Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Kindle problem

theatlantic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 37 posts

Re: The Kindle problem

#11

Post by alex_c »

ardit33 wrote: post #4

"For example, the Kindle lets readers down with respect to one subtle but powerful element of the traditional book’s appeal: its role as an identity marker. Pulling out a particular book on an airline flight or in a doctor’s office can mean staking a claim to being a particular kind of person." -- That is easily resovalbe. Having a second smaller outside screen (like flip phones do), showing what you are reading :P B…

>But honeslty, if you are judging a person by what they are reading, then you are are bit superficial

Judging a person by the... cover of the book they're reading?

Re: The Kindle problem

#12

Post by unalone »

kingkawn wrote: post #8
ardit33 wrote: post #4

"For example, the Kindle lets readers down with respect to one subtle but powerful element of the traditional book’s appeal: its role as an identity marker. Pulling out a particular book on an airline flight or in a doctor’s office can mean staking a claim to being a particular kind of person." -- That is easily resovalbe. Having a second smaller outside screen (like flip phones do), showing what you are reading :P B…

"But honeslty, if you are judging a person by what they are reading, then you are are bit superficial" It's easy to be dismissive of these kinds of social indicators, but they have power and influence, and taking them seriously can help you to understand how to improve the product in question.

There are other methods of judgment, though. Sometimes the judgment is of the product itself. Nobody who's seen me with a Kindle has gone away thinking anything other than "This is somebody who reads hardcore." They don't get an idea of what I read, same as they don't get an idea of what's on my iPod, but the existence of the product says something in and of itself.

Perhaps being judgmental about books is on the way out. It's happened before. Perhaps there'll be even more emphasis on clothing judgmentalism.

Re: The Kindle problem

#13

Post by erikwiffin »

ardit33 wrote: post #4

"For example, the Kindle lets readers down with respect to one subtle but powerful element of the traditional book’s appeal: its role as an identity marker. Pulling out a particular book on an airline flight or in a doctor’s office can mean staking a claim to being a particular kind of person." -- That is easily resovalbe. Having a second smaller outside screen (like flip phones do), showing what you are reading :P B…

The Kindle is subsidized. You pay $9.99 every time you buy a book for it.

If I'm going to spend more than $100 on something like this, I really don't want to have to continue to pay to keep it useful. On the other hand, to subsidize the Kindle to the point where they could afford to sell it for $100, they'd have to sell books for a lot more than $10, and (ignoring libraries and used books) a paper back doesn't often cost too much more than $10.

Re: The Kindle problem

#14

Post by mquander »

futuremint wrote: post #7
akmad wrote: post #2

I would LOVE to get a Kindle. I enjoy the user experience and the convenience of having all your books on a single small device would be amazing. That said, I am never going to pay even $100 for a device that locks me into buying books that I cannot loan to a friend or pass on to my kids. Not to mention that roughly 75% of the books I read I'll never read again. This usage pattern perfectly matches the free (excludin…

"... or pass on to my kids." and "... roughly 75% of the books I read I'll never read again." are mutually exclusive, no? I read a lot of objections to the Kindle stating that you don't own the books. Personally I read a book once and I'm done with it (unless its a programming/reference book). I assume most people are the same way. So why hoard books if you're not going to read them? The other thing is that "buying"…

> I read a lot of objections to the Kindle stating that you don't own the books. Personally I read a book once and I'm done with it (unless its a programming/reference book). I assume most people are the same way. So why hoard books if you're not going to read them?

I think that's a weird assumption. I read a book, maybe read it again in a year, maybe look at it sometime to remember some passage or some quote or some line of argument, and if it's any good, I'll almost always end up lending it to one or more friends. Many other people I know treat books similarly. I get equal or greater pleasure out of sharing good books as I do reading them myself, so not being able to do that really cuts down on the value of the book to me.

I'm also not sure it's a good profit model. I frequently buy multiple copies -- 2 or 3 -- of good books to give them to friends who I know will appreciate them but probably wouldn't have the money or inclination to track down a copy on their own, and presumably, those friends might be more inclined to investigate those authors in the future.

I'm not sure that Amazon wants us to think about the Kindle as "renting" books, because in America we have a huge, public-funded infrastructure of libraries dedicated to renting books for absolutely free; it's hard for the Kindle to compete with that. They usually (for most categories of books) have a better selection than the Kindle, too.

