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LA is a gadget kind of town. We’re also, it seems, swiftly becoming quite the literary town. And so, as the year draws nigh and you scramble around the city trying to score the latest whatever for your loved ones this holiday season, it would be wrong of us to ignore Kindle.
Amazon’s Kindle has been out for a month now. Many in the book world deemed it a failure from the outset. Many booklovers who like to touch, hold and smell the real deal have no desire to touch the fake, plastic, watering-can-of-a-book anytime soon.
The techies, who would normally adopt something like this straight away, have raised concerns about the $400 price, Amazon’s proprietary platform, the clunkiness of the interface and the fact that, well, it’s not as pretty as the iPod.
Those directly involved in the book industry – writers, publishers, printers, book cover designers – are all calling it evil because they’re worried it will put them out of work. Anyone who thinks it might vaguely threaten their livelihood has dismissed it as a passing fad and a crap piece of technology.
No one wants to take it seriously. No one wants to deal with it. But just a month after its launch, the asking price has soared from $400 to $1,500 on eBay and the wait list is long and ever growing. This is not the Wii, for sure. It’s not even a Wii plus Guitar Hero plus an iPhone. But in a town where the latest thing is the only cool thing, is there something to Kindle that might, maybe, have a bearing on the way we’ll read books in the future?
The Basics
- It's $400
- eBooks are $9.99 each and are only available in one format – Amazon’s format
- You can store 200 books at a time
- The visual screen is designed to simulate the turning of pages
- It is wireless and you can browse websites & blogs from it – for a “surfing” fee
- Kindle wireless coverage is Sprint's, so you're S.O.L in Montana & Alaska
- The browser isn’t a standard web-browser (what would LAist look like on it, I wonder?)
- You could access blogs like LAist on Kindle, but that will cost you too - $1.99/month per blog
The Pros
- 200 books at one time sounds like a damn good option when on a long flight – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve packed too many books or not enough books into my too-full suitcase. What might you read, what might you learn, if you had that many books at your disposal and were stuck on a long flight for many hours?
- Green, green, green – Imagine how much paper, how many trees, how much chemical ink wastage would simply vanish if we all read books on Kindle?
- A new hardcover book is $24 and up – if I can really get all my books for $9. well, color me happy. But the question is – what books are available and when? All the books I’d ever want to read? The latest as soon as it comes out?
The Cons
- The name is ridiculous. Kindling? Ken-doll? Fire? Flame? Set the book world on fire? All silly and not nearly cool enough to inspire masses to wait in line or pay too much for it.
- I’m a toucher and a feeler and a smeller of books. I like to line them up on my shelves. Maybe I could get past this to save a few (or millons!) of trees. Maybe. I’m skeptical about how cozy Kindle can be by the fire (no pun intended, or...wait...). Or when reading a 1,000 page book.
- Scratch reading in the tub off the list.
- What about the gorgeously laid-out books like Only Revolutions? How could you do them justice with such a clunky piece of plastic and a touch screen?
- As Simon Owens so aptly points out: “what the hell use is a blog if you can’t click on outbound links?”
- Who at Amazon decides which blogs are “available” on Kindle and which ones are not? (And who gets a cut of those profits? If Amazon “sells” access to LAist, will LAist see a piece of the action?)
- Only 200 books? Doesn’t that number seem small for $400? As many have pointed out, I could buy a ton of disk space for way less.
The Deal Breakers
- You want me to pay to surf free content from your tiny little screen? In your crappy little browser? Please!
- If I buy a book on Amazon to read on my Kindle, I can’t share it with anyone else. And I can’t read it anywhere else. The Amazon format isn't PDF. What will this mean for the thousands of readers who purchased earlier platforms in which the PDF was king? I don’t like the idea that I can’t move the file that I paid for to my computer, my iPhone, my Blackberry, what-have-you.
- I also cannot buy Kindle-ready books anywhere else. Unlike the iPod that will at least play my non-iTunes purchased music, the Kindle makes me a slave to Amazon. I don’t like being a slave. UPDATE: Reader Starman, in the comments below, points us to a few sites that offer Kindle format (.AZW) books for download.
So What?
There are a million different scenarios and market angles and lessons learned from the music industry and downloading encrypted artistic content and battery-life/plug-in concerns that I haven't even touched - you are busy holiday shoppers after all. There are many "big" things about Kindle to discuss and I'm sure many of them have already raised questions in your minds. Or bad memories. Or both.
I think too many people are making too big a fuss about this. Is it pretty? Hell no. Is it likely to revolutionize the book industry this year? Uh-uh. But would it be extremely convenient and good for the earth if something like it (something smarter, something cheaper, something cooler, something that didn’t screw things up like the music industry first did) was created? Absolutely. If they can get it and the price (and the color and the interface and so much more) right, I could see this thing working in a few years. Maybe sooner. Maybe from someone less intent on owning the technology and the content. Sony? Apple? And all this, from someone who loves her books, all lined up on their shelves. This, from someone who wanted to hate Kindle on spec.
