[Web4lib] Amazon's Kindle e-book reader

[Tom Keays]

Hi Dan,

It isn't so much the wanting to carry them. The fact that I _can_ is
just a bonus. It is the notion of e-book reader as a library.

Granted, the wall of books on the living room bookshelf is NOT going
to go away any time soon for me, but I see that e-book readers are the
functional equivalent. If I want to browse my books -- physical or
electronic -- to decide what to read next, I first have to have access
to my collection. With e-books, it doesn't matter if I'm on the road
or at home. With print, I better have decided before I leave the
house. Plus, with e-books, I can be reading several books at a time
and there's no weight penalty.

I still buy print books. Sometimes I have both a print copy and an
electronic copy -- it depends on the book. But we're in a transition
period -- partly because so much about what constitutes a "good"
e-book (gui, readability, browsability, etc) hasn't been resolved --
or at least isn't implemented fully or consistently -- on the various
devices.

But... whatever. I'm already a convert. If you're not, then you're
not, and this email won't convince you otherwise.

Tom

PS. Certain types of books still don't work for me on my Palm. The
dinky 480x320 screen utterly fails if there are graphics or tables.
I've looked at the Sony Librie and I suspect that (except for
materials that require hi-res color), that it would satisfice. The
Kindle, even with a lower quality grayscale, would probably be ok too.

Some blogger made a comment that he thought the One Laptop Per Child
device might make an ideal e-book reader. It has a medium size, full
color screen that can be lowered to eInk type resolution for power
consumption savings.


On Nov 26, 2007 5:28 PM, Dan Lester <dan at riverofdata.com> wrote:
> Hello Tom,
>
> Monday, November 26, 2007, 2:17:18 PM, you wrote:
>
> > What makes e-book readers attractive (besides the pure geekiness of
> > them) is the fact that I can carry 200 books as easily as one, Heck,
> > why stop there... with SD cards, I can carry thousands of e-books with
> > me. And I do.*
>
> My question is WHY anyone would want to carry hundreds or thousdands
> of books with them at a time.  When I travel I always have a couple of
> books and several magazines (and more if a long trip), but I can't see
> any reason to have a hundred books with me.
>
> Any easy explanation, other than the possibility that you were doing
> dissertation research and all of the sources you needed were on your
> kindle? (as if!!)
>
>
> --
> Best regards,
>  Dan                            mailto:dan at riverofdata.com
>
>