De writes a fine review on the limitations (at present) of electronic books.
The revolution currently depends on getting people to read for entertainment on their computers, because the best traditionally-formatted self-published books can aspire to be is…books. And sitting in front of a computer gets old. I get my RDA of repetitive stress injuries at work, thanks. And Kindles are so meh.
It’s not that the book format is the ultimate format, but until the alternatives are better for me, why bother with meh?
The mighty book:
- Does not require a power source except in instances where humans require power sources anyway (i.e., lighting, the ability to move).
- Can be replaced cheaply if damaged (usually); thus, can be read in the bathtub.
- Can be explored rather than searched for.
- Can be interacted with physically (smelled, touched, listened to, riffled).
- Can be collected.
- Can be illustrated in color.
- Can be loaned.
- Can be borrowed.
- Can be entrusted to a baby (board books, rubber books).
- Can be produced in different sizes (comic books).
- Can have a “total package” for marketing purposes – in fact, have covers for just this purpose.
- Are reliable
De leaves one one aspect of conventional books that Kindles and the like cannot (as yet) match: ubiquity. I have books everywhere in the house. I have a book in my briefcase, one on the breakfast table by my computer, one in the bathroom, one in my closet, one on my nightstand, one in each of our cars. I may carry a given book I’m reading and really into to various places, but if I forget it, I can very easily just pick up one of the other ones I’m reading.
At the moment, I don’t think I can afford that many Kindles, esp. since I can’t easily have all my books available on each one. And being upstairs and realizing I left the Kindle downstairs, or off at work and realizing I left it at home, etc. … that’s just not fun times.
The only thing I carry around with me that reliably is, probably, my cell phone. But cell phones are too small a form factor for easy reading (at least as currently designed). And I can’t afford to carry around anything bigger than that.
Hmmm. Maybe if we had e-readers that tied into a heads-up display on my glasses …
But of course, the other limiting factor is what De also identifies. battery life.
I’m prepared to buy a cell phone when it’s my:
- cell phone
- laptop
- e-reader (and can display graphic-novel-level illustrations)
- music and video player
- and I can throw it in my backpack for a month-long expedition into the desert, with a few stretches in the ocean, and not have to worry about how I’m going to charge the thing.
I can carry around a book indefinitely.
The people, the people are ready for a revolution. But the batteries, the batteries aren’t ready.
Yup.
But in ten years, we may all be singing a different tune.
A few points:
One, you can actually keep two kindles synced up to the point where they not one have the same books on both, but they both know which page you’re up to, regardless of which reader you were on last.
Battery life on a Kindle is very nearly measured in weeks.
I can’t speak for everyone, but the very idea of reading more than one book at a time… wearies me. I just don’t work that way, a’tall. I appreciate that you, but… no. Please god, no.
That the Kindle provides always on internet connectivity for googling and wikipedia-ing for FREE very nearly justifies the cost the item – for me – right there. If I ever find myself with an impending financial storm on the way, the last item I’ll buy before shutting off my cable internet is a Kindle2.
I’m glad to hear that Kindles allow sort of synchronization. I’m not sure that two are enough in that fashion, but it’s a start. Since Kindles have wireless connectivity, I’d settle for being able to thumbprint my way into any Kindle to say, “Hey, this is me, let me access my books and bookmarks.”
I have heard that Kindle battery life is pretty impressive. That is a good thing.
Part of my reading multiple books at a time is that I read so often it’s difficult to always have my current book with me. I also admit that I am a few sigmas off plumb in this regard.
I suspect that having a Kindle is sort of like a DVR — I won’t have one, until I suddenly must, and then will wonder how I lived without one.
It strikes me that there are multiple markets for books, and I can think of at least four: as collectibles, as disposable entertainment, as works of art or craft, as tools/reference works. The amazing thing is that the same basic thing fulfills all these needs. Kindles, on the other hand, do not. They definitely don’t fulfill the collectible market or the work-of-art-or-craft market (at least with respect to the physical object, though the words may still be a work of art).
While I’m not really into books as collectibles any more, and I have never really regarded them as disposable, I do have some appreciation of books as works of art or craft, and I use many books as tools. Like you, ***Dave, I worry about the need to keep track of one’s Kindle and make sure it never gets lost, misplaced, or left-at-the-office. I’ve mostly solved that problem with my cell phone by carrying it in my pocket at all times, but a Kindle is too large to put in my pocket. For me, the issue isn’t that I’m reading several books at once, but that I need to refer to several books that I’ve already read while teaching. The biggest advantage of Kindle for me, I think, will be the ability to lighten my load: I’ll be able to lots of books with me without increasing the weight of my briefcase. But on the other hand, if I misplace the Kindle, I will have misplaced all my books, not just one of them.
Well, until you get a new Kindle and redownload what you need.
That said, you raise an interesting point — though I don’t often any more reference multiple books at the same time in a particular tasks, there are times when it’s handy — and faster to have multiple books open in front of you than to go through whatever windowing/tabbing process an e-reader has. (It’s the same I reason I’m a Bad Person and print out multiple documents at work when doing something that needs to integrate them, rather than just relying on them in different windows).
