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Kindle or Swindle? Another Reinvention of the Safety Pin?
Dec 7th, 2007 | 25 responses
“Kindle” is the name Jeff Bezos, of Amazon Empire on Planet Buyme, named an electronic reading device that he hopes will make paper books, well, less papery. Save trees. Have a closed purchase system with Amazon only, with Amazon storing all scans of the book, as well as all customer buying habits, and customer comments that the Kindle allows a reader to ‘write’ in the margins of the electronic book. And more.
Jorge Luis Borges wrote, “I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library.”
Me too. Maybe you too? Growing up in a house without books, even though I’d had back then what was called ‘a reading and writing problem’ (maybe you did too?) made me long to have a book, any book.
Do you know what I mean? So many books, once you opened them, you were almost exactly like the child in The Neverending Story by Michael Ende.
In that story, a mob of creepy kids were chasing a young boy through the dusk rain. The child ducks into an antiquarian bookstore. There in the dark, a grumpy old bookseller reads a book under a single golden light. The old man tells the child that the book he is reading, ‘is not safe.’
When the old bookseller rises to answer the telephone, the child touches the book the old man was reading. The child is so suddenly filled with SOMETHING, he can barely stand it… longing, yearning, hope, joy.
Without thinking, the child steals/borrows the book. He has to have it. He runs out of the shop and climbs to an attic where he begins to read this magical sheaf of pages.
The book he has stolen from the old bookseller, opens literally into an entirely different and magical world where he himself is irrevocably poured, body, mind and spirit, a world wherein there is a NOTHING that is devouring the land and people and creatures
and in this land are also important thoughts to be thought,
important things and beings to realize and rescue,
important oddities to understand,
important griefs and losses,
important because they all reach way past the ego
and into the soul.
Important because they tear away the security of a child’s rote learnings, and replace those thin gruels with the mythic and the nourishing … the proportions of which are real and able to be translated into pragmatics and heroics in everyday life in reality… one of the greatest troths between reader and compelling story… the awakening of, the teaching of a greater mind that stands beyond ‘the little monkey ego mind’ alone.
The Kindle, a reading device touted on Amazon as a way to read many books at once that are downloaded into it electronically, wirelessly –and whatever you write into the tablet will be safely stored on Amazon’s server– well the little machine sort of looks like a slab of palest blue-gray cheese, but an interesting plastic in its own way, for some kinds of reading, I would imagine.
A $400 plastic thing, I don’t know. I mean, a computer is expensive and looks like and acts like a magical castle of wonders, complete with gremlins and trolls. But, the Kindle? I’ve thrown a few books at the wall in all my life. (They did not turn into princes, they remained utterly toadly.) But, if it’d been a book on a Kindle I was throwing, that’d be $400 down the toidy.
The Kindle weighs nearly a pound and would also quite damage the plaster. Crash, shatter, tinkle. I think there must be some distinct advantages to paper. For the reader. For the book. Certainly, for the wall.
Well, for those who might buy or bypass the Kindle, it might be important to note that Amazon until two days ago, was also selling uranium…
Then Amazon pulled the plug on uranium and this message was posted on many blogs about that matter: “Amazon’s halted sales of uranium through its website but John Iovine from Images Scientific Instruments says, “For anyone who wishes to purchase the uranium ore, it is perfectly legal and license exempt, they can purchase this uranium ore sample or a number of license-exempt radioactive isotopes directly through our website.”
I don’t think we should mention this to Mahmoud.
But, as per the Kindle, I’d say if Steve Jobs feels like it, he will have a better one, faster one, more magical one in the prototype stage by tonight… one that will in its own way be elegant, and perhaps expensive, but it’ll also include a broadcast quality film camera, a laser keyboard that opens to full size on any surface, including in thin air. All we’ll need to provide… is the attic.
