...and then there's the Kindle

While I'm on the topic of technology, here's another one that I was initially resistant to (though far less vehemently that the cell phone stuff). I love having a hardcover book in my hands to read. I like the weight of it, the feel of the paper, the smell of the book (I actually smell my hardcover books as soon as I open them, yes), the silk bookmark that often comes with them, and the sight of them on the shelf. Definitely a bibliophile!

Even so, when I first saw the Kindle on amazon.com, I was very intrigued. After all, part of being a bibliophile is that I do not like my books to get all messed up. Paperbacks I could care less about, even 'high quality' paperbacks. But the idea of packing a hardcover or taking it to the beach? Gives me the willies just thinking about the potential scuffs, worn corners, and stains. And then, of course, you really have to commit to a book to bring it along. What if you change your mind? So the idea of Kindle - a durable device that holds hundreds of books - was very appealing.

Still, I know would miss the hardcover book. And there are other objections I had: being able to mark where you leave off, the quality of the reading experience (I stare at screens all day), will anything I want to read be available or will it all be trash like Stephen King and Danielle Steele, etc. etc.

The more I investigate Kindle, however, the less the objections seem to weigh on me. You can download direct using the Kindle and get the book right away, so there's the convenience factor. You can 'dogear' pages and type notes, which I honestly cannot bring myself to do in my hardcovers. So this is actually an advantage for the Kindle. To me, the display looks pretty easy on the eyes and you can make the text bigger or smaller. The Kindle can hold 1,500 books now, which answers a prior concern I had that I would fill up the Kindle pretty quickly. Books are still very reasonably priced, and I've found a lot of stuff for sale (like novels in Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle) that are fairly rare. The price of $299 means it would quickly pay for itself too.

I still hesitate because there's no clear indication of how you recharge it. Is it going to take two days? Is there a docking station I can set it in so it is always charged? I also wonder if, once I buy the Kindle, am I stuck buying books only from amazon, because that would be a deal killer. No outlet offers everything, and I want to get what I want to get even if I have to go elsewhere. I'm also not aware of whether you can move books off the Kindle and onto your laptop. I would see myself keeping only stuff I like or may come back to on the Kindle and place other works on my laptop.

Bottom line, I guess I can still have hardcovers, but perhaps I would only get them for absolute faves, or if I find a rare/old edition, or if it's something specially made (like my hardcover edition of The Agony and the Ecstasy which is in a box slipcover and has color plates of Michelangelo's art inside). These sorts of lovingly created books are so enjoyable to have.

And the big question is, of course, where is all this going? At some point, I'll bet the iPhone will develop a Kindle-like function (maybe they already have one!?). If so, I'd hate to buy a separate device for reading and have it become obsolete within a year. I'll have to keep pondering this one. In the meantime, I am still on my Herman Melville kick, and I'm about a third of the way through his fifth novel (White-Jacket).