Yes, books are great but we said that about CDs

RT says:

05:53am | 26/10/09

I agree, the CD has probably had its day. Makes me glad I never gave in to that impulse years ago to open a record shop. Even books may be on their way out. I think I’d better unload my old CDs on e-bay while I can. On the i-pod - why don’t they make them with replaceable batteries, rechargeable outside the unit, so that charged-up spares could be carried? Is it a design fault or a marketing ploy to get us to upgrade the whole unit when the battery fades? The other thing about i-pods - not good for middle aged people with hearing loss. And because of them, there will be a lot more of those in future. Will kindle and counterparts cause a similar epidemic of eye damage?

Darcy Moore says:

05:55am | 26/10/09

Hi, my name is Patsy and I’m a technoholic! ;O)

Jodi says:

06:44am | 26/10/09

I love technology, but I love books. And as much as I’d like to believe otherwise, I think the columnist is absolutely right. Storage, convenience, instant gratification….all the things we seem to be perpetually chasing. But I do so love books! I love the act of opening a book and literally diving in, physically turning the page, feeling the quality of the paper, the smell of ink….I’m glad my son has had the opportunity (and has wanted) to get into reading real books before they’re gone.

As to what RT says about the iPod, I’ve had numerous iterations of them. I have two iPhones, I have the 80gb iPod before the Classics were released, I’ve had a Shuffle, I’ve bought iPod Minis/Nanos for other people. I’ve never had dramas with the batteries. I don’t really care that you can’t change them. As an adult, I choose not to destroy my hearing by using them. I also make my son, with his Shuffle, exercise restraint. And how much more of an eye damage epidemic can you have than from the whole world using computers day in and day out, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year?

jessejones says:

08:10am | 26/10/09

What will seriously hurt book sales in Austrlia, & help alternatives like kindle, are the ludicrous, ripoff prices we must pay for new books.

shabangabang says:

08:30am | 26/10/09

I have already purchased and started using the Kindle, and yes I have seen the Nook. Given it took quite a while for the Kindle to be available internationaly, I wasn’t waiting for the next big thing to land on our shores.
What I like about the Kindle is that it doesn’t have the gadgetry the Nook appears to have. It isn’t necessary. Reading a book or newspaper is a simple past-time and should be done on an uncomplicated piece of technology.
I love the ease of downloading a new piece of reading material (newspapers automatically). I love the free wi-fi access (will the Nook provide that?)
As a glasses wearer I have found it good on the eyes. I haven’t had to adjust the text size at all.
I would recommend buying one and not waiting.

Sheridan Jobbins says:

08:43am | 26/10/09

There’s something repulsive about the Kindle. At first I thought it was just the name - that mixture of ‘burning’ and ‘books’ has always made me queasy, but I’ve come to see it’s the whole ‘sharing’ thing - as it is with music.

Part of the pleasure of a book is its previous owners - there is extra delight in reading something that is handed to you by someone who has already read and enjoyed it. Then there is the monument a book becomes on the shelf… the sheer, inherent beauty of the thing.  The Kindle is not beautiful. It’s an oblique tablet - badly designed - with too much room given over to that keyboard on the bottom - and the scroll bar on the right.

But worst of all is the failed sense of ownership. You’re right of course - it’s a great tool for students and bureaucrats, but what about the perniciousness of Amazon going into people’s personal libraries (without a hint of irony) and removing all of George Orwell’s work from the Kindles because they had been badly licensed?

How long before the police are tracking down wilful pubescents for hacking and cracking copies of Moriss Gleitzman’s, “Bumface”.

iansand says:

09:32am | 26/10/09

I own a couple of books.  One of my less booky more sporty acqaintances looked at my floor to ceiling bookshelves once and said “They are just your trophies, aren’t they?”  He was right.  A Kindle will never replace the trophies.

Zeta says:

10:58am | 26/10/09

I’m going to get a Sony Reader instead of a Kindle. I don’t like the idea of Amazon being able to tell me what books I can and can’t read. (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/07/amazon-sold-pirated-books-raided-some-kindles.ars)

I’m sure the Kindle is great if you’re reading habits resemble the New Releases shelf of your local Dymocks, but if you’re tastes are further on the fringe, it’s a waste of money. That, and no Australian newspapers are available for subscription yet.

