Merging Media and the Market

“Never judge a book by its movie”

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 The Kindle is a wireless reading device that allows users to downloads, books, magazines, newspapers and blogs in a matter of minutes, regardless of their whereabouts.  The Kindle is said to be the future of book reading.  However, there is only one Kindle that I want to curl up with during a lazy afternoon: and that is the kindling in my fireplace: which is exactly where the Kindle would end up if I was ever given one. 

In my opinion, books are half the fun of reading. The crisp pages, the way the new books smell different from old books smell different from the books my grandpa gave me.  The ability to transcribe the book’s cover and pass your favorites on to friends and family through the generations.  The way you don’t need a battery, or a cord, or an outlet, or a prescription for eye drops to read books.  The way you don’t have to worry about getting cancer from snuggling up with a book for hours or days.  The way that if you accidentally spill coffee on a book it ends up just giving the book more character and doesn’t short out.  The way you could put a book in a time capsule and two hundred years down the road people could still read it with out compatibility issues.  The way that book covers are bound to books.  The way you never have to worry about your book having a low battery.  The way you have to go to a book store or at least a book section to buy a book.  The way libraries are full of books.  The way a wall-to-ceiling book shelf looks with books on it.  The way no two books are exactly alike. I believe that these are all good things. 

If it’s not obvious already, I’m not a big fan of this whole wireless reading device thing.  The entire concept just irritates me.  However, I will admit that I wasn’t always so opposed to this idea.   When I was getting my undergraduate degree I always thought that an application, like the Kindle, would be awesome to have in lieu of lugging a backpack full of text books around campus.  Students could just download their required text books onto their Kindle at the beginning of the semester, saving trees, reducing attendance costs, and saving their backs from years of chiropractic adjustments.  Students could also then easily search each text book to easily find the exact subject matter they’re looking for.  While I’m all for using Kindle’s technology to enhance my education: leave my books out of it. 

I think that this advancing technology upsets me so much because it threatens things that I have experiences with and formed emotional attachments to. 

Ultimately, I can see how the Kindle would be well-received by certain groups of people: namely students and avid readers who go through three books a day.  I definitely would consider a Kindle as a high school or college student if it allowed me to cost effectively download and search the textbooks I needed for class.  And I would reluctantly use a Kindle if the world’s tree supply was becoming endangered because of our paper demands.   However, paperless books only benefit the environment if they are being produced and powered in an environmentally-friendly way. 

I’m not trying to go all Fahrenheit 451 on you, but imagine a world without books.  What would be there to stop someone from limiting the content that is available for us to read via wireless reading devices.  It would be extremely easy for someone to regulate and even edit the literature if it was only available through new mediums.  This is a risk, I’m definitely not willing to take. 

-Arin