_____________________
Read other bloggers’ short humorous takes on Kindle:
Mother May I Sleep with Treacher? Frequently Asked Questions About the new Amazon Kindle (humor)
from Three Percent via Cracked: Sarcastic Humor vs. Technology
and an interesting blog post at Silicon Alley Insider by Kafka on “blogs for sale,” Bezos made available to Kindle readers last week, access to over 300 blogs on his device for .99 to 1.99 per blog per month. I know.
and this one at Critical Noise, that is interesting about adapting Kindle in ‘concept only’ for distribution (there’s Bezos closed system idea again) in/by the music industry.
25 Responses to “Kindle or Swindle? Another Reinvention of the Safety Pin?”
I have to say, I’ve never been a fan of the whole “electronic book” thing. I’ve always loved reading, and there’s something to be said for the experience of hefting a thick book, cracking open a new spine, feeling the heaviness in your hands – first the right side, then, as you read more and more of the book, the left. Those are all things that, to me, enhance the experience of reading a book. Perhaps I’m old fashioned, but I don’t think so. I’m all of 35 years old, and I embrace other electronic devices – cell phone, blackberry, iPod, etc. But this is one that I just don’t see as a fit for me.
Plus, I just don’t like the fact that I don’t truly “own” the book that I would be reading on a Kindle. That I couldn’t loan the book to a friend. That I couldn’t, if I so chose, sell the book to a used-book store. Maybe those things are all illegal now anyway, considering how the balance of copyright law has shifted dramatically toward “lock all content down, the consumer can’t be trusted”.
Viscerally, the Kindle is ugly, IMHO.
I’m not going to be buying an e-book reader anytime soon. My first word, evidently, was book hahaha.
You can buy a tank on Amazon too.
dear jweidner: You’re on to something very subtle that is occuring in publishing; efforts to ‘seal’ electronic content to the control of, not the author, but to the carrier of it.
Most authors who signed contracts pre-1992 before Random House and other large publishing conglomerates were set on fire about the new “electronic reader’ showcased at the Book Expo around that time, those authors did not sign away electronic rights. Because, publishers considered them useless. But, guess who is approaching those authors who still hold electronic rights to their works now? Not, the big traditional publishing conglomerates.
HOWEVER, after around 1992, contract lawyers for publishers insisted that authors give up all electronic rights in order to make the print deal, (without any plan whatsoever for how/where they would be used). And also in such a dishonest grab, it was almost laughable had it not been so serious… some publishers’ contracts demanded ” …and all rights not yet invented”
There are two major authors’ groups who have lawyers on staff and at their heads, and other fierce souls who defend authors against incursions…sometimes successfully, sometimes losing to the ‘big guys.’ One is Author’s GUild, the other National Writer’s Union. Both keep pushing back against the big guys using author content unpaid, sometimes uncited, and often underpaid, etc.
You picked up on one of the most nefarious currents in “one carrier only control’ of content by many authors… you as reader, can no longer carry, move, share, show ‘the book’ in the ways you once did; not without paying the carrier. Again. And again.
I think the other magical objects you use, your cell, blackberry, iPod, carry more what I call ‘jing” than an electric or electronic reader machine. In part, the former are truly stylin’ and also, as you’ve probably read recently, the old style business model of trying to force a cell phone buyer into a long contract with one carrier only, is over. Free market, it wasn’t.
Many like you, find tactile experience in books. Though it might at surface, sound only sentimental, it isn’t. Touch is one of our ways of anchoring memory. Liking what we touch…and smell and taste ….and the hearing, seeing and sensing we register… these have their own inner associations and their own effects on us emotionally and thought-wise.
There’s a reason people love to stroke the fur of a creature, but do not love to touch rusty dry acrylic fur. There’s a reason people like to hear a car door slam with a thud instead of a high tinny sound.
There appear to be innate sounds and touches that people associate with ‘quality’ or ‘comfort’ or ‘satisfaction.’
