I'm not an electronic book fan, but not for fear of control, censorship, etc. Tactility and practicality seem to favor real books. Do people sit in the bathtub reading their Kindle's like my wife often does with her books when she's luxuriating? Don't we have enough crap to keep charged already?

Enjoy.

I went to the library today to fetch a book that traveled a hundred miles through the transit system just to meet me. It was printed in 1929 by the U. S. Government Printing Office in Washington D.C. Original price was $1.60 per copy. The pages are yellowed, a little brittle, the whole book crackles and smells like it's 80 years old. I'm in love with this book.

I don't ever see myself falling in love with a Kindle.

I used to talk like all you people but I love my Kindle. I'm finding all the old sentimental gabba gabba gabba, plus the special feeling of ego stroking you get when you see someone checking out your books at a party (until you see them mouthing "sheesh, what a pseudo-intellectual twit!") is a lot easier to get over than I ever imagined.

And despite that, it's still a niche product. Until they do color for about fifty 2009 bucks, they'll continue to be a niche product, so I'm not really worrying myself about the future of the print industry, just yet.

What I will say is that one of the most surprising things about the Kindkle to me has been its potential to give new life to out of print and public domain works. The ability to publish those works for next to nothing and get them for free, or next to nothing creates the potential to keep books in print essentially forever. I think that's huge.

On my Kindle, I have the entire seven volume collected works of Abraham Lincoln. Cost me ninety nine cents. Shakespere, Melville and Hawethorne, Free. All of Mark Twain's works, free. Animal Farm, 1984 and Orwell's collected essays, ninety nine cents each. The Illiad, free.

Unexpectedly, I've been making quite a dent in my "gotta read that before I die" list because of this thing as well as hooking back up with some old friends from the days when I did my reading from libraries rather bookstores. It's been delightful.

It does make me sad when I think of libraries as I knew them becoming obsolescent or transforming into something unrecognizable. I adored them throughout my life but, truthfully, I haven't been in one since the 90s. That's the Internet's fault, not the e-book readers.

I'm in love with my Kindle. I can carry my whole book library with me anywhere. Also, I get Whispernet free, which lets me order a book, wirelessly from anywhere so if I read a review about a great book I don't have to wait for it. Yes, it's instant gratification but I love it.

(sorry about the long post..)

Books are wonderful. So much so, in fact, that my 9x12 office is crammed with 5 floor-to-ceiling bookcases, out in the hallway are 3 more, a few smaller bookshelves are scattered elsewhere, and many more books with no home whatsoever sit in stacks hoping to be read. Such are my credentials as a book lover.

Here's the problem: I am mortal. I don't know if I'll ever have the time or inclination to read any but a few of these books (some of which haven't even been read once) in the time left to me. In the meantime, they are taking up space that I would not need otherwise, collecting dust. We have so many of them, in archaeological layers, that it is difficult to find a specific book even when I am inclined to seek it out; I started to catalog them once but realized this effort was going to take time I didn't have (including reading time!), and procedures I was not willing to adopt, not being a paid librarian like my sister.

As much as I have loved these books, they have become something of a psychic burden. If I could give them away, I would gladly do so for the price of a little gratitude, but I have eccentric tastes: who would want them but me? Donating them for a library sale, or taking them to a used bookstore is mostly pointless - I might as well take them to the landfill myself. For now, they have a home, but the day of reckoning approaches.

What to do: I still want to read new stuff. If I lived in NYC, the solution would be obvious: the public library. But I happen to live in a part of California where public libraries are barely open and are severely underfunded; there is a used bookstore in town but it is overpriced and lacking the variety I seek. I vote for every library ballot measure that comes up, but to no avail. At least we have good weather, mostly progressive policies, mountains, the ocean, and redwood trees.

So I must buy at least some of what I read at places like Amazon or our wonderful local independent bookseller. But, like the Buddhists of legend, I want to escape the cycle of buying/reading/storing/disposal, feeling guilty about the waste involved in everything except, hopefully, the actual reading.

The solution I've arrived at for now is Kindle. Yes, it is Yet Another Electronic Device, to become technologically obsolete in no more than 18 months and some day - probably at least 5 years from now - it may get lost or damaged and need to be replaced (we do need to insist that Amazon recycle these things). But it is one that lets me indulge my appetite for book reading without adding to the chaotic pile of them I already have, and more.

It is the coziest electronic device I have ever owned, and unlike most books, can be operated with one hand. No, I wouldn't read my Kindle in the bathtub (I prefer showers), but at least if I wanted to do that, I could slip it into a zip lock bag to protect it, whereas a book I would not want to have anywhere near water lest I damage it (who ARE these barbarians who would threaten the safety of a book by reading it in the bath?). A Kindle will probably never have the sensual appeal of a yellowed, brittle, smelly, falling apart volume. I have some of those. I don't need any more. But I am getting addicted to the 'click' sensation of turning pages on Kindle...

I have read more in the last 3 weeks than in the previous 6 months. It is an immensely practical device for me. It will work fine for at least a week without external power or the internet, and doesn't ruin my eyes like a computer display. I wish I could read Russian or Japanese on it, and the available selection needs to expand to include my peculiar interests, but achieving this is just a matter of a couple of years (by which time I may have learned Japanese). I'll still find reasons to buy or borrow and read real books, just fewer of them.

