Kindle

Are E-Books Good For Us?

Brett McCracken — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 23:28:49 -0700

Every April I read The Great Gatsby. The tradition started the April of my junior year at Wheaton College, when I took my copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece (the most perfect American novel, IMHO) to Adams Park, laid down on the newly warm grass and read through the whole book in one sunny afternoon. It was bliss.

This year, as an experiment, I decided to buy Gatsby on Kindle and read it on my iPad. I’ve hitherto been loathe to enter the world of e-books, but I figured I better not knock it until I’ve tried it. A few weeks ago at Biola’s Imagination Summit, a discussion on “the future of books” with Moe Girkins (former CEO of Zondervan) and Jason Illian (CEO of e-book upstart ReThink Books) got me thinking about the topic. E-books certainly seem to be the future. Physical books, Borders, libraries… all of that will likely become outmoded. But is that a good thing?

The way I see it, there are both pros and cons with the e-book experience.

Pros:

All-in-one storage. Kindles, iPads, devices of similar ilk become portable libraries of vast numbers of books. Imagine having your entire library with you wherever you are. Instead of feeling frustrated that the book you want to quote in your research paper is on your shelf back home or in some library in another state… it’s all at your fingertips. Want to study abroad but don’t want to bring suitcases full of physical books? Just bring an iPad full of the dozens of books you’ll need.
Better preserved. Electronic books, stored on a device or in a cloud somewhere, are free from the mold, acid, water damage, etc. that plagues physical books.
Convenience. Have a few extra minutes waiting for someone at a coffeeshop? A half hour on the subway? Instead of having to remember a physical book, just pull out that iPhone and pick up where you left off.
Social reading. As new platforms and apps develop that combine e-readers with social networking (ReThink Books is one), the potential social and pedagogical benefits of collective reading (tracking friends’ comments, sharing notes, keeping tabs on students’ reading progress, etc) are apparent.

Cons:

Hinders our focus. When you’re reading a book on the same device that you could use to check email, update Facebook, watch a video, play Angry Birds, listen to music, chat with friends, and do about a million other things, it becomes harder to focus on reading for a long stretch of time. These devices are made for multi-tasking, after all… short bursts of activity for short attention spans. How could I ever focus on reading a book on my iPad for an hour when my instincts tell me to press a button and check my inbox or Twitter feed every 10 minutes?
Turns reading into a “downtime” activity. Before, we took books with us to the park for 4 hours. We packed a book for a day of reading at the beach. We planned rainy days around reading books. It was an event. But now, our devices go with us everywhere, so reading a book becomes an anywhere/anytime activity, which by default usually becomes a “when I have time” or “I’m on the bus so I might as well do something on my iPhone” activity.
Takes away the billboard effect. Previously, having a physical book in our hands served as an advertisement of sorts: Letting others see what you were reading. It starts conversations (“Oh, I loved that book!” or “What’s that you’re reading?”). Now, when people see us looking at a screen in our lap, there is no visual indication that we are reading a book, let alone what we might be reading. Where’s the fun in that? Similarly, the loss of personal libraries in our homes–bookshelves with books that serve as identity markers and clues to our personalities (let alone conversation starters)–seems to take away a valuable function of books as social and household artifacts.
Hurts the eyes. I’m sorry, but yes. Reading long PDFs on my laptop screen hurts my eyes, and this is no different. Kindles, iPads, laptop screens… It’s nothing like reading a book. It’s exactly like reading an electronic screen. Eyesore.
More expensive! This may not always be true, but it was for me and The Great Gatsby. $10.99 on Kindle. $7.99 for the physical book. How does that make sense?

Anyway, that’s my two cents. I’m open to e-books, but I’m certainly not convinced of their value.

What do you think? Have you had a positive experience with e-books? Negative? Indifferent? Are physical books going to exist in the future?

