kindling

[adelaidesean]

Dave Cake (aka strangedave) has an excellent post about electronic book readers over at Talking Squid, structured around a review of the new Amazon Kindle but dealing concisely and convincingly with many general arguments against such devices.

I think it's only a matter of time before the right reader comes along to make ebooks as ubiquitous as mp3 music files. The Kindle doesn't appear to be it, but that doesn't mean it isn't being designed right now, by someone. I for one will welcome it, and the empty spaces on my book shelves it will allow.

Dave's post is part one of two. I'm looking forward to reading the rest.

Comments

[derekcfpegritz.livejournal.com]

You're absolutely right: it's only a matter of time until ebooks really catch on--and the only reason they haven't yet is because there isn't a single ebook reader yet on the market that has the ease-of-use and must-have hype of an iPod. The Kindle is grotesquely ugly, clumsy, and, worst of all, has an abysmally bad screen. Plus, it can only display a limited number of files--there are so many ebook formats out there that you need at minimum two different portable devices to read them all. Format standardization is only a minor problem, though: it's easy enough to make a device that reads all formats (even though, like most mp3 players, you only need to make a device that plays the most common format[s])--but designing a device that is easy to use and easy to read....Seems impossible, based on all previous readers. But someone eventually will design "The Perfect Thing" for the ebook world and then paper books will be little more than a novelty within a year.