As many of you undoubtedly know, Amazon released its new Kindle ebook reader this holiday season. It holds over 200 titles and can access Amazon’s online bookstore wirelessly, which boasts over 90,000 titles for instant downloading. The Kindle isn’t the first ebook reader and it won’t be the last, but it is evolutionary in many ways.
I love books in their printed form, and have always been somewhat of a bibliophile. Ever since I learned to read I have surrounded myself with books and can happily lose hours on end in any bookstore or library. Many who share my fondness for the traditional book can’t see a future where digital books are the primary format. I’ve heard all the objections: “I like to hold a book,” “I like bringing it with me,” “I don’t want to read a book on a computer screen,” “I like flipping the pages; I the feel of paper,” “I write in my books,” “I like the smell of books”.
While I can’t say I disagree with any of these statements, I also cherished my album collection: flipping through a stack of albums, spreading them out on the floor, looking at the various art on the jackets, pondering which one to put in the stereo next… these were all part of the experience. Yet, I changed with times (albeit slowly), and through the various technologies as well. Last year I finally threw out all my CD cases (clutter!) and decided that I would no longer buy CD’s. Digital music was the way to go: it’s easy (no trips to the store), more portable, it doesn’t break or scratch or get lost or worn, and it doesn’t clutter up my entertainment center. I am since very pleased with both my decision and my increasing digital music collection.
It is inevitable that the older formats we know and love will eventually take a backseat, and books, like our songs and albums, will be easily accessed, shared, and carried in our pockets. Along with these changes, multimedia such as images and video are more and more becoming part of our texts, and as our ability to create, distribute and share texts keeps expanding, authorship is transforming along with it. What will become of the printed book as digital innovation moves forward? The Institute for The Future of The Book, a think tank devoted to investigating the book’s future in a networked digital world, explores these issues and more. Head on over and check out their mission statement, projects, and blog.
In the meantime, am I ready to make the jump from the printed book to the digital one? Are you? What about the Kindle? There are a couple of things I find very appealing about it, and some things I don’t. One of the things I would have to know first is that any book I downloaded could be read and accessed on any future ebook reader and on my computer, too. I don’t want to be locked into any DRM with my ebook purchases and only be able to access them on the Kindle. Like my music, I want access to my printed content in many places. Though I still need to research that further, I’ll explore and the good, the bad, and the should-haves regarding the Kindle.
What I Like:
- Being able to have over 200 books in my pocket (well, sort of, if I had a pocket as big as the Kindle).
- Bookmarking and annotations. I can bookmark pages and annotate the margins with the built-in keyboard – very useful.
- Free wireless access to over 250 blogs and online newspapers, and free wireless access to Amazon’s online bookstore (no fees or subscriptions).
- The wireless technology in the Kindle is cellular high speed data, so no need to look for a wifi connection or hot spot (and again, free).
- 90,000 titles in the Amazon bookstore.
- Adjustable text size. I can enlarge the font by over 6 times when my eyes get tired.
- Free sample chapters before I buy the whole book – very cool.
- Long battery life: “Read War & Peace on a single charge”.
- Free back ups. Amazon keeps a copy of everything a customer buys for free future downloads, so if I leave the Kindle on the train and shell out the money for a new one, I can retrieve my library.
What I Don’t Like:
- Only being able to have 200 books on it at a time.
- It costs $399.
- It’s a bigger than I’d like it to be.
- I’m in favor of carrying less and doing everything on one device, if possible.
Below is what the Kindle should have, and listed are the things that would put it on my shopping list:
- First, let me have my whole library on it. I mean, that’s what made the iPod so revolutionary: the first model let you hold 1,000 songs in your pocket. Now I think it holds 40,000 songs. 200 books is not enough to be revolutionary and is a small fraction of my library.
- Let me scan the UPC codes of the books I own and put them in there for free, like I can put a CD I already own on my iPod for free. I don’t want to buy the same book twice. If Amazon allowed this, I’d be enticed to go on another clutter-free cleaning binge and sell 90% of my books. I’d have a whole lot more wall space and a lot less dusting to do!
- Search. This is key. I like the annotations feature, but let me search my books and my annotations, too. This is the next obvious step, would put it over the top for me. It can search Amazon’s bookstore, but if it could search my own library and notes, I might buy one tomorrow.
- Give me more wireless access and capabilities that work in a user-friendly manner. The Kindle has the wireless technology built in to do this; whether or not Amazon is heading there with future versions is unknown.
- Redesign? This isn’t a deal-breaker for me, but you’ve got to admit that the Kindle is lacking in the stylish category.
Are you ready for ebooks? What features should an ebook reader have? What do you think about the future of the book? Feel free to sound off in the comments.
It seems that digital copies of books are just the relief students’ need. By eliminating the bookstore and purchasing directly from the publisher, students will save time avoiding the crowded bookstores as well as reducing their expenses on books. This is great news for publishers should they decide to embrace this technology. According to halfvalue.com, about 20% of the cost of the book goes towards printing costs and another 5% goes to shipping and distribution costs. College bookstores earn about 20-25% profit on textbooks it sells. If they were to sell digital copies they could eliminate these expenses, lower their material cost, eliminate the bookstore, and pass some savings along to the consumer. This new technology seems like a win/win situation for both the publishing company and for the student. If students had the ability to search for a specific keyword or phrase in their textbooks, it would save hours of flipping through a paper book to find whatever it is they were looking for. Keeping all of their books in one device would eliminate carrying bagfuls of books between classes. This could also have a positive impact on the environment. When a publisher releases a new edition of a text book and students can no longer sell their old copy back, chances are it is going to end up in the trash. With a digital copy there’s nothing to throw away. This technology has enormous potential to change the industry. Let’s hope that publishers embrace this technology so we can move closer to the day where we can have everything we need in one device and the media which we consume is provided at a lower cost.