Revolution of the Book

Amazon’s Kindle2 has been the topic of bloggers all over. From those predicting that the end of the hard copy book is near; to those saying, the world will always be about paper and pencil.

Personally, I’m happy with the Kindle’s arrival, not because I want to get rid of all my books. I love books, I love the smell of them, and I love to sit in silence and look at my bookshelves and touch the spines of those special books and remember how they gave me so much enjoyment, happiness, and feeling of total fulfillment. Yes I’m crazy – about reading and books.

So you ask why I would leave hints laying around with friends, family and those wanting to be my friends, if want to make me happy they should buy me a Kindle. For those who are listening, I’ll accept the original or the updated version.

I’m with the bloggers who say nothing will ever replace the hard copy book. But when I travel, I like to take more than one book and with the strict rules on baggage size and weight, a Kindle would be my best friend on a flight. I need all the extra room as I also travel with my laptop, so I’ll need books that can easily slide into the one thin empty pocket of my laptop briefcase.

Amazon.com describes the Kindle2, as 1/3 of an inch (as thin as a magazine); 10.2 ounces; with wireless capabilities you can download 1 book in less than 60 seconds; 20% faster than the original Kindle in page turning and with the new speech feature, can read to you; and it can hold up to 1,500 books and last, but not least in the bit, a list price of $359.00.

While searching through Kindle blogs I found something I wasn’t aware, that has me thinking hmmm, do I really want a Kindle? Lee Daniel Crocker’s Word Press Blog The Right to Read blogs “The books available for download (about 1% of Amazon’s total catalog) are delivered in Amazon’s proprietary “AZW” format encrypted with DRM. You’re not actually buying a book-you’re buying a limited right to read the book on one device for as long as they choose to allow you. You can’t give the book to anyone or sell it, or move it to another device-even another Kindle that you own. You must “register” your Kindle with Amazon to associate its unique ID with your Amazon account. It keeps records of everything you send to your Kindle “in the cloud”, and gets software updates automatically delivered and installed over the cellular connection. The entire contents of your device is thus under the remote control of Amazon, so you don’t really own the device any more than you won the books on it.”  Check out his blog to read more.

Buyer beware, applies to even something as tempting as the Kindle.

The new era of reading media publications has not only invaded the sacred territory of books, but newspapers, magazines and all that was once paper is now a webpage.

My next blog will discuss the e-book revolution.

Being a writer and a lover of books, I don’t look happily at the future of e-publishing, but I’m not going to knock it. I plan on publishing my books through traditional press and e-publishing. It’s a market with a growing consumer group that cannot be ignored.

Until then good reading, where ever you find it.