takes a lot of trial and error to find an available domain name. Just be patient. You don’t want to end up with something you hate because you were in a hurry.

Step two: while you’re working on finding the right domain name, you can start looking for a template or a theme. I’m using Wordpress as the platform for my blog. (A platform is essentially the software or program that makes the blog work like a blog.) There are others out there but Wordpress is very popular so there are a lot of plugins available, and you can find answers to almost any question with a quick Google search. Wordpress is an Open Source product which means it’s FREE! Free is good. You can download it for free, find themes for free, find plugins for free… I love free. There are plugins and themes that you can buy as well, but there’s enough free stuff out there to keep you busy for years.

Sorry, I got a bit off track there. So, we’re looking for a theme or a template for Wordpress. Here are some places to get you started. These sites cover almost every free Wordpress theme out there but you can search Google if you want to look yourself.

• Best Wordpress Themes – 10 free Wordpress themes that blow many premium themes away
• Smashing Magazine – 100 excellent free Wordpress themes
• Wordpress – Theme viewer

Free themes are great if you really have no budget and many of them really do look nice. I started out using free themes but got tired of being stuck with certain design elements because I didn’t know the code to change them. I decided to use a paid theme -  Thesis. With Thesis, even with no code knowledge, you can change the number of columns on your blog, move elements, change colors and so many other things I can’t list them all here. It’s used by thousands of bloggers, big and small. It’s the theme I use on all of my sites. Chris, the creator of Thesis, works constantly to make the theme better, cleaner and easier to work with. Yes, the links to Thesis are affiliate links which means I’ll make a couple dollars if you click on them and buy the theme. BUT I would recommend it to you even if I didn’t make anything. I use it myself and I recommend it to my friends. If you can’t afford it or aren’t sure you’re serious about setting up a blog, use a free theme. But if you’re at all serious, get Thesis. You will save hundreds of hours of work and frustration and maybe prevent a few gray hairs.

That should keep you busy today. Tomorrow I’ll tell you how to host your site and bring it live. Exciting stuff ! Almost makes me want to make a new blog so I can do it right along with you!