A Whole New Way to Read

The other day as I was driving home from my class in Suttons Bay I heard an interview with a guy who has become a huge fan of the Kindle. The Kindle is an electronic way of reading. I'm not totally sure, but I think it's sort of like a visual ipod. You can download books, magazines, newspapers, etc. and then read them on a screen. He said, I think, that a Kindle can hold something like 1500 full books.

I have often seen the Kindle when I'm ordering something on Amazon, and never given it a second thought. I'm a huge reader, of course, but I'm one of those people who likes to hold the book in my hand, smell that new book smell, flip back to check on details I may have forgotten, have that whole sensory experience. So the thought of reading a book on a screen has always sounded completely unappealing. I don't even like reading my email on the screen.

Still, something about what this guy was saying really did catch my interest. First, he started by explaining that he, too, is a book lover and even a book collector. He's not a total techie. So this gave him some credibility. Second, he explained that one advantage of the Kindle is that if, say, you were out at a party or at bookclub or wherever and someone mentioned a book they really liked, you could right then and there order it up on your Kindle. For $9.99, you could have the whole book downloaded into your Kindle in minutes. (How, I'm not sure, but it seemed similar to getting a song off of i-tunes.) Similarly, you could get certain magazines also automatically downloaded and have them right there at your fingertips. The third thing that caught my interest is that instead of lugging a bunch of heavy books around on vacation, you could just carry along your little Kindle. Also, the savings on paper is huge. Additionally, my house wouldn't keep getting more and more cluttered with books like it is already. These are all good things.

So, am I going to go out and order one right now? No. But I'm definitely more engaged by the idea than I ever thought I could be. And I'm seeing more and more advantages. What do you all think? Would you be more likely to read if you had an electronic device to which you could download reading material or do you see this as a total turnoff? Why? Let me know; I'm curious to hear others' reactions. :-)