The iPad and Imagination

Stan Jantz — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:14:23 -0800

Even before Apple pulled back the curtain on its new iPad--the iconoclast himself holding the brand new device and calling it "a truly magical and revolutionary" product--the anticipation for the Apple Tablet was enormous. The publishing world in particular was gaga in the days leading up to the announcement, a lot of industry leaders wondering whether or not the Apple tablet will revolutionize the distribution of newspapers, magazines, and books in the same the iPod transformed the music industry.

Whether the iPad ends up revolutionizing the way we buy and consume digital content of all kinds remains to be seen. But at first blush I do believe Steve Jobs has once again done something extraordinarily well. He hasn't just created a device; he has tapped into our imaginations. By calling the iPad "magical" rather than "useful" or "universal," Jobs has soared above the ordinary by placing this device--and let's face it, the iPad is just a device--into the realm of wonder rather than utility. If Steve Jobs is to be believed, the iPad isn't a device to merely help you do things more efficiently. It is device that will help you dream of doing things better.

You can bet that technical teams all over the world are already thinking of new applications designed just for the iPad. Granted, many of these Apps will be dumb, some will be a waste of time, but many will be amazing.

There are hundreds if not thousands of creative enterprises and individuals who are this very minute dreaming of ways to leverage this magical device for new and engaging content that will instantly transmit timeless and transcendent themes.

And you can be sure that there are social justice organizations who are already imagining ways the iPad can help them more effectively and creatively communicate their messages of hope and healing.

This isn't the first time a device has triggered such worthy and potentially revolutionary change. Before Steve Jobs, inventive change-agents like Johannes Gutenberg and Philo Pharnsworth stirred the human imagination with their devices. It's not that the iPad necessarily belongs in the same breath as the printing press or the television. But the concept behind it and the potential it has to challenge and stir people to stretch their imaginations definitely puts the iPad in the same conversation.

So am I going to get one? Absolutely. The only downside is that the Wi-Fi models won't be ready for two months, and the 3G version will be available in 90 days. Until then, I'll just have to watch the iPad video and dream.

What Is Happening to Me?

Barb Sherrill — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:55:30 -0700

I did something for the very first time the other day.

I saw a new book coming out in hardcover and thought, Boy, if I had a Kindle, I would totally download that one.

What is happening to me?

I work at a publishing house! I love the printed page! I love ink on paper! I love books!

And yet, for that particular book (and if you’re curious, it was Michael J. Fox’s Always Looking Up), I was interested enough in the content to want to read it, but not so interested that I wanted a hardcover that was retailing at $25.99.

And, really, it wasn’t so much the price that was stopping me. It was the thing—the hardcover book. Some days, the thought of accumulating even one more thing wears me out.

I have lots of things in my house, including stacks of books I’ve read and stacks of books I’ve yet to read. Some days, it makes me happy to be surrounded by my stacks of books. I see the ones I’ve loved (I usually get rid of the ones I don’t love so much), the ones I’ve read multiple times, the ones I’m so looking forward to read.

And some days, I just see stuff—stuff that’s piling up.

I have this love-hate relationship with other things in my house as well—my music CD collection that pretty much dates back to when CDs were invented, my DVD collection (although I did purge that a couple of weeks ago—and that felt good! To honestly admit to myself that I was never going to watch The Aviator or Season 2 of Magnum P.I. again and thus could remove them from my collection was a watershed moment for me), the pens in my kitchen junk drawer (really, how many pens does one person need?).

The physicality of my possessions is finally making me think long and hard before I add to them. That’s a good thing! And perhaps that’s why a person like myself should probably steer clear of Kindle for the time being. Kindle just puts my thing in a different format—I would still be accumulating something I’d have to deal with, even it didn’t go in a pile on my bedroom floor. If I think the stacks of books I have to read are big now, imagine what would happen if getting those books were as simple as a click of a button and my “stacks” were all tucked away nicely on a handheld device? I shudder to think.

I hope I’m on the path to breaking some pretty deeply ingrained consumer habits (as my CD collection will attest!). I hope I’m truly learning to embrace and enjoy the idea that less is more, that I don’t really need to own so much.

And I hope, someday, I’ll be responsible enough to have a Kindle (or whatever will be the e-reader of choice at that point…this may take a while).