Wednesday, December 23, 2009

the kindle


My publishing company is the proud (AKA: skeptical) owner of an Amazon Kindle. We are taking turns in the office handling the Kindle, reading books, downloading books, and studying layout formats as we prepare for our first forage into the realm of e-publishing.

It is my turn with the Kindle. I downloaded (for free) Dracula by Bram Stoker. Dracula is the novel that truly introduced the vampire to the literary world. While not the first novel to to showcase a vampire, it is inarguably the most readily identified classic in the vampire "genre." I wonder if Bram Stoker had any idea how hot this topic would be over a hundred years later.

Thoughts on the Kindle so far:

Pros:                                                                                     
-Many classic novels are free to download.
-When the Kindle is turned off, the screen displays an image (a different one each time), so it looks kind of like a book.                             
-The Kindle remembers where you left off in a book and goes straight to that page when you turn it back on.


Cons:
-It feels awkward to hold--not like a book at all--but this may be something that just takes some getting used to.
-The "pages" are small, so you need to move to the next page frequently.
-It is NOT a book!


I have no problem with the influx of e-readers becoming available, especially if it means more people are reading more books, because they find this format and process convenient and enjoyable. I, for one, will always love my real books. I like to see them on my bookshelf. I like to hold them and smell them and throw them in my oversize purse when I'm heading out the door. So long as e-publishing and e-readers and e-books do not obliterate regular books, bring on the technology.

1 comment:

  1. Fervently agree with all your statements; especially the concluding one.
    This is why we're friends.
    Much love.

    ReplyDelete