They are making it easy on us, aren’t they? I am talking about the Kindle DX, a new version of Kindle that was unveiled yesterday. I was listening to the news about it on my way home yesterday and how it has added features that make it better than Kindle (or Kindle 2). This device can hold up to 3500 books, has almost 3gb of storage, large screen with auto rotation feature and with no need to zoom or pan out while reading the eBook on it but the cost is almost $500. Is it worth it?
Of course, it is all worth it. It certainly will be cool among college students who usually beg, borrow, (steal?) loads of textbooks for their courses. The same textbooks can be loaded on Kindle and can be read from as if reading an actual book. This will save up on book costs eventually and also be eco-friendly as that many trees will be saved in making these books. Any other book (guilty pleasure of reading?) can be loaded on Kindle via subscription besides newspaper and magazine. As it is, the future of newspaper is at stake. I meant the actual newspaper that you can feel it in your hands and read but at least eNewspaper will still keep the newspaper saga alive via this life support. By getting rid of actual books, students can make room for their most wanted items like video consoles and cases of beer in their room.
Reading that I support Kindle, some who are avid readers would come charging at me with a sword (or rather pen – mightier than a sword) for their defense. They would argue as to how that feeling of holding an actual book and reading will vanish with Kindle. To them I say you still can hold Kindle like you would hold any other book. Yes, it would be staring at another screen apart from TV, computer, or video screen but you also can listen from Kindle like books on tape. But honestly, cutting down so many trees to print books for the pleasure of just feeling it while reading is so contrary to the fact that we are on a band wagon singing about go-green, eco-friendly, and saving the world.
I am an ardent reader too. Any free time I would get, I would be seen reading or going to local libraries back home hunting for my mystery novels (okay, I read all those Nancy Drew, Poirot and Perry Mason mysteries). I also used to collect all these books but after reading it once, you just arrange them in your shelves and that is the end of those books (of course you read it again later if you want to) but then I realized there was no point in buying all these books and hoarding them. Rather a better deal would be to just borrow it from the library – my contribution to saving the trees.
In all aspects of life we go through a cycle of evolution. We invent an item, and then we make that item even better by polishing its features. Take for instance the music player. We started off with vinyl records, 8-track, cassettes tapes, CDs and now mp3 and iPods. There is plethora of devices that we have seen do the same thing – play music. But the medium has changed for the better and we are accustomed to these changes for our own good. This same logic can be applied to books. We started off with papyrus and natural ink from plants that was used for writing using a feather. From there we graduated off to book publication, books on tape and iPod and now Kindle. I am sure that people who now talk about holding the actual book and refusing to accept Kindle will own it soon; it is just a matter of time. It is the medium that is dying, not the reading.
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