It is a handsome fella.
I’m almost there. I turned my nose up at the first Kindle, finding it cramped, clunky and hard on the eyes — especially when pages “turned.” But Kindle 2 is a sleek little thing (10 ounces — less than most paperbacks). It’s almost as cool looking as a 1930s cigarette case.
For $359 (not cheap), Kindle 2 seems to offer readers just about everything. You can download books in less than 60 seconds (since it works like a cell, and isn’t hunting for Wi-Fi, you can do it just about any time or anyplace). You can read your newspapers, magazines, and blogs. You can leap to a dictionary, or, should you have a sudden urge to learn about Ming Dynasty vases, or the history of outcomes assessment, you can jump to Wikipedia. (How did those of us who grew up in the olden days ever manage to read uninterrupted narratives?). You can even “make notes” and keep “marginalia” in Amazon’s own cyber-storage-land. And you can look up words in Kindle 2’s own dictionary.
The hype is that Kindle 2 is nice to the eyes. The reader can choose from a variety of gray backgrounds, adjusting them according to the ambient light of the room (or the beach). Amazon claims that Kindle 2 uses new technology that makes things look a lot more like the printed page than in the first Kindle. Like the first Kindle, it takes one click to get to a type size you like. With Kindle 2, if you want to be read to, and don’t have a companion to do it for you, Kindle 2 will be your companion.
Judging from the little video of
Kindle 2 on the Amazon site, I’d say that “page turning” part I didn’t like in Kindle 1 has been improved. Kindle 2 does some little thing or other that seems an awful lot like what happens when you unconsciously turn a page in a real book.
There’s no contract. You simply pay by the downloaded book. This part of the ad is a little unclear, since Amazon says “most” books — by which they mean new releases and books on The New York Times best seller list — will cost $9.99 to download. Um, what about others? But if this is really true — if most books will really cost only $9.99 — the bell is now tolling, loud and clear, for real books.
I started this post by saying I’m “almost” there. But I’m not there. Not yet. Trees, of course, are annoyed with me for taking this stand. I can hear them plaintively crying for me to make the switch. (They’d also like to see me, along with every other American, switch to coarser toilet paper, but that’s an issue I’m not up to addressing.)
Trees, here’s my answer. I grew up in another era. My attachment to books is visceral, and many of them spend their whole lives with me (sitting happily on shelves or resting in piles next to my bed). Not only do I not want to give them up, I want more of them to move in with me. Bring on the books!
When I’m dusting (once a year) and suddenly encounter a book I haven’t thought about in years — say, Lillian Smith’s brilliant Strange Fruit, or the inimitable Buddenbrooks, I’ll stop for a moment and pull it out, dipping into it for a minute or two. I love seeing the spines of books, standing tall, scrunched together on the shelves, making me tilt my head to read their titles. A couple of words and the brain remembers a long-ago summer, and another world.
Some people love handling books. I love that too, but I’m equally attracted to how they look. Lined up in rows, in particular, they make for handsome fellers. (That’s why Pottery Barn ads always look so great — they like pictures with books lying around.) And even if it’s true that you can’t judge a book by its cover, covers offer partial, if flawed, evidence of the quality of mind of the people who keep them in their home.
I’m not yet ready for a Kindle. Maybe I’ll never be ready. Maybe I’ll be like the monk who was used to reading scrolls who couldn’t quite manage the transition to the book.
But where the mere thought of reading an electronic book once made me nauseous, Kindle 2 makes me feel just a tiny bit uneasy. I’ve seen the future, and it’s not all bad.
(Brainstorm illustration incorporating a photo by Flickr user Osorama)
