I have to admit it — I don’t get the idea of e-books. At all. And the hype-seeking Thanksgiving release of Kindle didn’t do much to help.
A book is too much of a tactile thing, too much of an investment in time to compromise on comfort. I just don’t see myself reading anything over 10 pages this way, let alone a novel. Then there’s the cover art, the bookmarks…
I caught Amazon’s Bezos on Charlie Rose this week and I was intrigued. The thing I found interesting was the idea of the device allowing writers to return to a form of serialization (chapters could be released as they’re written, subscribed to as one would subscribe to an RSS feed). Instinctively this made sense to me… I think there is potential here, but I’m not sure exactly what it is: I wouldn’t want the first chapter published until the last was almost finished. Too much can change. But some writers may be able to pull it off.
For now, the appeal of Kindle to me lies in reading magazines, blogs and .pdfs. I would love to be able to download all of my RSS feeds onto a device and thumb through them on the road or in a coffee shop, sort of like I used to do back in the early days of AvantGo and Palm V. But do we need another device to do what a smartphone already does? Why lug around 2 devices instead of one?
I do think that Amazon’s pricing of the books is to be applauded, taking into account the greatly-reduced costs of e-publishing, in a way that Sony still hasn’t (though Kindle’s $399 pricing makes me wonder if Sony subsidized the pricing of the reader by upping the price of the books?). And you gotta love the free Whispernet. But I just can’t help but wonder how many people will take advantage…
I’m all for disruptive technologies, and I think there is definitely potential here. As an independent publisher, I’m watching the space closely, but ultimately I just don’t get it… yet.
The answer probably lies in something like a clam-shell iPhone, that opens up to give the real-estate of the Kindle. Something like that can’t be too far away. Sony already has a wafer-thin display that could easily be unrolled.
I don’t get it yet. But I’m excited to see if readers will prove me wrong.
