ITN: Amazon Rolls Out New Kindle

41 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

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  JeanieSpokane on May 06 at 10:04 a.m.

  I love books. I like turning the pages, running my fingers over the cover. I love old books, leather bound. I like flipping the pages. I like knowing how close I am to the end and checking the clock and deciding that, yes, I can stay up an extra hour and finish my book. Somehow, I don’t think I can do that with a Kindle. Not even going to talk about the price!

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  moscow_minidoka on May 06 at 10:11 a.m.

  I’ll never own a Kindle for the same reason I’ll never have an online-only newspaper subscription. I spend enough time looking at screens… when I want to read a book, I want to read a book… in the bathtub, in bed, on the porch, etc. I like to write in the margins. I like to dog-ear the pages. I like to loan them to friends.

  They’ll have to pry my books from my cold, dead hands. I’m never switching to electronic “readers.” Abject stupidity, and for nearly $500.

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  Cindy_H on May 06 at 10:19 a.m.

  God Bless you both.
  You can read my comments here: http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/opinion/2009/may/04/mondays-loose-thread/

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  jreighley on May 06 at 10:19 a.m.

  I think that the kindle has a pretty limited audience. They will sell as many as Oprah can sell for them, then it will fade into history.

  I don’t think there is any reason not to have electronic book reading technology, but having a single function device to do that seems kinda silly when you can get a netbook for 260 bucks that can do that, plus a lot more..

  I don’t think books will ever go away though, so don’t fear.

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  brandxranch on May 06 at 10:22 a.m.

  I recieved a Kindle as a gift…. would never have bought one myself…. I like it alot, especially when I travel, since it stores a ton of books, there are lots of free downloads, and I can carry it in my purse. I will always read books, tho, and continue to buy way too many at the used book stores!! Nothing is better than a book! But, if Kindle will encourage more reading in the Tech-set, great… as long as people read.

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  toadman on May 06 at 10:34 a.m.

  I’d love to get a Kindle as a gift…please…my birthday is Friday. It would be something that I could easily enjoy on the bus…not that I’m begging for gifts or anything…

  ;-)

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  toadman on May 06 at 10:37 a.m.

  …having said that, I’m also a lover of actual books…but if I can grab a digital copy of an old classic and slap it on my Kindle, then it means I don’t have to endanger my 100 year old copy of Dickens by dragging it out on the bus and exposing it to any number of dangers. I tend to do the same with cds and vinyl. Immediately convert to digital, to preserve the original media.

  So.. I guess the upshot of all this is.. I’ll take a real book as a gift too…or a cd, or vinyl, or anything, really….not that I’m desperate or anything…

  ;-)

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  idawa on May 06 at 10:43 a.m.

  I think this kindle (like the previous version) will be successful and have deep penetration into a certain niche - but I don’t think it will ever have the type of mass appeal like an iPhone for a couple of reasons: 1) most people don’t read. The HBO crowd seem to be a rather bibliographic sort, but books as a mass entertainment option are seeing declines - the publishing world is hurting just like the news business, 2) a lot of those people who do read just want to hold onto paper as MM above, and 3) it is expensive.

  I think, though, among those who read a lot, are on the move a lot, and want quick access to book and news, then the Kindle is neat. You can write in the margins and highlight on the Kindle and the screen in amazing, more like looking at actual paper than our computer screens. I would have loved to have this as an undergrad and in law school - to have all my text books in a digitized format that don’t weight 20lb in my backpack and with my margins notes in a search-able format. Great.

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  OrangeTV on May 06 at 11:14 a.m.

  A gentleman sitting next to me at the counter at Hudson’s had one of these a few weeks ago. I wasn’t too keen on the idea in theory. I’m a regular book fan and couldn’t imagine trying to lose myself into a digital pad thingy. However, once I saw the Kindle in action I fell in love and MUST HAVE ONE.

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  misc on May 06 at 11:18 a.m.

  As someone who’s been repeatedly raped by the college bookstore, I can see the value in a kindle.

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  JeanieSpokane on May 06 at 11:36 a.m.

  Cost of a Kindle: $489.00
  Cost of 52 kindle books (reading one a week at an average of $8.00 each): $416.00
  Total Kindle investment in one year: $905.00
  Number of books (average $8.00) I could buy in one year without Kindle: 113
  Beauty of bookcases filled with books: priceless

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  Cindy_H on May 06 at 11:40 a.m.

  Cost of a library card: $0.00

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  JeanieSpokane on May 06 at 11:56 a.m.

