I'll be the first to admit that I don't exactly live on the cutting-edge of technology. I was very slow to embrace online social networking until I discovered the addictive joy of cyber-stalking people via Facebook. I still don't really know how to work the four remotes that are mysteriously required to operate our one TV. I didn't own an iPod until a year ago. Hell, until about 2002 I was dragging a Walkman with me to the gym. Not even a Discman, people. A WALKMAN.
So it might just be the non-techie in me talking here, but I just do not get this new Kindle contraption. Apparently, the great appeal of the product is that it's a wireless, hand-held electronic reading device that's approximately as small and lightweight as...wait for it...a book! Books, I might add, are also wireless, hand-held reading devices.
According to Amazon, it can instantly access more than 90,000 titles and store up to 200 books at a time, which I admit would be pretty handy for traveling. But it also costs $399. I mean, think about how many actual books you could buy for $399! For someone who reads at a steady pace of about a book a month, it will take at least a couple of years for the Kindle to start being cost effective. (Hey, I just did math!)
Who knows. Maybe digitizing books is what it will take for people to start reading again. The AP reported a few months ago that 25 percent of adults didn't even read A book last year, which is sort of horrifying. Maybe it's all that archaic paper and exhausting page turning that has been holding the literary world back.
Still, I have my doubts. In my experience, book lovers tend to hold onto their favorite tomes like treasures. As Jo March from Little Women once said, "Some books are so familiar, reading them is like being home again." (She might have just said that in the movie version, but it doesn't make it any less true). It's hard to imagine a Kindle evoking the same kind of response. Books are meant to be loved and dog-eared and displayed on shelves. And let's face it, if you slogged your way through Ulysses or The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire than, dammit, you want everyone who visits your home to know it!
And then there's the whole issue of the name. I'm not quite sure what they're going for by calling it "Kindle." Does it mean that they're hoping to ignite the general populace's love of reading? Or that we should all run out and burn our old books now that the Kindle has arrived?
It's hard for me to imagine it really catching on, but I've certainly been wrong before. It could be that in a few years almost everyone will be reading by Kindle-light, while the remaining holdouts cling to our outdated paper and wait for books to come back as retro-chic---like people in the 70s who hung on to their vinyl and swear it still sounds better.
I guess I'm just a retro kind of girl.
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6 comments:
So, I was waking around campus the other day with my iPod in it's excessively big case clipped to my belt. I ran into someone I knew who did a double take and then asked if I was listening to a Walkman. I disappointedly told him that, no, it was just an iPod in an excessively big case. But I thought it would have been pretty cool to be walking around with a Walkman in 2007.
This Kindle thing sounds like a mixed bag to me. The iTunes user in me things it would be nice to have single device on which I could keep everything I read, and if it has a search function that would make writing essays way easier. But as you say, I develop very personal relationships with my books, especially in terms of marking them up (can you do that on the Kindle?) and displaying my bookshelf on Facebook isn't quite the same thing as greeting visitors to my apartment with a wall of books.
I don't think the paper book is going away any time soon, but there might be some advantages to this new thing if it goes down in price a bit.
Well written.
I'm in your corner on this whole thing though. I don't see myself giving up "real" books ever. They're too wonderful - the whole process of picking them off the shelf, underlining the passages that strike you, dog-earing the pages, and in all truthfulness feeling like you're carrying around a little friend is something I'll always treasure.
By the by, am I the only person who hates reading off of a computer screen anyway? By the time I leave the office at the end of the work day my head is killing me from eye strain. No way would I want to continue that during my "pleasure reading time."
When I was taking grad publishing classes at Emerson, every single one of my instructors said 'the ebook is dead' and will never replace real books. I hope they're right.
(Also, I know a certain Matt K. hates when books are dog-eared and marked up. But he'll get my drift in this anyway...)
I hate that they called it "kindle." That's so juvenile. I don't think it's the next big thing. I think it's 2 things away from the next big thing.
Part of the reason behind Kindle's exorbitant price, I guess, is they spent a while developing a special screen that DOESN'T hurt your eyes.
Ultimately I think Kindle may be the future for reading newspapers, magazines and text books, but I don't see it going much beyond that. I agree with what you guys are saying. I think what Jeff Bezos and the people at Amazon aren't taking into consideration is that people who read actually LIKE owning books.
It doesn't matter how great the Super Train is, as The Mayor says to Steve Dunn at the end of their meeting in "Singles":
"People love their cars."
Just don't see it catching on.(Then again, this is coming from the guy who said that DVDs were just a fad, so really, what the hell do I know?)
There was a point where I didn't think people would give up the joy of the CD inserts.
This would have been great in college. My parents were saddled with boxes of ridiculous books leftover from my academic career. Sure, I took a few of the gems with me when I moved out, but there aren't a lot of people outside academia who hold on to their theory books.
I think it will catch on, particularly if they give it a color screen and make magazines available. The biggest problem, as you said, is the price. Who the hell would fork over that much? And you still have to pay for the digital downloads!
I'll save my money for a Wii.
woman, you have not blogged at all in december. I'm calling you out here.
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