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Is Kindle the iPod of books?

Started by mathewi · 1 year ago

Several weeks ago, Amazon introduced the latest in a long line of “e-book” readers, known as the Kindle. Available for $400, it comes equipped with an easy-to-read “E Ink” screen and a wireless connection that allows users to download books tha ... Continue reading »

4 comments

  • Mark Allerton

    1 year ago

    Several weeks ago? Is this what they call "internet time"?
    reply
  • mathewi

    1 year ago

    Thanks for the comment, Mark. That was designed to cover everything
    from last week to three months ago, because I couldn't be bothered to
    check exactly how many it was.
    reply
  • scrawledinwax

    1 year ago

    I'm a grad student in a literature program, so I'm totally biased... But I think the thing people are sorta' missing about the Kindle is the enormous cultural import of books. The book is perhaps *the* cultural artefact that we have chosen to define ourselves by. Even us bloggers look to books for crystallizing and distilling big ideas (i.e. the Long Tail). As a result, I think the digitization of books will take a long time, not only because of the practical concerns, but because of the enormous cultural transition it will entail - what Sven Birkerts suggested was the shift from a text-based culture to a screen-based one. Birkerts is a bit of an alarmist luddite, but I think his insight still holds - how we think of books and printed language relates to how we conceive of meaning and knowledge. It'll take time for this shift to happen as literacy and reading undergo this fundamental shift.

    All that said - please release one in Canada soon!
    reply
  • Charlie

    1 year ago

    Unlike music there is a huge body of literature which is out of copyright. You could read forever and never infringe a copyright. You don't really need BitTorrent either; War and Peace is only 3MB.
    reply

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