  >Cost of a library card: $0.00<

  Empty bookshelf: DEPRESSING!

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  brentandrews on May 06 at 12:15 p.m.

  I think the fact is, few people collect books anymore. In my house the people and the books are all I care about. You could burn all my furniture and the computer too, but save the books. China books, Civil War books, Indian books, drug war books - my special collections rival some libraries, especially the China books. If I had nothing else I’d be happy sitting on the floor reading an old China book I’ve already read three or four times. I just pulled out the four-volume Outlaws of the Marsh by Shi Nai’ An and Luo Guanzhong (http://www.amazon.com/Outlaws-Marsh-Chinese-Classics-Boxed/dp/7119016628) last night, for a second read. I don’t care how much space these books occupy while I’m not reading them. I want them close at hand when the time comes. I love the smell and the look and the feel of a shelf bent with the weight of a thousand books. Just looking at it makes me feel smarter and more confident. Meanwhile I’m always buying new books. I’d say I spend $300-$500 a year on books, including those Honey buys me for Christmas. Christmas is so easy, if your Person loves books. Some of my books are really expensive. The Cambridge History of China (http://www.cambridge.org/series/sSeries.asp?code=CHC) is $160 per volume. Two volumes would prop a car up high enough to change the tire, though.

  Honey wanted a Kindle at Christmas and I tried but could not afford to get it for her; nor could I afford the cheaper alternative the catchy name of which I do not recall. When she found out how much I was about to spend, and looked into the future at what she’d pay for her books, she saw through it as too expensive and insited on something else. (It seemed like a serious jip to me, too, more gadget than anything.) I did find a couple of beautiful books for her, for far, far less.

  Is this a blogapotamus? Sorry, if so … Just love books.

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  Me on May 06 at 12:34 p.m.

  I haven’t seen one of these yet, and if I did I might be tempted because I LOVE technology - but I too love books. I keep my books, I re-read my books. When I move I take my books with me. When I go on vacation, or even weekend trips, books are usually what I get as a souvenir, to the point now where my friends scope out the book section in shops FOR me and call me over. I especially value the hardcover books I have - those are the ones that I couldn’t wait for - I spent more because I wanted them as soon as they came out, and especially the ones my husband has bought me over the years. He still shakes his head when he sees me light up opening a package that is a book!

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  JeanieSpokane on May 06 at 12:44 p.m.

  I am building my “beach box” as we write all of this. I’m headed to the family beach home in Oregon at the end of June. A Kindle would be easy (but expensive). But there is something about real books, heavy in your hand. My box is pretty full - the full series of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books (for the third reading), inspirational books, mysteries, Stephen King’s The Stand (to be read on the beach in daylight), and several DVD’s for mindless enjoyment.

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  scootermom on May 06 at 1:31 p.m.

  I like the atmosphere of a library. It’s comforting to be surrounded by books. There’s just nothing like it.

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  Token on May 06 at 1:50 p.m.

  No Kindle for me, thanks. I love books. I love to sit in my recliner, maybe with a cat on my lap, and read. I love to hold the book and turn the pages. I love rereading my favorites until the spine breaks and pages begin to fall out, then I buy a new copy. I love my full bookshelves. I want bigger bookshelves and more books. Long live books!

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  polistra on May 06 at 3:37 p.m.

  Mixed feelings. I’m another booklover and book collector, but my aging eyes have reached the point where adjustable contrast and adjustable font size make computerized reading much easier. If the Kindle drops to half its current price, I’ll probably tumble into modernity.

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  inlandempiregirl on May 06 at 6:25 p.m.

  I love the feel of books also. I collect books and love to be surrounded by a library of books, most of them used. If there is a niche of people out there that would experience the love of reading if they had a Kindle, then that is a good thing. I tried to like one I held a few weeks ago. It didn’t feel right to me. Besides, what would we put on our nightstands and around our nightstands if it wasn’t a pile of books? Just a Kindle would look a bit bare for me.

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  Radbooks on May 06 at 8:16 p.m.

  I have a Sony eReader that I bought last summer and I don’t go anywhere without it! It slips easily into my purse and I have almost 400 books on it. I chose the Sony version because it was quite a bit cheaper than the Kindle at that time. I also liked the ease of being able to take copyright free books - like Dickens, Austen, etc. - from places like Gutenberg.org and turning them into Word files and loading them onto my eReader.

  I have no intention of getting rid of my favorite books and my shelves have lots of books, but I probably won’t buy many regular books anymore - this is just too convenient for me.

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