Amazon's Kindle - a new way to read books?

[JDeRouen]

I have a good friend who reads all his books on a hand held reader, which I absolutely cannot stand. I never thought I'd be interested in reading that way... until I read about the Amazon Kindle.



Now I desperately want one. (Though I don't want to pay the $399 price tag!)

http://www.amazon.com/kindle

If everyone were to chip in, I think you could all buy me one for Christmas.

Joe

[Mawni]

I watched the video. That thing looks cool. I read a bunch of eBooks on my Sony Clié and I really liked it. I needs to come in black and you need to be able to change the screen orientation too.

I'm sure the price will come way down.

[megoat]

I think this is the most stupid thing ever. Call me a Luddite, but I loathe the idea of physical media becoming obsolete. I'm not a fan of MP3's either. What I am a fan of is the overall aesthetic of opening a book and turning pages that goes along with reading. Just as I'm into the idea of placing a record on the turntable and lifting a needle. It's all part of the process for me.

I just can't wait until food in it's physical form becomes a thing of the past. Folks will just download a bag of Dorittos and have the crap shot straight into their veins.

[HardyGirl]

I think this is the most stupid thing ever. Call me a Luddite, but I loathe the idea of physical media becoming obsolete. I'm not a fan of MP3's either. What I am a fan of is the overall aesthetic of opening a book and turning pages that goes along with reading. Just as I'm into the idea of placing a record on the turntable and lifting a needle. It's all part of the process for me.

AMEN! (and pass the biscuits!)

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

I don't really like these things either. For me, they add another level of dependence to my life. A book doesn't need batteries, or an extra widget for me to read it. Books are more resistant to being smacked around and dropped too.

I don't hate mp3s as much. (Although all the hip young kids are using mp4s now...) I needed batteries and a player for my tunes before, so the mp3 player doesn't really add any extra needs to my tune playing. Mine has a rechargable integral battery; so that makes up for needing a computer program to load it.

Don C.

[JDeRouen]

I felt the same way until I saw this one. I really like to idea of being able to highlight a word I don't know and get a definition, search for words, etc.

[MegoSteve]

Doesn't the Kindle tie you to a proprietary Amazon book format?

[Zemo]

Cool idea but--Most of the 700 reviews of are very negative. I think this guy sums it up well.

Unlike a real book that you can share, give away or even sell, this product is hopelessly crippled by DRM that severely limits your ability to use the content YOU PAY FOR in the way you want. Your choices are dictated by the copyright holders and they have all decided to limit your fair use rights. If you support products like this you do so at your own peril as it only encourages the music, print and video industries to give you less and charge you more. These kinds of crippled products encourage a world where you don't own your music, videos or print -- you just rent it until you lose it forever when new technologies appear and yours go out of business. Remember audio cassettes? How many times do you want to pay for the same content? The Kindle only makes this problem worse.

[mitchedwards]

Give me a book any day.