The Kindle report

Will you read it curled in bed? Will you crave a page instead?
Will you miss the booky smell? Will a screen do just as well?

With a tip of the hat to Dr. Seuss, these are all questions I've received from curious bibliophiles since purchasing the Amazon Kindle. As most of you know, the Kindle is much like an iPod for books. You download what you want from Amazon, then can read the books on a specially designed screen. The device weighs less than a pound and stores up to 1,500 texts (be they books, magazines, newspapers, etc.).

My decision to purchase a Kindle was not taken lightly, and it has changed the way I think about books. But not in a bad way. While I was making up my mind, I worried the Kindle was a souless device that takes the bookiness out of books. It is silent (no more rustling pages), odorless and plastic. What in the name of heaven will they think of next?



You may agree. Books are more than the sum of their parts, so how can reading one on a screen be the same as reading a page as Guttenberg intended?

Let me assure you that it is. You're halfway there if you already think of books as more than objects.

Even before we get philosophical, I should add that a Kindle has a lot of features that successfully mimic books. Most importantly, the screen is not back-lit. Unlike your computer screen, you can't read a Kindle in the dark. This diminshes completely the threat of headaches and swimming eyes that we all experience after too many hours in front of our trusty laptops. The words in a Kindle edition book are sharply defined, the screen is many-pixeled and the font is easy on the eyes. I have had no problem reading my Kindle far into the night, as I would with any traditional book.

Moreover, Kindles operated in the good, ol' USA have a direct, wireless link to the Kindle store on Amazon, making downloading books frightfully quick and easy. I mean 'frightfully' in the literal sense. It is scary how easy it is to spend money on books. (Kindle editions cost @ $10 a pop.) This has always been an issue for me, but I was previously limited by transportation, bookstore opening hours, book availability and other now-obsolete book-buying concerns.

But back to the big ideas: if you love books as objects then the Kindle is not for you. On a Kindle, all books look like a sleek, white plastic-and-metal device with a Mac-influenced aesthetic and a cute, round-buttoned keyboard. If you delight in filling your bookshelves with distinctive colors, varying widths and eye-catching bindings, then stop reading now.

However, if a book is what transports you to an alternate universe or state of being wherein the text acts as a guide and bridge, then there might be something to this Kindle thing. If, like me, you love books, but don't quite know what to do with them after you've finished; if your bookshelves are full to overflowing; if you don't have infinite space to expand your library or if you travel a lot, read quickly and/or move more than once every 10 years then you might want to acknowledge that, no, in fact, you don't really love books as objects. You love books as text, as story, as knowledge, as imagination. In short, you love reading.

And you can read perfectly well on a Kindle.

Owning a Kindle has given me greater insight into what I loved so much about books in the first place and what I can continue to love, all the while removing stacks of stuff from my life and saving time, money and paper, not to mention the lugging, moving and shipping I will not have to do. It's one of the best purchases I've ever made, and an excellent use of technology we use every day. I highly recommend it to all you readers out there.

I will read it curled in bed! It was never about the page instead!
I do not miss the booky smell! In fact, a screen does just as well!