Thumbs down to the Kindle

I just don't see my fingers itching to switch on my iPhone the way they do to crack open a good book. Something satisfying about the shuffle of pages and the lovely "thump" when you close a book after a good read.

Although there is much to be said for a machine that allows you to read in bed without disturbing a non-reading spouse.

The true killer app for e-books will be combining high-resolution color screens with good interfaces, wireless downloads (like the Kindle), and periodicals. I subscribe to about a dozen magazines. They fill up my mailbox and it's a lot of paper going into the garbage each month. Most of them are very graphic and photography intensive and just wouldn't look as good in grayscale on a Kindle. The iPhone/iPod Touch screens are too small for them too. A large screen color device that automatically downloaded my magazines via a wireless connection would be great. It's coming sooner or later.

I've been following Apple closely the last few months. I think they will be announcing the device you are interested in a month or so, and it should be available in October or November. If it doesnt't come out then it will probably be announced in January, based on all the evidence, but I really think it will be out be fore the holidays. Only it will do a lot more than eBook reading. It will serve a a 'media pad' or small tablet a little larger than a DVD case (ad about 1" diagonally) for watching movies on the go, on airplanes, etc...It will of course be expensive, but should be an amazing product. It is supposed to have a 10" touchscreen. I look forward to having a device suitable for eBook reading.

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I don't read books; I devour them. I break their spines and absorb their spirits. I remember where a passage I want to quote later is by *where* it is: top, middle or bottom, left page or right, front, middle, or back of the book. I carelessly leave fingerprints on the pages on occasion. I shudder at the thought of reading "The Moonstone" on a flat lifeless screen; to make the acquaintance of Miss Clack or Godfrey Ablewhite in such a clinical surrounding would be like listening to Bach played by a kazoo orchestra--amusing for the novelty for about five minutes, and then just...wrong.

Newspapers and magazines, on the other had, wouldn't suffer at all in such a format, so I agree with Rich and jen a. that publishers of either might consider exploring that option.

Luddites all!

I've been a Kindle owner from the start and the claim that it is hard to read is simply not true. It is no more hard to read than a paperback novel is.

I like how you can adjust the type size to your eyes' comfort level.

Does the Kindle replace books? Of course not, but being able to carry a suitcase full of books, on one slim reading device, is a true benefit and luxury.

I fear on this one the Crunchy Conservative is simply coming off as a Luddite!

: )

PTM

There's a lot of stuff I prefer to read electronically, especially research. On the computer, in Adobe, I can underline and make notes, which I do extensively. And with electronic books, I can do word searches to find a passage I only dimly recall. So far you can't do any of that on the Kindle. I'm sure all this is coming, but for me the whole thing is not quite ready for prime time.

easier to read for long periods of time than a computer screen

Faint praise indeed.

Oh and John,
The kindle 2 allows you to underline, bookmark, make notations, and perform words searches to find the passages you love, or need for that paper ASAP.

One more point:

The situation with the books 1984 and animal farm was much like someone pawning stolen property at a pawn shop. The police take it back, and everyone was refunded their money.

No it wasn't. If we follow your analogy, Zoetius, then the pawn shop would have broken into their house, reclaimed the stolen property, left a check on the dresser and left.

If you're comfortable with pawn shop owners breaking into your home whenever they inadvertently sell you stolen goods, you might as well just remove the locks from your door.

If we were to follow the analogy correctly, then the pawn shop (Amazon in this case) would have called the buyer and asked them to return the stolen goods. And if the purchaser didn't, a legitimate authority (like, say, a judge) could have ordered the stolen property returned.

Amazon (or any other corporation or individual for that matter) has no right to go around stealing back goods once they have left the premises. You're taking us back to the days before there was a criminal law if you think that's legitimate.

The point is not to deny the rights holders proper payment for the books. It's to prevent Amazon from having the power of "life and death" over our personal libraries.

It doesn't have to be an either-or situation, You can read your book on the Kindle, close it, then recommence reading on Kindle for iPhone, at the same page you left it.

However, what will restrict the e-book from catching on is the strange idea that only Americans read. Try buying a Kindle from outside the USA and Amazon will tell you NO. Yes, I know the always-on connection won't work. I'll just load my own e-books from the USB port. There are tons of FREE, legal ebooks out there. A bit old, perhaps, but compare the 1930 best-seller list with today's and ask which ones will still be relevant a century from now. So I don't need your store, Amazon, just get me the hardware.

Also, ebooks are grossly overpriced at the moment. An ebook is a file lying on Amazon's server. It takes up about one cent of server hard drive. Whether it sells one copy or ten million, it still takes up about one cent of hard drive space. The overhead does not scale with the sales. The bandwidth used to download it is increased, but that is being paid for by the customers anyway!

Physical books are different. Printing more of them drives unit costs down. Against that, warehousing ten million books and distributing them to retail outlets costs real money. So on what basis does Amazon think that they can charge an arbitrary x per cent of the printed book price for an ebook when it has no real costs to contend with? Make like iTunes and charge a uniform 99c per ebook, and see the ebook market take off. Finally.

And to all those enthusing over the feel and the smell of a book - do you own a car? Or are you totally into the sound of the whip cracking as you ride your horse and buggy over the Interstate? The rustle of the wooden, iron-hooped wheels, the smells coming out of the horse's ... well, you get the idea.

@observer:
1. It costs $300.

If you own a lot of paper books, you've probably spent more than that on bookshelves, nightlights

2. It's hard to read.

Sorry, but that just doesn't compute. I've read the Lord of the Rings on a Nokia 9300. It's a question of getting used to it.

3. Amazon can and will remove books I've paid for for any reason or for no reason, without warning.

True. So boycott the store and get your reading matter from Project Gutenberg. Or get a Sony Reader instead. Amazon can't touch that one.

4. If I drop it it's toast and I'm out $300.
5. If I leave it on the train I'm out $300, unlike a paperback.

Insurance?

6. It needs batteries, and very often I'm off where there are no batteries and no power source. For WEEKS at a time.

Get a solar charger. Actually, devices like Kindle and Sony Reader ONLY use power when you actually turn a page. When you are not reading, the batteries last for months. Far longer than an iPhone.

@Rich: You can do that now. Just get yourself a little netbook and load up a free program called calibre (http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/).

It's hard to read.

Sorry, but that just doesn't compute. I've read the Lord of the Rings on a Nokia 9300. It's a question of getting used to it.

Now, just like that, I know your age. You're under 50, probably under 45.

Just wait a few years, and you'll catch onto at least this part of what I'm saying. My opthamologist says the only way to avoid losing your close-up vision as you get older is to die young.

To comment in a different direction: what a delight Nicholson Baker's prose is. I certainly don't like everything he's written, but, man alive, can he write. His essay "Leading with the Grumper," in The Size of Thoughts, is one of the funniest things I've ever read. The matrix for building your own compound obscenities near the end of it had me rolling on the floor.