[Web4lib] Kindle

[K.G. Schneider]

> Roy Tennant wrote:
> > Hmmm...let me see...spend $400 on a device where the only thing I 
> > can do
> is
> > read books, or spend the same amount on a different device where I 
> > can
> read
> > books, visit any web site I want, make phone calls, listen to tunes,
> etc.
> > Hmmm....

No "hmmm" for me here. The point is that Kindle converges reading onto a
lightweight book-sized device over which one can read books, magazines, and
(some) blogs. I don't want to read a postage stamp, not even a shiny pretty
Apple-designed postage stamp. 

I panned the Kindle on my blog, but not for its size, attractiveness, or its
failure to be a phone. After all, I have hundreds (and have owned thousands)
of multiple "devices" (books, magazines, etc.). Lugging multiple "devices"
as I travel is what makes the Kindle tempting. For a certain class of
business traveler, Kindle makes a lot of sense. A Times subscription is so
much cheaper it would pay for the Kindle in a year. If you like to read
hardcover best-sellers, you can read them at almost half-off. 

The disturbing qualities of Kindle have to do with how it hoses fair use,
narrows the world of books and reading to an Amazon-approved collection, and
finds ways to charge you for your own content (and conditions you to pay for
blogs). It's definitely not a library purchase; it's a library killer,
intended to restructure the world around one book, one owner. My guess is
it's not intended to be a real product as much as it is intended to
proselytize the early adopters into a new way of seeing ownership and DRM (a
game Apple knows quite well... part of my hesitation about the iPhone is my
concern about the significance of a world where Apple can even dictate my
phone carrier. It ain't THAT pretty). Here, Mr. Influential, have a $400
toy, now write about it. Humans are so predictable. 

A meta-observation: I followed the discussion on Amazon closely for a day.
it fascinated me to see so many reviews on a product most of the reviewers
hadn't seen or touched. That's not to pan the reviewers, but to note that
the reviews were happening on a different mesa, as it were. It was (and is)
an interesting discussion, and yes I don't really consider marketing lit to
be a discussion. 

I'd still like to get my hands on a Kindle! (Tim, will you be adding a
format tag to LibraryThing? ;> )

K.G. Schneider
Free Range Librarian
AIM/Email: kgs at freerangelibrarian.com
http://freerangelibrarian.com