Post by N3B on Apr 9, 2009 13:35:38 GMT -5
$350 is quite an impressive amount of money to shell out. But consider $350 for an Xbox 360 or $350 for a Kindle.
I really don't read as much as I should, or even as much as I'd like to / want to, and I have to wonder if, with a Kindle, I'd be more inclined to read more often. I, like most people I'm sure, still have a certain attachment to "the book" in terms of its printed and bound version -- the texture of the paper, the opened spine, the scent and feel of the ink, and above all, having an actual, physical object at which to aim your affection ("I love this book [holds book up]" compared to "I love that book [metaphorically floating in existence in the Universe somewhere]").
Of course, it seems like everything these days is going digital, even Google's launched a project to digitize "every book ever" (it of course bringing up several legal/copyright questions in the process).
Compare a Kindle-like e-reader to an MP3-player. People were/are big on MP3 players because of superior sound quality, ease of portability, functionality for organizing and playing music, and above all, having one's entire music library available "at the touch of a button." These similar principles can extend to why people might get interested in e-readers.
However, I can't think of an occasion when it would be to (practically) anyone's benefit to have their entire printed library on-hand. I can understand instances if you're in a class or having a conversation somewhere and you think of a section of a book, you can easily flip to it and search for the passage. But other than that, books are usually read in single "settings." That is, you read typically one book at a time, starting from point A and ending at point B (of course you can read multiple books at one time, but they remain distinct from one another), unlike the music playlist which is all about mixing and matching.
And listening to music is most all the time something done in conjunction with another activity -- driving, working, writing, reading. Reading, on the other hand, is usually a solitary act, in that you do it (typically) by yourself and usually focusing only on the book (or "the world of the book"). You can put music in the background while you read, but you usually don't "read in the background" to your other activities.
While I lament the loss of the "physical music" (CDs/records, because my kids aren't going to rummage through my attic and find old CDs/records, which was something I had fun doing with my parents' music -- rummaging through computer files just doesn't bring the same imagery and emotion to my mind), I still have to agree that the MP3 player has proven extremely convenient and useful, and I probably wouldn't want to go back to conventional CD player Walkmans.
So this brings the question of how can the digital medium alter and benefit books? Above all, like I said above, I'll miss the "physical" book -- there's nothing quite like displaying dozens or hundreds of books on the wall or a bookcase, because it's cultural capital and it's (more or less) a public display of your interests and hobbies. You invite someone to your house, they're going to see your library and comment on what you have. If you invite someone to your house, they aren't going to casually stumble upon your Kindle/e-reader, because that would be considered rude and snoopy. Because an e-reader is a far more private display of your library.
I'm also not sure how I feel about Digital Rights Management, the idea that the things I buy are tethered to that specific device / to my account. Consider the principle of this: you buy a book and are really touched by it, so you loan it to a family member or close friend, hoping that they too might be touched by the experiene, and so that you can share in the process of reading and understanding literature (it becomes a communal act of reading, especially if you're reading, literally, the same pages). With the DRM, however, you can't share it, short of loaning someone your $350 device, access to your credit account through Amazon, and thus cutting off your own reading medium until you get it back.
Amazon allegedly has the biggest selection of digital books available for the Kindle, but I still have to wonder if enough of what I would read is on there. I did a basic search a month or two ago for some of my favorite books and I don't believe a single one was on the list. How much would that crush my spirit to buy a $350 device and then learn that most of what I'd like to read isn't even available? I suppose it might mean that I expand my interests and read other things, but I can't help but think my spirit/motivation would be crushed.
And on the other hand, it might be fun to explore "the digital frontier," to be a part of the modern revolution. They say our generation is "the digital generation," and it's certainly true to an extent. It seems like eventually (10 years, 50 years, 1000+ years, but eventually) everything will inevitably go digital, and it's just a matter of time. So do I embrace this digitization process, identify with my culture and generation, or hold onto the conventional bastions of a system that, for hundreds of years, has worked just fine?
It's still a new medium, and if things go to plan, in 5-10 years it'll be "perfected" for maximum user efficiency, applications, and of course cost, given that the technology will become more commonplace with time and sales, and thus the price will drop and become more affordable. It's an issue of whether I want to play the market democracy ("vote with your dollar") and be a semi-active participant in this medium-shift, or wait it out and see what happens.
People have to buy these things and express interest in them in order for them to ever get better, otherwise the projects will die off. Apparently enough people are purchasing and using the Kindle to warrant the Kindle 2, but the fact that Amazon isn't releasing any of the sales information and demographics makes me a little apprehensive.
Ultimately, I'd like to use one on a 1-3 month trial basis, without having to commit the initial expenditure, to see if it really is worth it and if I'd really use it to its full extent, but unfortunately it's an "all or nothing" deal =/
And of course there's the potential fear or "What happens if Amazon pulls the service for the device?" You buy one, use it for 3 years, and then Amazon decides it's losing too much money on it, and they're going to shut services and development down until they can reassess their situation and build back up, you're essentially screwed. Also, in the event of a global nuclear war, and we're all living in fallout shelters in dystopian post-apocalyptic societies, them paper books will still be readable if they remain intact, while a Kindle will be rendered mostly useless (or at least hardly any different than a regular book).