Re: The Kindle problem

#15

Post by warfangle »

I have the kindle reader on my iphone, and was looking for some Camus to read on it. Unfortunately, the only books available to kindle having anything to do with Camus are books and essays about Camus, not actual Camus books (you cannot, for example, purchase The Stranger for your kindle).

In fact, the two books I have bought for my kindle app I've ended up not reading at all.

Even if the kindle dropped to the sweet spot price point, I probably wouldn't get one. And I'm probably not the only one. Wasn't there an episode of Star Trek where books were portrayed as an oddity: collectors items, status symbols?

Once e-readers and books are inexpensive enough, it will be more expensive to purchase a hard copy. And thus, they will turn into status symbols - I doubt the market for them will disappear, just change. Sort of like how owning a horse now is (somewhat) considered a status symbol.

Re: The Kindle problem

#16

Post by ardit33 »

erikwiffin wrote: post #13
ardit33 wrote: post #4

"For example, the Kindle lets readers down with respect to one subtle but powerful element of the traditional book’s appeal: its role as an identity marker. Pulling out a particular book on an airline flight or in a doctor’s office can mean staking a claim to being a particular kind of person." -- That is easily resovalbe. Having a second smaller outside screen (like flip phones do), showing what you are reading :P B…

The Kindle is subsidized. You pay $9.99 every time you buy a book for it. If I'm going to spend more than $100 on something like this, I really don't want to have to continue to pay to keep it useful. On the other hand, to subsidize the Kindle to the point where they could afford to sell it for $100, they'd have to sell books for a lot more than $10, and (ignoring libraries and used books) a paper back doesn't often…

"The Kindle is subsidized." -- Not any more than an ipod/touch is. You are actually paying the fair price for device is. An iphone at 99, is a heavily subsidized device. The real cost would be more than $400-$500. You are paying it down the road with the $70-$100/mo plan.

Technically, you can buy a kindle, and use it only for pdfs and never buy a book, and that's still ok.

Re: The Kindle problem

#17

Post by unalone »

erikwiffin wrote: post #13
ardit33 wrote: post #4

"For example, the Kindle lets readers down with respect to one subtle but powerful element of the traditional book’s appeal: its role as an identity marker. Pulling out a particular book on an airline flight or in a doctor’s office can mean staking a claim to being a particular kind of person." -- That is easily resovalbe. Having a second smaller outside screen (like flip phones do), showing what you are reading :P B…

The Kindle is subsidized. You pay $9.99 every time you buy a book for it. If I'm going to spend more than $100 on something like this, I really don't want to have to continue to pay to keep it useful. On the other hand, to subsidize the Kindle to the point where they could afford to sell it for $100, they'd have to sell books for a lot more than $10, and (ignoring libraries and used books) a paper back doesn't often…

Remember that book costs slide downward over time. I got me the complete Sherlock Holmes for a dollar, and a bit of Austen and Dickens for free. I think Neuromancer was about seven dollars, too. So it's not a flat price eating away at you.

Re: The Kindle problem

#19

Post by ironkeith »

unalone wrote: post #12
kingkawn wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"But honeslty, if you are judging a person by what they are reading, then you are are bit superficial" It's easy to be dismissive of these kinds of social indicators, but they have power and influence, and taking them seriously can help you to understand how to improve the product in question.

There are other methods of judgment, though. Sometimes the judgment is of the product itself. Nobody who's seen me with a Kindle has gone away thinking anything other than "This is somebody who reads hardcore." They don't get an idea of what I read, same as they don't get an idea of what's on my iPod, but the existence of the product says something in and of itself. Perhaps being judgmental about books is on the way…

I have a Kindle and one of my favourite things is that people can't see what I'm reading. I can sit in an airport lobby and read programming books, sci-fi, Harry Potter, or Michael Ondaatje and no one can tell. Feels good man.

Re: The Kindle problem

#20

Post by unalone »

warfangle wrote: post #15

I have the kindle reader on my iphone, and was looking for some Camus to read on it. Unfortunately, the only books available to kindle having anything to do with Camus are books and essays about Camus, not actual Camus books (you cannot, for example, purchase The Stranger for your kindle). In fact, the two books I have bought for my kindle app I've ended up not reading at all. Even if the kindle dropped to the sweet…

I'm surprised more correlation hasn't been pointed out between the hardcover book and the LP. Both are unnecessary embellishments to the data they hold inside, but both have a set of advantages over pure digital information
Post reply on HN