I agree with David . .. up to a point. Almost all modern reference books are now, or will shortly be web-vased. Particularly for professional references that are updated frequently. The publishers or things like Building Codes now make them web-based with an on-going subscription for updates. The additional cost for a physical copies is prohibitively high for most offices now.
The inability to accept electronic media will change as the aging population falls out of the bracket that industry ‘cares’ about.
In my view things like Kindle won’t really take off until they come up with a solution that allows them to be pocket ransportable, but also have an output large enough to deal with graphics and print in a way that isn’t eye straining.
This is going to have to be some kind of folding technology. I envision some sort of ‘scroll’=like screen that can be held open by a telescoping frame.
It’ll have to be backlit and, as De points out, have a battery that lasts practically forever.
It’s not like we have any demands . . . ;?
And I need to be able to carry it in my hand as I take my lunchtime walkabout.
And I want a pony. And a rocket ship.
And where are my flying cars?!
Oh yeah – you have to be able to clean the screen after you use the thing as a cookbook, too.
This conversation would be easier to have if people didn’t keep conflating enjoying a book with enjoying a story. In ten years, I believe that independent book stores that are still in business will be selling collectors-editions almost exclusively, because books will begin to hold the same niche as collectible art.
As soon as I realized that ‘book’ doesn’t equal ‘story’, a lot of reservations about e-readers went away.
While I concede De’s point on battery-life, she attributes a lot of flimsiness to e-readers that isn’t accurate (and a lot of unreadability to smartphone screens, but that’s another thing entirely – I’ve seen the iPhone Kindle app, and it’s quite readable).
I’ll give up the ability to lay out four reference books on my desk at the same same (ugh) for the ability to carry every reference (and game) book that I own in my pocket.
As for the rest of the list? Many of the items are simply preferences for the artist product that a book represents (feel, smell, sound of the paper, color inserts, etc), and nothing at all to do with the story itself. Or it’s a matter of taste: she’d rather explore a book than search it — me, when I’m re-reading for a particular passage — I want to be able to search.
Perhaps it’s all about personal preferences – as I’ve actually used a couple different brands of e-readers (including my laptop – which all of you have done, and for hours every day), I’ve found them to be something I forget about entirely, once I get into the story itself.
I agree with most of your points, Doyce — and that story can be separate from physical book (just as book can be separate from library, or audio can be separate from radio). Heck, as much as I love the beauty of books, I suspect that people bemoaned the loss of illustrated calliagraphy when the printing press came along, and the loss of the bard’s voice when writing took over for conveying the sagas.
And I’d like to be able to search through a book, too.
The two factors that remain sticking points for me — being able to not worry about leaving my Kindle where I don’t have it (as a persistent reader), and the issue BD raises below of DRM.
I dunno. Maybe I need to get a “loaner” Kindle for a few weeks to see how it works. 🙂
Ok, my father has a 1st gen Kindle and likes it a lot. He has also added the iPhone app to his Touch and uses that app in a pinch. And when storage space for new books, especially short shelf-life books that are not useful as reference book, is as much at a premium as it is in his house, the Kindle is a good option.
I’m with Doyce, the thought reading several books at once makes me tired, but that may have more to do with the type of books I read. I will read magazine articles at the same time as I have a book started, but that’s about it.
My biggest problem with Kindle is the lack of photos and other graphics. Many history books have photos or maps that enhance the reader’s understanding of the subject, and missing out on those does bother me.
And short of the extrordinary battery life (and I thinks that’s going to come eventually), my iPhone has is all the things that De wants. Now if it could just talk to me when I’m lonely…maybe I need to see if there’s an app for that.
Isn’t that what Twitter is for? 🙂
I hope I didn’t give the impression that I think the kindle won’t be successful because it doesn’t fulfill all the markets/needs I mentioned. To the contrary. I think those people who are interested in the needs that the kindle fills well will get kindles (or some future e-book).
I wonder about the fold-out screen thing. In some circumstances, a little micro-projector to project the image on a blank bit of wall would be just as useful, and it seems a lot more practical than afolding screen.
And on misplacing one’s kindle, the scenario I usually find myself in is that I get to a classroom only to discover that I left my copy of the textbook sitting on the podium of the last room I was teaching in. There’s no way to get a new kindle that quickly. But if I have two copies of the text in my bag, or if one class is reading a different book than the other, I’m good to go.
My only objection to the whole E-book concept is the objection I have to anything that is covered by DRM. If the books are not loanable or borrowable, then they are useless and I will treat them like I do any Digital Media.
Copyable/borrowable is absolutely a prerequisite.
Looked at another way — I suspect, with all the loaning back and forth of DVDs and books that we do amongst our social circle, that we have cost the publishers some sales (“Huh, well, that wasn’t so good” or “Well, I think that was a see-once”), but we’ve probably gained more sales than were lost (“Wow, that was great, so I must pick up a copy for myself — or maybe the whole series, because I don’t want to wait”). In a DRM world of movies/books/music, that just can’t happen.