Kindling?

KINDLE from Amazon is the latest entry in the attempt to finally shove an entire marketplace over to eBooks. Armed with Newer! Better! technology, this latest electronic offering delivers thousands of reads wirelessly for a per item fee ("No monthly service plans"). Most of the official product description waxes on and on about how easily and quickly the content is delivered to the Kindle. It's in the fine print however that you discover sometimes its just not that fast, and it certainly doesn't come cheap.

At $359 for the Kindle device, the cost of a book better be damn cheap, or the hefty upfront price tag for the pleasure of carrying around more technology better make your life incredibly better. Maybe brew a cup of tea for instance, while you peruse the NYT. Personally? I'd rather take out a library book (remember the public library where you borrow books for free from the government?) or buy a book that I can feel, write on, page turn, (heaven forbid) earmark, pile up, lend, borrow, steal, display in the shelves I built for them, and maybe eventually donate for a tax deduction.

I turned an entire room in my home into a library, installing permanent shelving so I can show off how literate I am. I even downloaded the entire Dewey Decimal Classification listing so I could arrange all my books in appropriate categories. How would I pompously belittle my guests with an oversized calculator?

IMHO, the model for a societal shifting eBook device should have included a free or neglidgeably-priced reader, with the profit coming in the content. After all, Content is King.

I'm a techie and love the latest gadgets, but you would have to use a hacksaw to cut a book away from the grasp of my hands, in order to insert a machine in its place, especially a $359 one.
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