Kindle Update

Last weekend I headed up to Maine to visit with friends and hit the slopes. I had been looking forward to getting in touch with nature, but was a little nervous because I knew I was bound to have no service on my iPhone. I dreaded the inevitable separation anxiety, but figured it was probably for the best. I'm sure by my prior dependence-heavy posts you will agree I needed a little time away from the ol' girl.

Still, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had service for most of the 8-hour (yes, god help me) car ride, and pretty much over the moon when a bored search of the app store bore the most incredible fruit. Just when I thought the iPhone couldn't possibly get any better, it gave me Kindle, or at least a pretty acceptable approximation of it. If you recall, I was practically drooling over the Kindle in a prior post, but lamenting the high price tag.

The Amazon app allowed me the same access to digital books that the covetable Kindle does, and though the screen is probably brighter, definitely smaller and sometimes a bit reflective, there I was, clicking to purchase David Sedaris' When You Are Engulfed in Flames. And thanks to Amazon's Whispersync technology (no idea what that is, but it sounds completely cool) I was reading it about two seconds later.

The text appears large enough that I do not squint at the screen, and turning pages with the swipe of a finger is pretty darn easy. It also remembers the page where I left off so I can pick it right up again, no problem. As I mentioned, it is a little brighter than my ideal, but I can certainly make it work, especially when it allows me to have any book I want at my fingertips at a moment's notice.

So once again, yay iPhone, and also yay free wifi once we got to our condo. Though my phone service was a little spotty, leaving me to check my messages up on the lifts, I was never once without Facebook, Gmail or Twitter updates. Sorry nature!

UnKindle My Heart

I am what you might call a "reader." I put it in quotes, because I know to some it is a dirty word. While I read all kinds of digital musings all day long at work, that is not what I call real reading. Real reading is analog - curled up on a couch, lounging in bed or piled into a favorite chair, holding a real live book in your hands, flipping the pages and digesting as many words as possible. On-the-go reading of actual books is also acceptable, but I find it more distracting, especially when I am so wedged into a subway car that I can only open my book at a 45 degree angle.

However, I am also a New Yorker with limited apartment space and my book shelves have been seriously sagging lately. I try to get rid of books I know I won't read again, but I really like being able to refer back to my collection or pass a favorite book on to a friend. I could simply start getting my books from a library, but strangely enough I actually want to pay for books for the same reason I like to pay for my music - I want the people who create them to stick around and keep entertaining me. I'm not so self-righteous that I would turn down a freebie, but I still like to do my part.

Last year I caught wind of the Amazon Kindle, a digital book reader that has been so in-demand that very few people got it under their Christmas tree this past December. Of course, that was mostly because Amazon was gearing up to release the Kindle 2. If you've been to Amazon any time this week you've no doubt seen it.

While I relish my analog experience, I can see the benefit of a gadget like the Kindle. Unlike other small screen experiences, the screen is not glossy, so it is easy to read the words, which are also bigger. It really tries to mimic the book experience. I know this because whenever I come across someone reading from one on the subway my head is practically perched on their shoulder.

It can hold my entire library! Instead of writing down endless lists of books I want to read I can download them instantly! If those two features weren't reason enough, the device can also carry your documents, deliver your newspaper subscription, read out loud to you, bookmark, annotate and make your coffee in the morning. Just kidding on that last one, but come on, how far off from that is it really?

I'll admit that I really want to buy it and love it and make it my own and read to IT. But am I really Jay Gatsby looking out across the water at the beckoning green light? Do I really need a $359 book reader? My sensible side says no...at least for now. Sigh.