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Kindle Didn’t Start a Fire

October 16, 2009 in publishing by Kim | 6 comments

archives_coverart4I keep hearing that one of the top gifts for the holidays this year will be an e-reader.  Below, is an essay I wrote about receiving the Kindle two years ago for Christmas.  It originally appeared in the literary magazine SLAB (Sound and Literary Art Book) last spring.  Since I wrote the essay, my husband, my teenage son and my tweener daughter all tried reading from the Kindle and they all returned it to my drawer.  It just isn’t for us. 

That being said, I have had enough experiences in the last year (i.e. accompanying my daughter to an American Idol concert) where I thought ‘if I had an iPhone, I would be reading a book on it right now.’  The moment Verizon and Apple reach a deal (please, please soon), I’ll be buying an iPhone and guess what my first app will be?

My thoughts on the Kindle

Years ago, for Christmas, my husband gave me a stack of books he chose with a book store clerk after describing me to her.  I haven’t read them all, but every time I see one on the bookshelf, I feel loved.  For my birthday, a girlfriend gave me a book I wanted but hadn’t told her about, and I felt known. (FYI, this is Claire.)  For my 40th birthday I asked all of my friends to give me a book that was meaningful to them, as a way to learn about them.  Last Christmas, as my kids ran out to see what Santa delivered, my daughter called over her shoulder, “you have a stack of books Mommy!”  But Santa had brought those books for my mother, and when I realized that, I was disappointed.  Instead of books my husband bought me the Kindle, reasoning there was no reason to buy me any real books when I could download them. 

At that moment, I didn’t feel known. 

A month before Christmas, our copy of Newsweekarrived with Jeff Bezos on the cover announcing the Kindle, a small computer book reader.  As I looked at that cover I felt uneasy, and that night my husband read the article and handed it to me as he rolled over to sleep.  “You have to read this,” he said, “you’ll love it.”  I looked at the magazine curled up in the valley of the comforter between our two bodies and felt a rush of anxiety.  I Read the rest of this entry »

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Green Apple Books Decathalon – Book vs. the Kindle

August 10, 2009 in bookstore, Uncategorized by Kim | No comments

I keep chuckling at the videos Green Apple Books of San Francisco, CA produces pitting the book against the Kindle.  Round 1, called “The Buy Counter,” documents the difference between a customer trying to sell back used books and pocketing $80 and another trying to sell back 10 books off his Kindle.  Green Apple couldn’t resist several instances of the used book buyer holding the Kindle and saying “where’s the book?”

A dinner party with friends last week reminded me of round 3, “Sharing.”  A friend went on and on about a book that detailed the downfall of our monetary system in a readable and understandable manner.  My  husband was interested and asked to borrow it (he tries to even out my book buying habits with borrowing books from a friend or the library).  The friend said he read it on the Kindle and noted “yeah, that’s a problem with a Kindle.”  In the Green Apples video, the friend hands over his entire Kindle with all of the books he wants to read on it.  Kindles aren’t for sharing.

As a fan of chatting with bookseller’s, round 6 “Finding the Right Read,” is my favorite.  A customer wants to buy her boyfriend a book and describes what he likes, the difference between what a bookseller recommends and what the Kindle recommends is exactly the experience I’ve had trying to find a book on the Kindle.

Check out all of the videos on the Green Apple Bookstore blog, the final three will arrive this week.

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Future of Books and Bookstores Discussion

January 24, 2009 in publishing by Kim | No comments

Recently, two terrific posts on the future of the book appeared in The Daily Beast.  Both find the foundation of literary future in downloadable content.  Another question was asked by Booksellers Blog, how are bookstores going to respond to the changing market.

Peter Osmos writes in “Who Says the Book Business is Dead?”that this round of digital readers are the beginning of a new way to receive and read  books.  He believes digital readers work for books (and will work better and cheaper with innovation), but they aren’t as effective for newspapers and magazines.  Moreover, audible reading is taking hold as people are listening to more written word content, “Earbuds are everywhere, and by no means are all of them blaring music.” 

In “An Autopsy of the Book Business” by Jason Epstein, he traces the decline of book publishing to the population shift from cities to the suburbs.  When people congregated in cities, there were independent bookstores with Read the rest of this entry »

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