The Kindle Debate

The Kindle. It's been quite a hot topic in publishing circles for the past year or so. The industry has been predicting--mostly fearing--the domination of the electronic book for longer than that: I went to NYU's Summer Publishing Institute in 2002 and it was a hot topic then. A lot of bookish people don't like the idea, preferring the feel of a book in their hands, even the smell of the ink and paper. And I was firmly in that camp . . . until my friend, a literary agent, brought her Kindle with her on her last visit. Then my dormant gadget geek kicked in and I decided I had to have one!

The sleek design of Kindle 2.0 . . . the crystal clear type on screen (much easier on the eyes than I had imagined) . . . But what really sold me was when I figured out that I could take a Kindle out in public, and no one would know what I was reading. I was in the midst of the Twilight Saga at this point and hurrying to finish before an upcoming business trip, because I didn't want to be seen reading Twilight on the plane. But with a Kindle, I could read about teenage vampires or any other trash and no one would ever know!

At least one Kindle aficionado has even taken his e-reader along to a book signing, as seen in this story from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/business/media/15kindle.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
Of course, being a David Sedaris signing, the witty author inscribed "This bespells doom" on the shiny plastic surface.

Even as e-readers become more and more popular, I believe paper books will be around for a long time. And, even though the price for the Kindle recently dropped, I still haven't ordered one. Please--I let nearly 60 paper books build up in my apartment. How gluttonous would I be if I could acquire a new book at the click of a button and didn't even have to wedge it onto an already over-stuffed shelf?

Speaking of all those books, I'm nearing halfway through a historical novel called "Red River," but if it doesn't pick up soon, I will ditch it.