I really don't read as much as I should, or even as much as I'd like to / want to, and I have to wonder if, with a Kindle, I'd be more inclined to read more often. I, like most people I'm sure, still have a certain attachment to "the book" in terms of its printed and bound version -- the texture of the paper, the opened spine, the scent and feel of the ink, and above all, having an actual, physical object at which to aim your affection ("I love this book [holds book up]" compared to "I love that book [metaphorically floating in existence in the Universe somewhere]").
Of course, it seems like everything these days is going digital, even Google's launched a project to digitize "every book ever" (it of course bringing up several legal/copyright questions in the process).
Compare a Kindle-like e-reader to an MP3-player. People were/are big on MP3 players because of superior sound quality, ease of portability, functionality for organizing and playing music, and above all, having one's entire music library available "at the touch of a button." These similar principles can extend to why people might get interested in e-readers.
However, I can't think of an occasion when it would be to (practically) anyone's benefit to have their entire printed library on-hand. I can understand instances if you're in a class or having a conversation somewhere and you think of a section of a book, you can easily flip to it and search for the passage. But other than that, books are usually read in single "settings." That is, you read typically one book at a time, starting from point A and ending at point B (of course you can read multiple books at one time, but they remain distinct from one another), unlike the music playlist which is all about mixing and matching.
And listening to music is most all the time something done in conjunction with another activity -- driving, working, writing, reading. Reading, on the other hand, is usually a solitary act, in that you do it (typically) by yourself and usually focusing only on the book (or "the world of the book"). You can put music in the background while you read, but you usually don't "read in the background" to your other activities.
While I lament the loss of the "physical music" (CDs/records, because my kids aren't going to rummage through my attic and find old CDs/records, which was something I had fun doing with my parents' music -- rummaging through computer files just doesn't bring the same imagery and emotion to my mind), I still have to agree that the MP3 player has proven extremely convenient and useful, and I probably wouldn't want to go back to conventional CD player Walkmans.
So this brings the question of how can the digital medium alter and benefit books? Above all, like I said above, I'll miss the "physical" book -- there's nothing quite like displaying dozens or hundreds of books on the wall or a bookcase, because it's cultural capital and it's (more or less) a public display of your interests and hobbies. You invite someone to your house, they're going to see your library and comment on what you have. If you invite someone to your house, they aren't going to casually stumble upon your Kindle/e-reader, because that would be considered rude and snoopy. Because an e-reader is a far more private display of your library.
I'm also not sure how I feel about Digital Rights Management, the idea that the things I buy are tethered to that specific device / to my account. Consider the principle of this: you buy a book and are really touched by it, so you loan it to a family member or close friend, hoping that they too might be touched by the experiene, and so that you can share in the process of reading and understanding literature (it becomes a communal act of reading, especially if you're reading, literally, the same pages). With the DRM, however, you can't share it, short of loaning someone your $350 device, access to your credit account through Amazon, and thus cutting off your own reading medium until you get it back.
Amazon allegedly has the biggest selection of digital books available for the Kindle, but I still have to wonder if enough of what I would read is on there. I did a basic search a month or two ago for some of my favorite books and I don't believe a single one was on the list. How much would that crush my spirit to buy a $350 device and then learn that most of what I'd like to read isn't even available? I suppose it might mean that I expand my interests and read other things, but I can't help but think my spirit/motivation would be crushed.
And on the other hand, it might be fun to explore "the digital frontier," to be a part of the modern revolution. They say our generation is "the digital generation," and it's certainly true to an extent. It seems like eventually (10 years, 50 years, 1000+ years, but eventually) everything will inevitably go digital, and it's just a matter of time. So do I embrace this digitization process, identify with my culture and generation, or hold onto the conventional bastions of a system that, for hundreds of years, has worked just fine?
It's still a new medium, and if things go to plan, in 5-10 years it'll be "perfected" for maximum user efficiency, applications, and of course cost, given that the technology will become more commonplace with time and sales, and thus the price will drop and become more affordable. It's an issue of whether I want to play the market democracy ("vote with your dollar") and be a semi-active participant in this medium-shift, or wait it out and see what happens.
People have to buy these things and express interest in them in order for them to ever get better, otherwise the projects will die off. Apparently enough people are purchasing and using the Kindle to warrant the Kindle 2, but the fact that Amazon isn't releasing any of the sales information and demographics makes me a little apprehensive.
Ultimately, I'd like to use one on a 1-3 month trial basis, without having to commit the initial expenditure, to see if it really is worth it and if I'd really use it to its full extent, but unfortunately it's an "all or nothing" deal =/
And of course there's the potential fear or "What happens if Amazon pulls the service for the device?" You buy one, use it for 3 years, and then Amazon decides it's losing too much money on it, and they're going to shut services and development down until they can reassess their situation and build back up, you're essentially screwed. Also, in the event of a global nuclear war, and we're all living in fallout shelters in dystopian post-apocalyptic societies, them paper books will still be readable if they remain intact, while a Kindle will be rendered mostly useless (or at least hardly any different than a regular book).