A cell phone vs an old rotary black dial up wouldnt fit the same comparisons, except for the mellifluousness or crabbiness of the voices flowing through them… the fidelity of those voices
Books are another form altogether. Frankly, an ancient form that every people across the world have ‘invented’ to be able to carry from one place to another, whatever they deemed useful and/or beautiful or important
You made me laugh happily when you mentioned perhaps being old fasioned at all of 35. Knowing that seeming paradox may be one of the clearest signs that you are a mensch.
dr.e
dear jilly
thee and my youngest grandson: babies saying ‘book’… the old peple would say, not all first words of babies, but some of them that seem outside the usual mama and dada, ignite the child’s place on earth. Seeing your heartfelt and well tended blog, I cant imagine a better first word for you.
dr.e
My family is not bookish, and my parents thought I read too much, but mom was pretty lenient; I was limited to 14 books per library visit…one per day. Of course, my uncle slipped me paperbacks all the time, so I didn’t run out of things to read most of the time.
I too like books as sensual objects in and of themselves, and I have thousands in the house. I will observe the superiority of this old technology–once printed, all you need is your eyes and hands to operate it. No batteries, no power cord, no internet connection, no infrastructure necessary, once it is in your possession. This is why I also keep all the 14 or 15 manual typewriters I own in working order–when the grid fails and civilization falls, I can still type until I run out of paper and typewriter ribbons.
Old, out of print books also contain information not found on the WWWdot-o-sphere. Fellow bloggers often ask me where I got a particular datum, because they can’t google it up. I proudly reply, “In an old book. From my library.”
Whoa. That didn’t sink in at first. PAY to download blogs!!!??? Does the blogger get a cut?
From what I’ve read, and from a few folk I know, Kindle is not even as good as other readers. In 50 years, books as we know it will be a thing of the past. But, they will be replaced by cyber paper- paper that literally is computerized. It will look and smell like a book, except you can plug in whatever title you want. It’s already in the works.
Dear Dr. Omed; I love that. “Fellow bloggers often ask me where I got a particular datum, because they can’t google it up. I proudly reply, “In an old book. From my library.”
Me too. I’ve had a few commenters challenge my words/quotes because they cant find them on the internet. They come often from the library ‘discards’ of ethnological books from the 1800s. Or from my own old country familiy. I am just laughing and shaking my head. It’s a funny world in some ways.
You read it right, PAY to download blogs to the contraption, no offense to the contraption meant.
I believe the blogs have entered into agreements with Amazon to receive a few pennies per…. but …
well, you and I and others who grew up in a certain kind of low down dirt, know that witchy-oil salesman will try to sell you back the air you just exhaled.
The ultra catch, is that Amazon captures all the subscibers to the blogs… As it stands now, our commenters who create a account at a blog owned by a private person, well, their data is kept private re their IP’s, email addies, etc, seen only by us who administrate the blogs.
See my point? Remember the Cherokee Strip? Course you do, you were the one who told me about it 20 years ago. I hope in one of these posts, where it fits, you’ll reiterate, or/and over at your blog at Salon.
dr.e
There are big efforts under way to capture all the ‘old books’ and make them googlable, so you can expect the esoterica in your library to become exoterica.
I am an enthusiast for the possibilities inherent in ‘reading machines’ that put all knowledge in your hand anytime but the thought of one company mediating that makes me a little queasy.
There are many ‘open knowlege’ efforts on the web; project Gutenberg, the open content alliance, creative commons, archive.org – and probably many others.
On the hand held reading machine front you should take a look at http://www.booksinmyphone.com they provide free PD books you can read on your cell phone. I read a lot of novels from this source while I wait for the perfect ‘open’ eReader.
thanks dear avagee, and also thanks for reminding about Project Gutenberg… which are all public domain books, and
all for free (although PGuterberg does need and desire donations) …. many of which now, Amazon is offering for 3.99 to 9.99 per book.
I think eventually, ALL old books and also ALL out of copyright art images that are currently held away from regular
folks ….when museums that house them put their own image copyright on them…will be Googleized. I believe Google’s mission is to scan every book/ phamplet/page in every language, and every image, including Art, NASA and other images, worldwide.