What do you think?
- What would make you use this first-generation Kindle?
- Or some better version of it in the near future?
- What are the big issues and deal-breakers for you?
- If it takes off, do you think Los Angeles will be an early adopter?
- Or will we wait it out until it’s really, really cool?
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What about reading on a plane? You don't have to turn off a book in the middle of a chapter.
What about reading on a plane? You don't have to turn off a book in the middle of a chapter.
I have been reading books on my cell phone. It's pretty good, so good that eReaders like Kindle will have to get much cheaper and more open before I can justify buying one. I carry the phone everywhere anyway, so now I have a small library with me everywhere, an effect I think large readers like Kindle will always lack.
I get free books from http://www.booksinmyphone.com they have hundreds of free titles you can install direct to your phone from their mobile site or via a PC.
I can't possibly imagine spending hundreds of dollars on a device that allows me to do little more than read books electronically.
Will the Kindle even make it to fad status like the Palm Pilots and beepers of old?
I'll take almost anything digitally, but I'm can't help but be a traditionalist when it comes to my magazines and books.
Besides, if Amazon really wanted the Kindle to succeed, they'd be giving it away.
A super-overpriced mobile electronics device that (poorly) performs two functions... thats some throwback, retro 2002 shit.
I think it's the first step in a good direction. I bet you have to turn it off for take-off and landing, which would drive me nuts!
Remember when you could play your walkmen over take-off and landing? Nothing like coming in over LA at night to music.
The statement that you cannot buy Kindle-ready books anywhere else is wrong.
Manybooks.net and Fictionwise.com are but two examples of sites where kindle-ready books can be downloaded. Fictionwise will even directly email your purchased books to your kindle if you want(subject to the 10 cent charge of course).
Please update your story so that it is accurate.
Starman - Thank you for pointing out that these sites (as well as others) offer "multi-format" unsecured books that can be read on the Kindle. The post has been updated to reflect your comments.
I think it's important to point out, though, that none of these outlets offer any of the books found on the NYT or LAT best-seller list. The books available on Fictionwise are primarily erotic and romance fiction. The books offered on Many Books provide a broader range than erotic and romance fiction and many classics, but neither offer any of the just-out books that Amazon does. The "big" publishers have, for now, gone with Amazon.
This reminds me of when mp3.com first came out. Yes, you could download tons of songs right away. But none of them were anything you'd really want to listen to, because none of the big labels got on board for a long time.
In the Amazon Kindle scenario, at least the big publishers are on board. It's just a shame they're only on board with Amazon and not making their content available through some of the sites you mention.
Callie - Your point is well taken. But the kindle has only been available for one month. If it is really selling as well as it seems to be, then given time a wider selection of books will become available.
I have a kindle and I'd like to see more books available via Amazon. The 90k number is misleading because it's not 90k books you might want. Much of it is crap uploaded by those looking to sell something they could not otherwise get published. (I suppose in some limited cases this might be a good thing and and a dimond in the rough can be found.) But if the kindle takes off I expect the amount of available mainstream content to improve, especially in the backlist area.
Your mp3 analogy is a good one.
Just like all other 'secured' media, the Kindle will be hacked and content will be ripped/torrented in
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"What would LAist look like on it, I wonder?"
Probably something like this.
"Only 200 books? Doesn’t that number seem small for $400? As many have pointed out, I could buy a ton of disk space for way less."
Yeah, but you'd have to read them on an LCD screen. I can't read a whole novel that way. And if you're reading 200 books between USB or SD card transfers, the desert island you're stuck on probably doesn't have anyplace to recharge the thing anyway.
To all the people bashing it: Thank you! I've been waiting weeks for my Kindle, so the more people you convince not to buy it, the sooner I'll get mine.
Jim -- Very cool that you are getting one. I know people who were skeptical and now that they have theirs, they don't know what they ever did without it. Especially people who travel all the time -the sheer volume of books you can bring with you is the major selling point.
How long is the wait for yours?
Jim -- Very cool that you are getting one. I know people who were skeptical and now that they have theirs, they don't know what they ever did without it. Especially people who travel all the time -the sheer volume of books you can bring with you is the major selling point.
How long is the wait for yours?
It's looking like it won't be in '07...
Ah, well, hopefully early '08!
I'd love to check-in with you after you've had a chance to use it for a month or so. To see what you love, what you wish you could improve, etc.
You can email me at: callie@laist.com if you are interested.
Its been hacked.
For the peeps who think the Kindle has a typical LCD screen... it does not. The screen is grayscale, and non-backlit. So in the dark, you can't read it. Closer to a book than an iPhone... imagine a digital and sharp etch-a-sketch screen.
That's the whole point. I can't read long-form text on an LCD.
And from what the Amazon guys have been saying, they don't expect the DRM to last long. It was a concession to the publishers.
Worriedman - I've seen one in person and held it - so I agree with you on that. The screen is MUCH better for viewing than LCD. Interesting hacked article...