Kindle Me to Sleep

The hubs and I have totally different sleeping patterns.  He likes to go to bed early, while I stay up a little later so that I have less chance of being up at 4am.  He’s nice enough to not bitch at me for wanting a light left on in the bedroom because otherwise I bang around running into things in the pitch dark and wake him up anyway.

Since I usually have a hard time falling asleep I like to read for a while once I do go to bed, which only prolongs the time that the light is on for the hubs.  It’s just a small bedside light, not a glaringly bright overhead light, but I’m sure it still bothers him.

A couple of weeks ago I found something to help with that.  My aunt had purchased a Kindle 2 for my uncle for his birthday and I had a bout of mad covetousness because hello?  Gadgetry, coolness, electronica?  I’m all over that.  But I couldn’t justify having yet another gadget, especially at that price.

Then I heard about the Kindle app for iPhone on Twitter.  It’s free!  Free is good!  Free is awesome!  So I downloaded it and started searching for books and I came across a Janet Evanovich I had not read before.  Score!  I love me some Stephanie Plum.  I bought the book, and sync’ed it with my phone.

The screen is small, but it works.  Sometimes the words break in weird places, but overall its pretty awesome.  Now when I go to bed I take my phone with me so I can turn off the bedside light and just read on my phone.  I had to play with brightness for a while, but other than that it’s been great.  I get my reading fix, hubby doesn’t have to have the light on, and we’re both happy.  Plus, if I wake up in the middle of the night (like I often do) I can read without bothering him.  I just have to shade the screen a little so he doesn’t get bothered by the glare.

I do make sure the phone is off before going to sleep because for some reason it intermittently makes my clock radio sound like it’s communicating with aliens if it’s left on.  I’m not sure what’s up with that, except that maybe the Borg is looking for me and my phone is going to rat me out.

If you dig on reading and have an iPhone or iPod Touch you might like the Kindle app.  I love the portability and the fact that I don’t have to have yet another gadget.   And it doesn’t turn sideways when I’m laying in bed, which is a bonus because some apps do and it makes the reading in bed difficult.  All in all, it’s a great app!

*This is not a paid review.  I didn’t get anything for free, other than the app which is free to everyone.  I don’t do ads on this blog because I’m not cool enough to get offers for free stuff, and I’m not into ads anyway (for me). I just like to tell you about cool stuff I find. I’m a giver like that.