What I am most waiting for is not another device to read with, but the abilty to enter an image on Google that I already have in a file, and that Google will match it to exact data about the image’s creator, etc. Many many of the public domain images have no artist or name attached to them as they whiz through the sphere.
I imagine the day will come. Though some focus on scanning and mechanics of dellivery, I and most others who try to mine, are interested not in increased ability to do the ‘same thing in a different way,’ but how to extend ability to learn and know by unearthing unknowns… and then preserving them in some way.
We now have ‘books on demand,’ I own several, and for their content, they’re valuable. But, they are also printed as generic food used to be packaged long ago, rather cardboardy and undistinguished. I suppose you could download an image and plaster it over the paperback cover…. but liked it better when the whole book comes as a piece of art often, rather than just the filling.
dear cosmoetica; ‘look like and smell like paper books’… I hope not the musty/ moldy ones. lol Man, when you handle old books alot, there are so many ‘sick’ books that literally have to be put outdoors to keep from spewing spores all over the place indoors.
We have several methods of ‘healing’ such ill books, some of them pretty funny the lengths we’ll go to to try to ‘save’ a book that at this point is not scanned or availible elsewhere. The preservation of ancient and old books, special editions and short runs and privately printed books (most often in libraries that regularly toss them as they have no air-controlled place nor money to keep them and the old old books just keep deteriorating, literally when I do library research, some fall apart in my hands, crumbs of dust and broken off page parts everywhere) will be the rich blessing that Google places on the literate world. Just my .02
dr.e
I know: Forget it! I’ve read all my life, have 60 boxes of books at home in addition to what’s out in the open for me to handle, bought bed covers for the two trucks I’ve owned to protect the contents, which often are books…why would I want to overspend on a trendy-named, over-monopoly-priced gimmick?
Consider the contrast, Kindle versus a trip to a used book store (which is a trip to a gold mine).
Powell’s, Strand, and innumerable other book stores, yes; Kindle, no, thanks.
* * *
Dear Jilly: Is it possible to buy an atomic bomb (fission bomb) or a thermonuclear bomb (fusion bomb, with or without uranium jacket or sleeve to raise the yield) on Amazon? If so, would you be so kind as to pre-purchase one or more for me and send it or them to me? (While I have many supporters in America and elsewhere in the West, others aren’t so helpful and in fact are trying to hinder my ability to have one or more such bombs. This precludes your leaving the bomb or bombs for me or one of my associates to take back to Iran, at the United Nations in New York City.) If you are able to purchase either kind of bomb, please send it to the following address, and I shall reward as well as thank you afterward.
Best Regards,
Mahmoud Ahmedinejad
President
Islamic Republic of Iran
Tehran
Iran
dear DLS, you are completely one of the funnier
minds of the universe.
I loved this line of yours: “Consider the contrast, Kindle versus a trip to a used book store (which is a trip to a gold mine).”
in’t that the sweetest truth… a trip to a gold mine. Is it ever.
dr.e
I’m not a shopper. Women shop; men know already what they want, they go there, get it, then leave [tm]. No dawdling, no looking around for hours…
… unless (one of a universe of exceptions, and in my case) I’m in a bookstore, particularly a used book store.
The shopping trips themselves are fond memories. There was the time I rode my Vespa down from Seattle to Portland to visit my brother, and on the way back, went into Powell’s and got Albro Martin’s book on railroads and regulation, not “Railroads Triumphant” but the earlier, hard-to-find “Enterprise Denied.” I got it, put it in the Vespa’s cargo box, and rode home triumphantly.
Gold!
What is Kindle (or something like it) good for? Well, while I would never buy any of my fiction on it the idea of saving trees by having my newspaper or magazines that are destined for the trash can in the near future in any case “delivered” to a similar device is appealing. So is having the various computer and programming reference books I use that are heavy enough to do serious damage if dropped on a foot converted into hyperlinked text on a small device with a screen more readable than a computer monitor or PDA screen. I could readily foresee a subscription model for books that, like those technical references, are full of content that should be updated often. Kindle uses the same e-Ink technology that the Sony Reader does, which is much more readable than any other technology but can’t be backlit. This leads to the greatest weakness of both systems, that they don’t come with a lighting system of some kind built in to them.