Also, the ability of the CDMA Kindle to track you via a cribbed kind of cellular GPS is kind of frightening. Why does Amazon need to know where I am when I read a book?

RT says:

11:28am | 26/10/09

Jodi: I’ve had only one ipod, my daughter’s castoff. It does have a dodgy battery but that’s good for my hearing because it doesn’t last. If your ‘iterations’ (ouch!) have been satisfactory to you, why have you needed so many? Surely not succumbing to marketing and materialism, are you? There is always someone or something to tempt you into thinking you need to upgrade a perfectly satisfactory belonging.

Joel B1 says:

11:43am | 26/10/09

Go Zeta!
I’ve had a PRS505 for a few years now, hacked and mod’ed it and it’s great. There’s a whole community of PRS users writing software and helping each other. They even got together and bought the main software writer (who’s Russian) the new PRS505 so he could develop software for it.

And unlike Kindle, where they know what I’m reading, I can read Victorian Erotica (free and legal from http://manybooks.net) in complete privacy. And without the risk of suspiciously curly hairs falling out of a dirty dead-tree library book.

PS I think the Brisbane Library lends e-books

Alex says:

11:44am | 26/10/09

My dodgy eyesight is the main reason I don’t want a Kindle, or any similar sort of device. I just can’t read from a screen for very long before my eyes start to hurt and I get a migraine. I can’t focus on the words and I lose track of where I am. Books don’t do that to me, which is why I love them and fill my shelves with them. (I also collect vinyl records, thank you very much, but that’s beside the point.)

Kia says:

12:01pm | 26/10/09

How sad….somehow the idea of laying in a bubble bath with a Kindle or Nook doesn’t hold the same appeal as doing so with a book.  And how would I annoy my darling hubby all hours of the night without noisly turning the pages of my book whilst in bed?

Give me the humble ol’ book any day!

Kenny Kindle says:

12:08pm | 26/10/09

The Kindle is definitely on my Christmas list.  It will not replace books but will be supplemental to my collection.  I love bookshops, the way people whisper like it is a library and the joy of finding something new.
Even Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, agrees that there is nothing quite like the tactile touch of a book and he still enjoys visiting bookshops.  The Kindle will provide immediate gratification when bookshops are closed at 3am.

Joel B1 says:

12:08pm | 26/10/09

re dodgy eyesight.
The Sony Reader and Kindle use e-ink so it’s not like a computer screen whether cathode-ray, LCD or plasma. It really looks like ink on a page, albeit a slightly grey page.

And it’s handy as is the font size is adjustable (at least on PRS) at the push of a button, from tiny to very very large.

sinbyte says:

12:57pm | 26/10/09

The marketing department here for Kindle forgot to mention that you won’t necessarily get the books you want, and not that many Australian titles are on offer yet. But please correct me or erase me in that adverblog kinda way.

H says:

04:31pm | 26/10/09

Yes the problem with E-readings is that screens often aren’t at the right re-fresh rate so our eyes get tired reading them, though I understand LCD’s aren’t suppossed to have this problem.

I doubt e-reading will be too popular with academic reading though, many students like to highlight quotes they intend to use for their assesments and make notes in the margins - although I suppose the technology to do that will aslo be here soon.

natz says:

10:01pm | 26/10/09

When it comes to books, about half of the retail price goes to the retailer… fair enough, as they have to carry the stock and risk for months. I think the print cost makes up between 20 to 30 per cent, a cut to the publisher with only 10 per cent of the cover price going to the writer. Any technology which cuts out almost three quarters of the cost and means more people are reading books again, and leaves more to the writer - who can self publish without knocking on the doors of the ever diminishing publishers - has got to be a embraced. My feeling is it will.

Andrew H says:

10:38pm | 26/10/09

I got bored waiting for a decent ebook device so download audiobooks off iTunes for my iPod then play through car system. I love having the author read to me will I deal with Brisbane traffic.
Audio books remind me of those childrens’ storys on tape years ago.

James says:

11:43pm | 26/10/09

The nook is a laggy peice of crap that wastes battery life by having a stupid dual screen arrangement.

a book is a simple concept, thus an ebook reader should be simple aswell.

you get that with the kindle, though the keyboard is a bit strange, it is extremely usefull for buying books on the go.

ive already orded my kindle, it should be here in a few days, im v excited.

Prudence says:

03:53pm | 23/11/11

This is way more helpful than aytnhing else I’ve looked at.