A Thousand Books in My Pocket
Online bookseller, Amazon, has got the bibliophiles all a-quiver with excitement with its announcement that the Kindle will be sold internationally from mid-October. For those of you who haven’t heard of it yet, the Kindle is a digital book reading device, rather like the clay tablets of ancient times in size and look but electronic and able to store over a thousand books plus mp3s as well as blogs and digital newspapers and magazines. So far, it’s only been available in the US so this next phase is very exciting for book lovers all over the world.
I use the term “book” loosely, of course. Those book lovers who love physical books will not be excited at all by the Kindle on the basis that it lacks all the tactile qualities they love about “real” books - paper, page turning etc. But those who love the content of books and love the idea of being able to carry a thousand books in their pocket, the Kindle is the next big thing.
I fall into the latter group for various reasons:
- I’m lazy and feeble and I like the idea of holding one compact tablet that I can read lying down as well as sitting up.
- I like the idea of being able to carry a range of books around with me but without the weight of the physical books to give me backache and arm ache.
- I like the idea of the text-to-speech facility so that I can load the full text of a book and have it read to me while I sit on the bus. The digital voice might be quite irritating, however - so it will all depend on how life-like it sounds
However, I’m not going to jump in with my credit card immediately as I have some reservations:
- I believe the Kindle ties you to buying all your ebooks from Amazon, in a Kindle-specific format. What happens when my Kindle dies - as inevitably it will, like all electronic devices? I guess I’ll have to shell out for another one - we’ll all start having to think of books like music: but with mp3s or CDS, I can buy my player from any supplier, not just the one company. With the Kindle, am I now stuck forever having to buy it from Amazon?
- I still need to be convinced by the screen quality and how quickly it refreshes when you turn the page - I had a look at the Sony Reader and what put me off is that the screen turns black for a second before it opens onto the next page: ugh.
- It’s a pretty steep price at US$279.
- I remain to be convinced about it’s usefulness outside the US. At the moment, a huge number of e-books from other ebook sites which are available to US buyers are not available to non-US customers due to geographical rights restrictions. Also, if you look at US Audible.com compared to UK Audible.co.uk, the number of audiobooks available in the UK is a lot less than those available in the US - and in particular, major latest releases in the US are glaringly missing from the UK list. I haven’t been able to find anything definitive on the Amazon.com site that gives me any clarity either way about geographical rights restrictions - can anyone help me with this question?
Speaking of geographical rights restrictions, the Kindle will not be available in some countries, including Malaysia - see the list of no-Kindle countries. So my litblogger, book loving friends there are still stuck with the tree-pulp versions of books - although Amazon did reply to blogger Sharon Bakar’s email query to them to say that maybe, perhaps, sometime in the future, the Kindle might become available there…
What about you? Are you going to get a Kindle? Or are you a hard and fast paperbook person?
Photo: thanks to jink (Derek) on Flickr.com (CCL)
- Posted on
Mon, October 12th, 2009 - Author
Yang-May Ooi - Category
- 4 responses
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October 12th, 2009 at 2:01 am
I only encountered the “geographical rights restrictions” recently at www.ereader.com. Before that, I used to be able to buy any ebook I wanted from the site. I think Amazon and its Kindle may be responsible for this, lah.
However, if some ebooks aren’t available to some countries because their publishing contracts do not include those countries, how come different editions of the same book are available in a “third” country? I saw the US and UK editions of Toni Morrison’s A Mercy available in Kinokuniya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
October 12th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Yes, Chet, I had the same experience of being able to buy ebooks from ebook sites awhile back and then suddenly, when I went back recently, the geo restrictions appeard.
October 12th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
I’m tempted :)
I’ve been waiting for the Kindle to come out in the UK for ages. I almost bought one when in the States earlier this year but thought it was best to wait for a UK version. Sadly, this seems to be an ‘international US’ edition which kind of works in the UK but which costs us more for the same products. (Ebook editions are about $4 more expensive for UK customers). A true UK-centric version is promised for later.
It’s also far from clear that the Kindle will turn out to be the iPod of books. There are many other e-readers out there from Sony and other companies with a multitude of formats and different approaches to DRM (digital rights management). And then there is the rumoured Apple iPad - a 10″ tablet, like an oversized iPhone - which might just blow them all out of the water!
Of the products currently available I’d probably go for the Kindle due to the convenience of being able to download books without needing to be connected to a computer. It helps that it’s also thin and light. But… the choice at the Kindle book store still feels somewhat limited.
Gah! Can’t make up my mind!
October 21st, 2009 at 6:06 pm
I know, Mark, too many options. I’m going to wait for some UK reviews/ feedback re the international Kindle in the next month or so and see whether they inspire me or put me off.