31–37 of 37 posts
At $300, I can't convince myself to take the plunge. $200 I could probably convince myself, and at <$150 I'd have the Kindle already.
I've got a DX and I love it, but I feel extremely silly paying for books on it. Especially when the Kindle book is $9.99 and the paperback is $12.99.
Why silly? I'm curious.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why silly? I'm curious.
Because sometimes they're almost the price of the real thing, except I don't know if I'll have them in a couple years (with DRM) and there's no way for me to lend them to friends.
To beat the book, to be better than the book, Amazon... This is a classic case of a solution looking for a problem. I imagine that a Kindle would be a great companion on a plane, a train, or in a backpack, but other than that... I can't imagine using one of these things at work or at home, where I do 90% of my reading. I love books. I have shevles full of them in my home and office. I love the feel and smell and the…
Even for travel I don't see the worth. I tend to avoid taking expensive things on trips and even then, travel is an opportunity to see what there is to read and learn about the location I arrive at rather than what I can take with me.
The Kindle surely has applications, but for me they are severely limited.
"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…
if you are judging a person by what they are reading, then you are are bit superficial I think it's countless times better to judge a person by which books they read than it is to judge them by the clothes they wear or how they style their hair or how big their muscles or boobs are. Judging isn't good, but books are something close to the heart.
"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…
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"…
Not in the least. I may not want to read them again but still consider them worth passing on.
"..."buying" a book for the Kindle is more akin to "renting" the book"
This is exactly why I love libraries. I specifically want to own (outright, no string attached) books that I will want to read again or have some other retaining value. The Kindle gives me all the negatives of the library system (no ownership) with all the negatives of the commercial system (expensive, wasted money).
I wish the Kindle were more of a utility. Everyone buys one and it can be used to buy, loan, and trade books. Amazon would make money because the Kindle would be the TRUE iPod of the book world. However I'm not holding by breath for this to happen (at least with the Kindle); but I am hoping that someone else sees this opportunity and beats the Kindle into the ground.