As for the possibility of censorship, I don't see that it is any different than any other form of publishing. Amazon will sell pretty much anything other than bomb-making or torture instruction manuals, and there are many other places and methods to publish and distribute ebooks. They want to make money is all, and it costs them nothing to stock ebooks (unlike real books). You need an advertising budget & plan to actually sell anything, like any other form of publishing. That means the continuation of the sort of institutional censorship we've always seen and struggled with.

Marginalia. Actually Kindle does let you annotate, and they back up your annotations with your account. When you die, you just need to leave your login credentials with a trusted agent. If e-publishing takes off, this crude feature may evolve, and there could be annotation sharing sites where you can publish your notes before you die for future generations. This might sound silly, but the same holds for photo sharing sites, facebook pages, genealogy databases, etc. - people are going to want to make this stuff available for future generations (whether scholarly or not), and there will be convenient ways of doing it that are effectively permanent (except in case of apocalypse), if there aren't already. E-Executor services, that is what we'll call that.

As it is, printed book sales are down, and it isn't because of ebooks. Production costs (paper, shipping) are increasing, and profit margins are low, even with innovations like print-on-demand. It means many worthy works of art and intellect don't get published at all (probably ever the case). We still read, but only Harry Potter and Stephanie Meyer. With the distractions of internet, TV, video games, cell phones, IM, etc. people don't have the time, demand is slackening.

At least ebooks cost almost nothing to publish and distribute in some fashion, and those of us that support the new publishing models can vote with our dollars and time for something that might yet make the act of writing and reading books a vital part of our future culture, rather than disappearing completely or reduced to the ability to read and write ad banners.

If civilization falls, we're all screwed, of course; having foolishly invested in ebooks instead of survival gear, I will have to give up reading and get serious about my continued existence, and anyway books will be of little use (they won't even burn that well in the wood stove). But I'm sure there will be a few copies of Moby Dick passing around even then.

Just sayin'...

I always identified with the Edward G Robinson character in "Soylent Green" who had one of the last collections of bound books left in civilization; the Corporations had digitized the world's libraries and the need for actual books was nil.

Sound familiar?

Charleton Heston, in his capacity as a police officer, is unable to find some important history on the Corporation's Library files. Heston knew that key events were missing and data had been changed.

Edward G Robinson not only had the books of the times on his shelves in his domicile, but had lived the events fifty years before in his twenties; the rest of society had forgotten the events and the last ones who had lived during that time were encouraged to make way for the New World; by going to a Corporation that eased them to death.

I expect to be one of the last collectors of bound books in the Darkening World.

Just remember...

SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I like the Kindle iPhone app a lot because my iPhone fits in my pocket. I wish Amazon and Apple would be stripped of their intellectual monopolies so that competition could ensue. Kindles would be better if they came with Safari and had internet access. An iPhone with a screen the size of a Kindle would be awesome too.

Marvelous discussion you've generated here, Debbie. I love a person who thinks outside the box! And so many of our people here at TPM do so! Thanks for your efforts in that direction. And all the wonderful comments on this thread. :)

I love books! But I do more reading on the web now than maybe any other way.

As soon as the iPhone came out, people started hacking it and coming up with new software for it and so on. In no time they'll do the same with kindle, if they haven't already!

Eventually, as we grow older, we'll all have to downsize.... well, except for the rich folks, who will need increasingly large armies of body guards. So I'm guessing one day, when I get to assisted living or something, I'll really appreciate a kindle along with my computer. Or maybe the computer and the kindle will somehow merge by then. Along with a phone. And it will all somehow be attached to our wrist... like a watch that opens out into a keyboard and a screen.

I'm glad you're here, debbie! It's us "do nothings" that the world is counting on now! :-)

I think it's very unlikely that Amazon would control content. There will be different ways to read books online, one can already read many older books. I don't think that serious books will be read on this device. Mostly your potboilers. So who cares. I could be really, really wrong of course.

Amazon's proprietary format is very foolish. Apparently, they were pressured by DRM-hungry publishers, who apparently haven't noticed that DRM failed miserably for music.

I have more comments on this on my own blog post, but I think Josh is being alarmist about the future of books or that us technophiles will ever allow Amazon to control books. The tech community has actually achieved steady victories over powerful companies in pushing for open formats.

Great overview of this - and thank you for covering it, honestly - I've been freaked out about the book industry, to say the least. And not only do I fear the heck out of e-books and things like Kindle, I'm afraid that, with book prices needing to go up to keep the industry afloat, I'm not going to be able to afford all the stuff I want to read. Of course the library is an immediate "duh" response to this - but I don't live near one and they never carry what I want when I actually trek my butt over there.

I don't want digital! I want paper and I want the feel, smell, and comfort of holding a real book in my hands. So what are my options? Anyone have any suggestions/advice on a cheap way to keep books alive?? I'm looking into rental/borrow/swap sites....specifically BookSwim.com....3 books a month for 10 bucks?