Re: Re: Kindle
I agree completely with local writer and book critic Ben Steelman (http://books.starnewsonline.com) that earlier versions of the e-book have seemed like so much grist in the mill of retro innovation (trackback):
E-book screens, to me, seem a little bit like those picture phones that used to feature in every “World of Tomorrow” exhibit when I was a kid — they’ve been around forever, lots of people have tried to peddle them, but nobody really wants them.
They’ve been around for some time, pitched in breathless claims since they were conceived. I haven’t ever really been tempted. (And I should have been! I’m kooky for books and the worst kind of technofile, a Rubbermaid-drawer-full of Linux gadgets to prove it!). Unlike Mr. Steelman, however, I think amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos may be on to something (again!) this time with the Kindle reader. He was way ahead of the curve last time, but not so far that we couldn’t all catch up. We’ve caught up with his notion that buying books online can not simply compare favorably with brick and mortal book buying, but can surpass it in some important ways. Real bookstores (those that remain) are scrambling to work into their selling stategies the same attractive holism you can see at amazon.com, where “recommendation engines” and the much-touted “user generated content” that is careful, trusted reviews have become normative in the whole industry.
In the same way that they did something completely new to bookselling by leveraging their early “network advantage” to build associations between books, readers, products, genres, they may have nailed down in the Kindle just the right combination of old bookishness and new wirelessness that will break the e-reading barrier. This reading experience includes the reviews and associative browsing, the search I’ve come to think of as nearly integral to reading.
I’ve never even seen the thing. I haven’t looked at the screen, much less spent any real time reading on it. But I like what Toni Morrison (sic!) says about its portability (compared to a laptop), and I am drinking the kool-aid when I hear about the way that this device “aggregates” newspaper content and blogs (some few blogs), and even your own “content” (for a small fee).
The device is a logical next step in amazon’s prime directive, in fact maybe a sort of platform for it. If reading off of these Kindle screens is a sin, let me be damned (and put it on my Christmas list please, honey).
If you get one for Xmas, Ian, let’s play Pong! What’s with the retro, Commodore, Lionel Richie, Reagan era look? I’ve gone back and forth on this. I’d love to read the Times and other papers on it, save the trees and all that, but our book habits have been around a long time, thank you Mister Guggenheim. It also should be affordable and very easy to use. On the latter point, I’m thinking of my parents. Is it possible to do the crossword on a Kindle?
I’m calmer now, R. Ahem. Have very little interest in this thing now, esp. given its price (I think it’s 400 bucks?). I stare at a laptop all day — don’t think I want to snuggle up with another one afterwards.
Ian - I’m not sure if it’s a poignant typo or if you said “brick and MORTAL” on purpose…
I’m not terribly excited about these gadsgets, although it does look like another step toward comfortable electron-based reading. And while $400 may sound like a lot of money, isn’t that about what one nice bookcase costs (since there’s no IKEA nearby)? Not to mention the floorspace permanently lost when one piles the house with pages. Of course, I realize that many people can’t imagine not having lots of books around, but I’ve successfully weaned myself from the book-owning habit and still seem to be adequately literate.
Susan: Ha! Aha! Purely Freudian fingers there. The fingers know what the mind will not admit.
We used to own one of those things (a bookstore) and don’t envy the local booksellers their mortal challenge.
But how provocative! Do you mean you’ve stopped reading books (!?) or only that you’ve stopped collecting them — or that you’ve begun to read-from-some-screen (like this one) instead?
Ian - The answer to your series of questions is, sort of: yes. I no longer own more than a handful of books at any one time, and for the most part I’ve stopped reading them as well. I find far too much to occupy myself right here on the web. I continue to support the concept of books as the foundation of literacy and a broad education, but in my life today the concept has been replaced by the reality that I prefer the information and interaction available right here online.
I haven’t yet even considered owning a gadget like the Kindle - and since I dislike Amazon.com and its overbearing, privacy-intruding practices intensely, I certainly won’t own this one. It’s likely that in the near future a device that does the things you mention – presents current, news-type information in real time through a wireless connection and also stores book-length material and presents it in a readable fashion – will indeed be available and go in my bag, but not now. I used to carry a whole bag of magazines and newspapers for my daily train commute in DC, but it is my intention to never again do anything like that. The reading time was broadening, the rest of the commute was deadly to both body and spirit.
Speaking of Amazon, please forgive my cynicism, but my impression of the “trusted” reviews is that a significant proportion of them are plants, and Amazon doesn’t care. I happened across a very favorable one in the course of a web search that I realized, entirely by coincidence related to the search, had been written by a relative of the author with no indication they were acquainted, much less related.
I reported what I had discovered to Amazon, including links to the proof, and they determined that it in no way violated their policies or rules. Trust if you will - I simply will not. I may use the site for information, but when I buy books, I usually use Powells.com, sort of the electronic version of the neighborhood bookstore.
Susan - (Re: trusted) I believe that Amazon tried to legitimize or at least recognize that practice of planting reviews by including, in the review section, a special link that says, Are you the author? Write about your experience today! (or something).
Amazon (and other online sellers with reviews) are riddled with happy plants and vendetta-slams. But I would say the sheer number of reviews of things on the site diminishes the impact of those to some degree. And Powells.com is not immune. (Or is it in some way?). I’ve used Powells.com a bunch in the past — used to try to always make my online links to that reseller rather than amazon, though the latter is so good about providing services that make “book talk” easy.
Slso been buying used books from abebooks.com, which is great! A friend who worked at Amazon in the early days turned me onto this used bookseller. I think it’s their used-bookseller-aggregating engine that’s actually running in amazon now, though quietly.