I love books, too. Believe me. But some books are on my shelves for more pragmatic reasons than the signed Heinlein first editions or the somewhat battered first edition of The Sword in the Stone.
It’s something to be seen holding while riding a Segway.
Why then, I must be a man because I hate to shop!
wow, a signed Heinlein, dear Jim Satterfield, very cool. I agree too that it might be nice to have reference books in a lightweight version; some of my research volumes I think are at least ten pounds. Serious, especially the OEDs. Actually, it was Dr. Omed who pointed out to me around 1985 (a time when I first joined up Prodigy with my trusty Mac Zero and then Mac Plus) that online dictionaries were great in one way, but we’d lose the ‘discovery’ of words that we’d gotten by riffling around bef=fore and after the word we’d gone to look up in the hard edition.
I dont know… I keep thinking there’s a good possibility of something other than paper to print on, something that weighs very light, has good opacity for ink on both sides. A ten pound book that weighs, say, 5 ozs. There are thin//light paper weights, but blocking out ‘bleed through,’ amongst other things, has been a prob.
dear DLS, exactly right. Segway. And maybe while juggling beanie babies. No offense to anyone with bbs.
dear Holly, most women–and men–I know who are so busy back to back 7 days a week, they dont have time to shop, or if they do, they do it just to relax and do something mindless foir a bit. But, I know what you mean. I imagine that’s a topic all of its own. I know many men who love, like Jim and DLS and others here, to shop. But, it’s got to be kind of like a treasure hunt. Same with women, except, I think they are often willing to roam farther from the cave in order to gather. In that sense DLS is accurate psycologically, a lot of people /males often… like to target their treasure locations, rather than browse
locations like some others tend to do.
I just want to mention how it makes me sit here and smile warmly to read comments from people who love books, who have ‘the language’ of love … that goes with truly knowing books as mentor, mother, teacher, helper, delight, consort, weird friend, and all else.
Heinlein. No kidding. He has this one quote about loving a woman, that I love in return. Man.
dr.e
Did you see the trademark after the statement?
That’s true about (real) Americans [tm], too.
* * *
DLS is accurate psycologically, a lot of people /males often… like to target their treasure locations
“Demonic Males” — what’s the smallest unit in the military, in the infantry, or a few aircraft conducting any kind of aggressive operations (stellar example, albeit “cheating” somewhat — the attack [I won't use the R word, that's overkill] on Osiraq), or a sports team? It’s a raiding party! It’s an attack on the other tribe’s village! Co-operation in group activities (or going to the store under ordinary, not sought-pleasure, circumstances) is meant to accomplish a specific objective, not because you enjoy it necessarily.
(Yes, Holly, women like sports, too — my older goddaughter developed into a typical blonde 6-foot beach kid that also loved basketball and volleyball — and can be quite competitive, and may cooperate or visit stores not for fun but to accomplish an objective, too.)
Maybe Ahmedinnerjacket and Associates would like to purchase some property here in the States once it is built. I don’t believe he could get it on Amazon or on E-Bay.
Urenco “NEF”
I mercifully yield the floor.
Clarissa,
I’ve been collecting for years and attending science fiction conventions for decades. I have 10 Heinlein firsts and 4 are signed, two of them when I met him in 1976. There are more than a few others like that from other writers I’ve been fortunate enough to meet in all that time and in some cases I can say they’re my friends. That’s what attending science fiction conventions is about for most people as opposed to some of the media events that the Star Trek conventions have become.
I like sports too (but not as much as my brother does). See my earlier post:
http://themoderatevoice.com/media/16389/i-dont-know-chris-id-rather-see-you-get-an-award/
Dear Jim Satterfield, Gosh that is great. You are so lucky. I’ve always wanted to go to a science-fiction convention (other than, you know, our usual lives…lol) and have never been able to force the issue.
