Posted on 11/29/2007 6:31:14 AM PST by shrinkermd
It was hard not to notice that Kindle was born unto us about the same moment the National Endowment for the Arts released a report on reading's sad lot in our time. Amid much other horrifying data, it revealed that the average 15- to 24-year-old spends seven minutes daily on "voluntary" reading. Cheerfully, this number rises to 10 minutes on weekends.
An earlier, equally grim NEA report, "Reading at Risk," announced the collapse of interest in reading literature -- basically books. This newer study widened the definition of "reading" to include magazines, newspapers and online leisure. No matter. Even if the definition of literate life includes persons who spend their seven voluntary minutes with "InStyle" magazine or online reviews of HDTVs, the report still suggests that unmandated reading is heading for the basement.
As someone whose professional hero up to now was Johannes Gutenberg, I'm obviously cheering for Mr. Bezos's Kindle, whose pages appear in a book-like technology called E-Ink. It must be counted as good news that Amazon's Web site says the first run of the Kindle machines is sold out. (A spokesman said they won't disclose how many. Hmmm.) Still, one must ask:
Are Kindle's early adopters the leading edge of a new literate future, or a small, fanatic band of bookish monks, like those in Walter M. Miller Jr.'s 1959 sci-fi classic, "A Canticle for Leibowitz" (not yet available on Kindle) who preserved books in a post-nuclear apocalypse? Are we in a post-digital apocalypse for serious reading
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
My Kindle is wrapped up under the Christmas tree as I impatiently await Christmas morning. Negative reviews of the product are almost entirely based on the uninformed opinions of individuals who have never held one in their hands. If you want a Kindle, you can’t have one until after Christmas as they are way back ordered. Amazon stock, I notice, has been making a considerable climb. The iPod for readers looks golden from a number of perspectives.
Unless you're on an airplane and you have to turn it *off* when the plane is under 10K feet, and maybe *off* the entire trip unless the wireless can be turned *off.* I fly too much to put up with that.
Well, I pay $45 a year for an out-of-county library card, but there are 10 of us using it.
Cool! AND frugal...well worth the money. I buy books...usually from Amazon/free shipping...as well as use the county’ branch library (8 miles away).
Reposting from over in the Hobbit Hole, just ‘cause I like getting my four cents in...
They can have my paper books when they pry them from my cold, dead fingers.
I don’t like the idea of a book that might run out of juice before I’m done, or lose the story (or a huge number of stories) if I drop it.
Books are low maintenance. I prefer them that way. And with library technology as it is now, where I can go on-line and request pretty much anything have have it delivered to my local branch, (it’s like FREE Netflix for books! Woo-hoo!), I’m content with the current state of things. ;-)
But considering I spent much of November writing on an old manual typewriter, I’m thinkin’ I’m probably not really the sort Amazon has in mind for the doohickey anyhow. I’m a high-tech luddite, if that isn’t an oxymoron...
We have a library in our county, but it doesn’t have nearly as large a selection. But it’s free :-). I usually check out DVD’s there, and books across the line.
Across the line...makes it sound so surreptitious and exciting! ;-)
Reading counts only when it is from your approved list.
The Library doesn’t like you to highlight, underline, and annotate their property.
I also love to read fiction and nonfiction books. Recently I read an article on the positive impact of reading - the list including health. If I find it, I’ll post the reference.
Not to mention that the cost of that Kindle thingie doesn’t even count books, does it? It’s just the machine. It’s still a losing proposition.
Besides that nothing available on Kindle is on my approved reading list and nothing on my approved reading list is available on Kindle or ever is likely to be.
Yeah, same here.
Besides, I have a fondness for the covers of old mystery paperbacks. There’s just no way to duplicate things like that digitally.
This report only counts “voluntary” reading.
I know tons of people who read insane volumes of reports and data daily, but spend little to none of their personal time reading. I would not challenge that me reading some fantasy fiction in my spare time makes me more worldly or knowledgable.
Until you drop it in the bathtub....
I've used the service quite a bit for books out of print and hard-to-find titles. ALL free.
No. reeding duznt madder.
I forgot to add: You can also request that the library purchase a book you would like to read but do not want to buy yourself.
Yes, they bought a CD my son wanted!
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