Carolyn Explains it All: The new face of reading

When I originally stumbled across an article in Newsweek about Amazon.com’s new device, the… When I originally stumbled across an article in Newsweek about Amazon.com’s new device, the Kindle, I was a little perturbed.

The Kindle, for $399 and your firstborn, is the iPod of books. Like the Sony Reader before it, but actually popular, it allows users to download and read any book, anywhere, any time. The Kindle also offers access to some newspapers, Wikipedia, blogs and of course, Amazon.com, on the go.

Excuse me. What’s wrong with a good old-fashioned book?

I mean, my feelings were practically hurt. I love books and everything about books, and looking at this article, I was feeling sort of defensive.

I love that shwish noise a page makes as you turn it, the oblivion you fall into in the midst of a well-told story, the satisfaction of smacking shut a back cover when you’ve reached the end. And as the old adage goes: Books are an escape.

With narrowed eyes, I viewed the Kindle as just the opposite. No shwish. No back cover to smack shut. And how far can you possibly escape when The New York Times, Amazon.com and any other book of your choice are all right at your fingertips? Could one truly be excited for Scarlett and Rhett, or terrified for poor Carrie White, when distracted by the scroll button?

Plus I always thought it was kind of cute the way that books refuse to change. I admired the stubbornness. Phones became cell phones, computers became laptops – every other form of communication grew up and became more convenient – but not books. Books just look you in the eye and they say, “This is who I am, b—-!”

Very Dave Chapelle.

Anyway, all this was brewing in the cauldron of my mind when I skimmed the headline. Then I actually read the article.

Oh, this thing actually sounds kind of cool.

Creator Jeff Bezos (who also created Amazon.com, what-a-ka-win-kee-dink) made the device as book-like as possible, which I have to appreciate. The Kindle’s width even decreases left-to-right to mimick the thickness of a book’s binding. According to the article, Bezos also went to great lengths to make the pages of these e-books look actually page-like.

I wouldn’t even have thought of that.

Bezos is not dissing the traditional book form – which I probably could have guessed, considering how the man makes his living. He’s trying to make reading as easy and accessible to as many people as possible.

No time to read? The Kindle brings the idea of reading a few pages on the bus, while waiting for a friend or between classes back into the limelight. Reading isn’t just for those rainy days curled up for long hours in an armchair, it reminds the world. Anyone can fit a little lit in his or her life.

Think reading’s too nerdy? The Kindle makes reading expensive, high-tech and interactive.

Can’t juggle both the copy of “The Future of Management” you borrowed from your boss and your secret copy of “Harry Potter?” The Kindle lets its users carry around a bunch of books, at one time, in the same amount of space. Read the New York Times on the way into work, and the last chapter of Danielle Steele’s “Johnny Angel” on the way out.

The Kindle also allows users to highlight interesting passages. Users can search within a book. One review on Amazon.com says that users can even ask the device a question and receive “three very good” answers in return.

Magic.

It’s also worth noting should such a device become the new face of reading, we’d be saving lots of paper.

That’s a lot of hip-hip-hoorays for the Kindle! But it’s important to advocate some kind of balance. With iPods, the concept of listening to actual CDs flew out the window (for most people). We can’t allow books to become obsolete too – we really need the shwish in our lives. We really need reading to be available to those who can’t afford to drop hundreds of a dollars on the device that provides it, be that inner-city school districts or nerdy poor college students.

According to the Newsweek article, the Kindle sold out in its first five and a half hours (although exactly how many it sold, Amazon.com won’t specify). The Kindle isn’t the first of its kind but the first device to truly rally the support of both techies and English majors alike. A feat in itself.

Ultimately, there’s more to praise about this gadget than I would have imagined. Like spandex, though, the Kindle is right for some – but not for everyone.

Are you buying a Kindle? Tell Carolyn at ceg36@pitt.edu.