The Kindle - Why?

[Tim]

I think a lot depends on what type of books you read? Kindles are perfect for novels, but reference books IMO are better as the real thing. My music books and books with quality pictures in will always be in print too. I would never completely replace books with ebooks, but both together is a real bonus. I'm a convert for sure

[Welder]

Kindle; isn't that what you start fires with

[The Black Adder]

yeeeah.. I see your point there but on the other foot £110 is the earth for a lot of people especially the elderly so, if this device is good for the elderly then it should be free for them...

It's a device thats being mass manufactured therefore has a bigger impact on the earth as paper sources these days are (mostly) regulated, infact it's an end user selling point.

Independent book shops are vanishing fast, this is bad as if they all vanish the only choice we will have is what Tesco (and others) give us. We can all live without another Jeremy Clarkson book can't we?... oh please agree!

I had a go with a Kindle and to be honest was not impressed at all. It felt tacky to me and (in quids terms) worth about £20 and my favorite book ever cost me that and it's tangibly and visually more exciting let alone a bloody good read.

[Vinyleyes]

It's horses for courses .. I travel a lot .. spend a lot of time in airports, hanging around .. No way do I want 2 or 3 paperbacks filling up my carry on luggage. Plus I can buy a book if I am in the middle of nowhere and I do not have to carry a bunch of books to get me through a 6 week tour. It just downloads no matter where you are ( almost) at no internet charge in whatever country you are in. No waiting until I get back to "civilisation." For me it's a complete no brainer ... I love it. Plus the application transfers onto your Iphone and computer.
Charity shops, libraries ... environment .. you are joking .. :-)
If you never leave your own back yard then maybe you don't need one. The same argument translates to those who eschew Iphones and their ilk .. for me they are a godsend ... I no longer need to lug a computer round with me and I can stay in instant touch with family and friends wherever I am in the world. And with a son in Uni and elderly frail parents that is indeed a very important plus point.
Whenever people criticise devices like these they tend to look only at how the device relates to their own situation and lifestyle .... perhaps one should consider that for other people living different kinds of lives then they can be very useful indeed .... like I said ... horses for courses ..

[MartinT]

As soon as the Kindle can do magazines (like the Zino reader) I'll be buying a colour one.

[The Black Adder]

[Nah, sorry chaps... I can't get my head around this one. The book is there to read and their is lots of choice. Just because it's digital does not mean it's any better than the real thing. I personally don't read 3 books at once (novels) and paperbacks take up minimum space.

The Kindle is a device made for people on the move for sure but so is a book, you can scrunch it, bend it tear it in to a trilogy if you really wanted. There is so much choice out there and I simply don't want Amazon or Tesco to tell me what to read.

It's simply not worth the money or the effort and I love the digital age.

[Marco]

I can completely understand the reasons for owning one of these Kindles, which Brian, amongst others have highlighted. And if it is of major benefit to your family and you, and you can afford one, then why indeed not have one.

However, I do think that we should also look at the bigger picture and examine what impact our seemingly insatiable desire for convenience these days is having on traditional (small) businesses, and those whose livelihoods are reliant on them, and indeed the impact that this is having on society as a whole.

Brian said:

Whenever people criticise devices like these they tend to look only at how the device relates to their own situation and lifestyle .... perhaps one should consider that for other people living different kinds of lives then they can be very useful indeed...

Yes, I agree. However, and please don't take this the wrong way, mate, but have you also considered what cumulative impact one's lifestyle decisions have on others, and whether the (arguably) selfish desire for convenience and looking after what's best for ourselves, is good for society as a whole and the healthy development of our future generations?

Or does no-one care about that now, and it's simply a case of shrugging one's shoulders and shunning any responsibility for our lifestyle decisions, on the premise that we won't be around to witness what happens with our planet once we're no longer alive, and in the meantime going around blindly doing what's best for ourselves, leaving others to worry about what happens with the impact of that in future, perhaps when it's then too late to fix things??

We've already discussed elsewhere the hugely detrimental impact on-line buying has had on independent record stores, with 100s of them being forced to close their doors, not to mention the similar impact out of town supermarkets and retail parks have had on many town centres, turning them into ghost towns.

Is that what people want to happen too with our independent book shops and retail stores?

Do people no longer value living in a proper community, where real people do shopping inside real shops, or are we happy to live in a society where town centres and a retail environment is a thing of the past, and we're all cocooned inside our homes, glued to our computers like zombies, or walking around the place with an iPod, iPad, iPhone, and Kindle, and good knows what else strapped to us, living in our own little virtual world, oblivious to our surroundings and interacting with no-one around us, as a result of being completely dehumanised by technology?

Don't get me wrong, modern technology, when used in the right way, is a marvellous thing, but the key is for US not to be a slave to it, but rather IT be a slave to US. At the moment I believe that, in general, there is a gross imbalance, mostly because of peer pressure and the superficial and selfish desire to own the latest 'must have'.

I'm afraid that I worry about what society as a whole is slowly becoming by allowing technology (and its associated gadgetry) to be an all-encompassing part of people's lives, and fear for the consequences. What sort of world are we building for our future generations?

Marco.

[Clive]

One thing the Kindle is not good for is when you're travelling, have a dodgy tummy and there's no bog paper.....you then speed read before tearing out the pages!

[MartinT]

I've said this before but I have visited large shopping malls in the USA with not a single book store in them. You used to be able to find at least a Waldensteins but not everywhere now.

I'm glad that this is not the case in the UK (yet) but could it only be a matter of time? Borders was a great place to sift through books and decide on purchases but they are now gone. Can Waterstones hold up even though Ottakar's have gone? Then there is the question of stock. The reason that HMV are hopeless is that they have no range, and don't even get me started on classical music.

I'm all for support of small book and record stores, but we're fighting a trend against reading and collecting music.

[Thing Fish]

I love reading books and always have a big pile of them on my bedside table.

I can't quite make up my mind about the kindle. It seems to be convenient but lacks a certain something over a real book. This of course may change over time but at the moment I would still opt for the real thing.

When traveling to work I often listen to audio books on my iPhone. Spike Milligan reads his own books and its chuffing hilarious...