Paperwhite

Recently, I got the best surprise ever from my {favorite} daddy.

The new Kindle Paperwhite

Isn't it beautiful? My dad had been researching the new Kindle lately and we had been talking about upgrading mine, but it was a total surprise when it arrived in the mail over Spring Break.

My other Kindle is the 2nd generation one and I've had it since I was a junior in high school. In Kindle years, that makes it about 100 years old. It still works but there are some big differences: mainly that it's the same size as my mini ipad and doesn't connect to wifi. (How weird is it that I can own a piece of technology that doesn't have wifi capability?) It also has a crack in the plastic, which doesn't hinder my ability to read but still made me wary about putting it in my backpack, where it's subject to a lot of rough movement throughout the day.

Here are some things that I LOVE about my new Kindle:

1. It connects to my Goodreads account and automatically updates my currently reading shelf when I start a new book. Genius partnership, if you ask me!

2. It's a touchscreen, so instead of pressing a button to turn the page I just tap the screen.

3. It has a built-in (adjustable) light, which has been such a convenience because my cat loves to position herself on my stomach while I read at night and does not like it when I shift over to turn off my lamp. I actually feel like I can fall asleep faster now reading with just the backlight on, and it certainly makes the creepy story I'm reading right now that much more disturbing. (Good or bad thing? I'll let you know...)

4. I can highlight any word or section and instantly translate it into a foreign language. I'm a language lover- I've studied Latin, French, Spanish, Swahili, Thai and a teensy bit of Arabic at different points in my life- and one of my goals is to make sure that I continue learning French this summer, so this feature will definitely come in handy for that.

5. When you tap a word to look up the definition, it saves it to your personal vocabulary builder. You can then look up alternative uses for those words and practice them with flashcards. I'm much more apt to look up a word when the definition is immediately available (not that it would take so long to google it on my phone) and I love learning new words, and I've already added a few to my vocabulary this week!

Needless to say, I am so in love with it.

Do you use an e-reader? What do you love most about it?