Like many geeks, I love gadgets and I love to read. Since I've found that my rate of giving away old books is slower than the rate at which I get new ones and my bookshelf is always at eyesore-full capacity, I've wondered if e-books are everything they're cracked up to be?
Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. Mark Twain's advice was apt in its time but sounds downright quaint these days. The ink-stained publishing world is battling against companies like Google and Yahoo that sell ads via any Internet-friendly gadget. And we know how that fight is going: The buy-ink-by-the-barrel types are struggling.
I can't possibly convey the wild excitement that surged through my heart when I first read about the Kindle. I can tell you the exact date: Nov. 19, 2007. The Kindle had just been announced, by Jeff Bezos himself. I read about it online, and my lust for a piece of technology that instantly implied a complete lack of technological expertise was immediately ... kindled. What a divine thing: It was simultaneously new and old. It was an homage to books without in any way promising their extinction. Within seconds of reading about it, I went to Amazon, pressed my one-click and bought myself a Kindle. I became so overexcited that I contemplated buying Amazon stock. A few minutes later I was so carried away with the thrill of it all that I ordered two more, for each of my sons. No socks this year, guys. No shirts that I like but you don't. No books that I already gave you and forgot that I did. I've done it: the Kindle. A great gift and what's more, a gift that promised to go on giving,
Back in 2000, the handheld electronic book was thought to be as much a part of the future as MP3s, broadband video, and ad-supported websites. That year, Forrester Research predicted $251 million in sales of e-book content by 2005. It seemed a modest goal, but today the market is so small that Forrester doesn't even track it. Held back by a lack of available titles and stifling copy protection, the e-book reader gathered dust while other dotcom-era innovations flourished.
Digital reading devices were hardly bestsellers when they landed on the scene a few years ago, but Sony is betting that its newest entry will be the iPod of ink. The Sony Reader will be released ea...
Like many geeks, I love gadgets and I love to read. Since I've found that my rate of giving away old books is slower than the rate at which I get new ones and my bookshelf is always at eyesore-full capacity, I've wondered if e-books are everything they're cracked up to be?
Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. Mark Twain's advice was apt in its time but sounds downright quaint these days. The ink-stained publishing world is battling against companies like Google and Yahoo that sell ads via any Internet-friendly gadget. And we know how that fight is going: The buy-ink-by-the-barrel types are struggling.
I can't possibly convey the wild excitement that surged through my heart when I first read about the Kindle. I can tell you the exact date: Nov. 19, 2007. The Kindle had just been announced, by Jeff Bezos himself. I read about it online, and my lust for a piece of technology that instantly implied a complete lack of technological expertise was immediately ... kindled. What a divine thing: It was simultaneously new and old. It was an homage to books without in any way promising their extinction. Within seconds of reading about it, I went to Amazon, pressed my one-click and bought myself a Kindle. I became so overexcited that I contemplated buying Amazon stock. A few minutes later I was so carried away with the thrill of it all that I ordered two more, for each of my sons. No socks this year, guys. No shirts that I like but you don't. No books that I already gave you and forgot that I did. I've done it: the Kindle. A great gift and what's more, a gift that promised to go on giving,
Back in 2000, the handheld electronic book was thought to be as much a part of the future as MP3s, broadband video, and ad-supported websites. That year, Forrester Research predicted $251 million in sales of e-book content by 2005. It seemed a modest goal, but today the market is so small that Forrester doesn't even track it. Held back by a lack of available titles and stifling copy protection, the e-book reader gathered dust while other dotcom-era innovations flourished.
Digital reading devices were hardly bestsellers when they landed on the scene a few years ago, but Sony is betting that its newest entry will be the iPod of ink. The Sony Reader will be released ea...
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