Tuesday, July 14, 2009

To Kindle Or Not To Kindle...

I want a Kindle. I don't want a Kindle. I want a Kindle. I don't want a Kindle...

Explanation: The nice people at Amazon are really plugging their new Kindle e-book reader.And I really want one. And yet I really don't want one. I don't know if I've ever felt this strongly about a piece of technology in both positive and negative ways. Here's my breakdown of the pros and cons.

Pro:
  • It's just one device instead of hundreds of books. The Kindle makes packing for trips much easier.
  • It can store newspapers and magazines as well. You have to pay for them, but again it's one device instead of a huge pile of reading material.
  • I can store documents on there as well. As someone who hates to print stuff out, but hates having to read at my computer, this is a nice feature.
  • Free (text-based) wireless internet. This feature is just awesome, but Amazon has the right to take it away at any time.
  • I believe (but am not positive) that I could condense all of my work manuals onto the Kindle. Along with annotations, this would be quite handy.
  • Annotations! The ability to annotate as you read without worrying about a pen or notebook or messing up your book by dog-earing pages or any of that stuff is just cool. Then being able to track down those annotations quickly is a big deal for me. Obviously I don't care so much about this with the fiction I read, but it's quite nice for non-fiction.
  • For those of us who continue to have annoying double vision issues, the Kindle can make any book a large print book.
Con:
  • It's not a book. I grew up in a house with lots of actual books, and I like them. I love the idea of someday having a house with a library in it. I need books for that library, not a Kindle.
  • It's technology. I prefer media that doesn't require technology for viewing. A book is a book is a book. It'll never change and you can always read it. A Kindle needs to be charged. All of my data will be in an Amazon proprietary format. It may become obsolete. I may accidentally lose my data. These things drive me crazy.
  • It costs $300. That's a lot of money, and...
  • Most books cost $10 a pop. Saying it can hold 1,500 books is one thing. Saying it can hold $15,000 worth of books makes it sound a little different, doesn't it? Library books are free. Last time I checked, that's less than $10.
So, in conclusion, I both want and don't want a Kindle. I guess I should just go out and buy one and not buy one, huh?

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