So what does everybody think of the Kindle? I have two, a Kindle DX that I use to read technical documents (it saved a forest when I was finishing my dissertation) and a regular Kindle 2 that I use to read non-technical books and edit my novel. I literally have a house full of books. I don't have room to store any more books, so I find the Kindle a godsend. As an author, though, I am a little concerned about what Kindles mean for the future of publishing. As convenient as the Kindle store may be, big bookstores are necessary for the business of writing and selling books.
"As convenient as the Kindle store may be, big bookstores are necessary for the business of writing and selling books."
ReplyDeleteThey are? Why?
The problem with the Kindle is, basically, it sucks. At least, for technical documents. A few generations down the road, it'll be a fabulous product tough to imagine how we coped without (or at least, such a product will be available, although it may not be a Kindle) but for now I find its use rather limited. I'm still a fan for my casual reading material, though - I like paper books, but not the space they occupy or the difficulty moving around with them.
The Kindle DX is much better for reading technical documents, but is bigger and heavier. Anyway, the big bookstore model of selling books depends heavily on people hearing about a book in the media (author interviews, ads, etc.) or from a friend then happening to see the book on the shelf at the bookstore and buying it on an impulse. In general, people will only buy books that they are looking for on the Kindle. For some reason, people don't tend to search for the books that they would otherwise buy in the bookstore. I guess that there is a lot of psychology involved.
ReplyDelete"I'm sticking to reading stone tablets," she said wistfully, awaiting the deletion of her comment.
ReplyDeleteI love my Kindle 2, and look forward to acquiring the newer, smaller-yet version of it in November, when my current one will be handed off to my son when he enters grad school. My husband will receive a DX for Christmas, that version because the bulk of his day-to-day reading is in journal form; he reads novels/standard text (LOL) on my 2. We are bibliophiles, each and all. We currently house hundreds of titles on shelves throughout our home and have a library's worth of titles in storage. Many of those most-loved titles have been purchased anew in digital form across the two years I've been Kindling, and they have been joined by titles I'd have bought in hard form previously, regardless of from whence the urge to browse and purchase arose.
ReplyDeleteWhat do I love most about the thing? That a HUGE portion of my library slips easily into my purse and goes with me every-freakin'-where I go.
AND I loves it more by halves than I do the "maxiPad" or any other ereader that has come into my hot little hands. It gives me a pleasant readerly experience.
Oh--and like the Barbies of my way past, I likes dressing my Kindle up--she currently sports a sweet red leather jacket cinched smartly at the waist with a matching leather belt.
The bizarre disappearance of Katie's posts and comments, and now Katie herself, convinces me that sometimes hard copy is best.
ReplyDeleteBut really, I just love books. Their smell, their feel, the ability to write in their margins, everything.
I'm with you Marcia, the tactile experience of the book is important.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, there is a cost issue. Someone yesterday, in the discussion that got fragged, mentioned that you can buy a lot of paper for the buy-in cost of the Kindle device itself.
I would add that very few books in my field are available in Kindle format, and that those that are are priced very near to their paper counterparts--university presses are not yet playing ball with Amazon, B&N, etc. electronic pricing strategies. At that point, I'd definitely rather a paper copy.
Final point: I know that Kindles and maxipads have some rudimentary annotation capabilities, but given the amount of shit I write in the margins of my books, and given that there is no pagination as such in the Kindle format, I just can't see it as a scholarly tool. So for example, I can remember where a note is, and often which folio, even if I can't remember a specific page, so by turning to an area in a book and leafing through I'll soon have it. Can't do that with an e-book.
But for pass-the-time reading on planes, trains, automobiles, and subways, the Kindle is cool.
College Boy, it's actually not the size and weight that bug me about the DX. I consider the size to be essential for what I read. (Well, I suppose it could be a little smaller, but the standard Kindle is far too small.) It's the other features that are too rudimentary for my purposes, particularly annotation. Plus many Kindle books do a pretty bad job of typesetting mathematics. Theoretically, having your entire research library on one device, along with all your notes along with good organisational capabilities and search functions...as I said, I think we'll view them as indispensable eventually.
ReplyDeleteI know where you're coming from re: big book stores and publishers. I just view it as a business model whose time has gone. That's no bad thing in my view, although the transition period until we see which new ideas and business models triumph may be somewhat annoying!
The "pundits" have been talking about the paperless office for the last 15 years. I don't see it happening. While we don't have Kindle in our non-US locale here (something about a kerfuffle with digital publishing rights?), I can't see many academics embracing it, precisely for the final points that Marcia and Archie make. I can see it being cool for reading the latest Oprah book club selection, but not for something that as a part of your research you ordinarily highlight, underline and scribble in like a mofo.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for technology that makes my life better, on balance. The Kindle just doesn't do it for me. Here's why:
ReplyDeleteBooks do not need batteries and plugs to recharge their batteries.