I’m a deep introvert cave-dweller except for activism. The kind of shy I cant talk myself out of when I go to places where I know no one. You know those ones who go late, leave early because they dont know social stuff? That. lol. Next time you go, let me know if you and your familiy needs someone to carry their books for them: I’m your person. If you do all the social talking. (but if a kindle, no need to ‘carry’ anything, I guess.)
dr.e
I beg to differ:
1. The copyright issues do bother me. I do miss all the perks of “owning” a paper book. I also worry about losing my PDA and losing all my books in one swipe. When my computer crashed, but I could not re-download my book because Amazon had discontinued that service, I was furious. But, I was in the middle of a class and had no choice but to buy “my book” again. This is a serious issue, and, to my mind, the one we should really focus on.
However,
2. I live in the ROK but I still like to read American stuff. If I want to buy a western paper book, I either could wait and hope the volume becomes popular and pay a slightly higher price, or I can pay more for shipping fees than the tome costs and wait months. With my PDA (I doubt I’ll buy a Kindle, especially after reading this post), I can both pay less and download in minutes.
3. There are actually some fonts and types of paper which are hard to read, but my PDA stays the same.
4. I can read in any lighting, and even without it.
5. I’ve yet to find a reference for bibliographies and footnotes using e-books.
6. My PDA now also has a tangible “touch”, and I’m used to the screens (and the inflated counts).
7. My PDA is smaller than any book. It also is lighter, something important for someone who moves frequently. Books take up space, and they really do deserve pampering. The right humidity and temperature, as well as lighting and cleaning, is necessary.
You know dear Bal(t)moron, those are some good points and well ordered, and I was thinking as I was reading your comments, about a couple things…
I was looking last week at a copy of Tillie Olsen’s Silences, and the type I swear was 10 point, and the leading miniscule. I don’t know what the publishers were thinking. I understand that on the kindle, one can make the type face any point size. That would be very cool, esp for one of my editions of the OED… ‘the condensed version’ has maybe 7pt type and the books–there’s two to the set—-and when I bought it a thousand years ago, it literally came with a big black rectangular magnifying glass. lol
Your comment about how precious the PDA becomes —made me think of PDAs/laptops etc., that though made of plastic and metal ….because of what they carry ‘in’ them… can become what in psych., we’d call a ‘self object’ … something that is not only of literal, but also intrinsic value… and thus we protect them, and would feel less intellectually and psychologically, as well, without them were they suddenly lost for instance.
I was reminded of a string of Starbucks/ bookstore coffee shops heists where the theif just walked up to pp working on their lap tops and drinking cofffe, showed them a gun, scooped up their cpus and fled. One of the guys whose computer was stolen was quoted as saying the thief ‘murdered me’….
I can see that you care about books (you know they require care) AND your PDA. I think as more big guys (or brilliant entrepreneurial little guys) get into the industry of transmitting papers, treatises, books, images by download for a price …so a reader is free to download from anywhere without being tailed by the seller at every turn… and as the hardware becomes not only more competent, but also more designy… well, as some of us were saying earlier, I think it will be great for some things that now are cumbersome… and… sometimes far away in miles. Like some documents I would love to see at Oxford, but the plane ticket alone from USA to UK, well, that’s a really really expensive ‘booking.” Ok, I couldnt resist that.
Welcome, and I hope you will read The Moderate Voice often.
dr.e
When I looked at the Kindle… I thought “And when I drop this in a puddle of water — there goes my library!”
I don’t collect many books because I have to travel light in this world. But I have two very special books that I am particularly attached to.
They are handbound in leather, with hand-marbled endpapers and they have gilt edges and gold imprinted titles. And the author herself has inscribed loving messages within each of them in a flowing hand. I believe by having these two special books in my home its vibration is changed for the better. They are good medicine, borne of blood, sweat and tears — written by someone of my own tribe.
The plastic Kindle in all its sanitized “splendor” cannot possibly compete.