A Sordid Love Affair

Amazon Kindle (wifi) conquers bound books

It was a conversation that took place almost six years ago that keeps repeating itself in my head. I'm in the office of my then creative writing professor, Rene Saldana, Jr., chatting up a storm - which I was known to do in those days with my college professors. He brought up the conversation about the future of books, asking me what I thought of it. The conversation is vague in my head, but my answer was somewhere along the lines of, "E-books aside, the printed word is here to stay.*" It was around then that the steady of slump in newspaper sells was being noted. Magazines were now offering digital subscriptions. It seemed that the printed age was coming to an end. But I was steadfast and headstrong. "People are always going to buy books." Let the pseudo readers have their electronic readers. Let them have their digital copies. Real readers, like me, will always want to have our shelves filled with pages of authors long since passed and the words of our contemporaries. 

Fast-forward five years, a more "adult" me sees the new Amazon Kindle with free 3G and WiFi. I feel this sudden urge to claim one of my own. But what of the highlighting of important passages? What of scribbling notes on a Post-It and sticking it to the margins - I've never been one who could bring myself to writing in my books (other than text books, of course). It's only my weakness when I realize that Kindle offers all this, sans having to find that pen and sticky note. It's at my fingertips. Everything I ever wanted. Was I wrong all those years ago? Or have I just come to term that I'm not a real reader, but one of the pseudo lot. Am I cheating on the printed word?

Not every book is available, yet.

And why the Kindle and not the Nook or whatever it is Borders offers? Why not an iPad instead? Well, the Nook isn't attractive to the eye. We don't have a Borders here so I hold some prejudice against them. And I despise all things Apple as I see most people who own it in the same light that I see people who buy Starbucks - pretentious sheep who aren't clever enough to realize they're not buying a product, but a name. Monica even made a case with an iPad, stating she's just download the free app. But whenever I think about the apps I downloaded for my phone and netbook, I can't help to think of my face. Because that's pretty much what I'm looking at. 

See what really got me hooked on the Kindle was the E Ink Pearl technology - which means, rather than it feeling like you're looking at some screen, you have this illusion that you're reading a real book - save all the trees that had to die in the process. Not to mention it's also pencil thin. 

Another friend, Eddie, mentioned how he hasn't read a conventional book since he got his. I don't plan on turning my back on bound books, but I do plan to buy less classics (whenever possible). Public Domain books, for the most part, are free. And what beat free? We'll see where this leads me in the end, but so far, this little guy is going to make 2011 that much more entertaining for me. Until next time, keep on huntin'.

*Trust me when I say this, I didn't sound anything like that. What's the point of having a blog if I can't powder myself up?

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