Books decorate shelves which decorate rooms for decades.
Books can be given, traded, sold, signed and, in an extreme form of protest, burned. They can also be left behind at a doctor's office, dropped in the bathtub or briefly buried in sand without much financial loss.
My mom, a former school teacher with a degenerative brain condition, credits the Kindle with giving her books back. For the last fifteen years she has struggled just to read the newspaper. The Kindle is great because the mechanical voice "reads" along with her. She is now able to read along in books she'd never have been able to read just last year. She's a new woman doing what she has always loved: reading.
ReplyDeleteFor years she tried the using the Library for the Blind books on tape but never could really make it happen. The Kindle has bridged that gap for many people like my mom.
As for me, I still enjoy the feel of a book. You can't write notes or extra steps in the margin of a Kindle math text (to my knowledge). And, frankly, Kindle doesn't address my biggest pet peeve with books which is bathtub availability. If I drop a $10 book in the tub, I'm out $10 maybe. If I drop the Kindle, well, I could be out a whole heck of a lot more.
I think schools will still need books. In HS we were all issued a copy of whatever work of literature we were studying. I'm not sure how an electronic device could be cheaply forced into that model.
Plus, if you can't afford a Kindle, then you can buy the paperback version or borrow it from your local library. Phasing out the "real" books would be move against the economically challeged or whatever the PC term is.
Phasing out the "real" books would be move against the economically challenged (sic) or whatever the PC term is.
ReplyDeleteDicking over the poor?
It's the new "in" thing!
Crazy Math Professor: That story about your mom is wonderful and inspiring.
ReplyDeleteAnd now I think of students who brag that they have never read a complete book.
I can buy a book at a bookstore, pay with cash, and the CIA, FBI, and NSA don't know what I'm reading. I can also sit in the library and read books without those bastards knowing what I'm reading (unless I check the books out).
ReplyDeleteI wish I could say as much about the Kindle/maxiPad/nook/etc....
Stew: You can display PDF files on the Kindle DX. I typeset my mathematics with LaTeX and run it through dvipdf before putting it on my DX. It comes out great.
ReplyDeleteSouthern Bubba: I don't spend a lot of time worrying about someone spying on my reading habits. Sorry.
Bubba is on to something because the "spy on the libraries" part of the USA PATRIOT act is still in effect.
ReplyDeleteCollege Boy, I know. That doesn't help with the poor typesetting of other books and documents, the poor annotation facility or the clumsy software.
ReplyDeleteI don't particularly need it to view my *own* creations.
I find it very helpful for proofreading/editing. It saves a lot of paper.
ReplyDeleteIt's a cool tool that makes users look like, well...TOOLS. I saw a guy using one at Pei Wei (like Noodles n' Company) and for some reason I wanted to smack him with an egg roll. It just looks pretentious.
ReplyDeleteHOWEVER, it's neato technology.
On the third hand (for those of us born by plutonium dumps) you gotta plug it in, it can break, and you can't swat flies with it unless you want to break it and have a hissy fit.
I say "The old way is often the better way," because it's more simple. Imagine wanting to read a book but having no electricity, so you can't! Freakin' annoying. Keep it simple, man.
Old School Rules!
I'm near Baltimore, and we have this awesome thing called Bookthing.org -- free books. I've donated a lot, taken a lot. There's no limit. It was started by a bartender. (I happened to tell my classes about it today, especially since the intercollegiate shuttle system links my school with the one just a few blocks from Book Thing.
ReplyDeleteEver since the story of how Amazon deleted a lot of copies of _1984_ from people's Kindles (including their annotations!), due to a rights issue on their (Amazon's) end, I do not feel like I'd actually OWN anything if it were on a kindle.
At least torrented PDFs/LITs/RTFs don't get taken away. (I snarf silly reading (often texts I own or used to own) so I always have something to read on my netbook, even with no internet.)
But Book Thing is awesome. Browsing & serendipity are awesome. The physicality of books? again, awesomeness.
For professional reading, in addition to annotation capabilities, I need the ability to flip back and forth between the text and the notes and/or bibliography, and to mark sources that I want to check out. I've only played briefly with a friend's Kindle, but I don't think it offers all that.
ReplyDeleteFor leisure reading, I think I'd enjoy the Kindle, especially on long trips where the weight of books adds up, but, as a member of the ever-growing army of underpaid contingent faculty, I rely on cheaper options: the public library (including the free book shelf and 50-cent/$1 book sale there) and used books via Amazon. Ink on paper is still pretty satisfactory technology as far as I'm concerned.