Tech: Kindle a bookstore replacement?
March 16, 2009 Okay, so I've had the Kindle for awhile now. I'm going to do these posts in little chunks. First, I LOVE the e-ink. It's great. The screen does sort of blink and re-group, but it's plenty fast for reading. It does not bother me in the least. Frankly, I love it. 
But here's the big surprise: I love downloading sample chapters from the Amazon store. I NEVER liked browsing online at Amazon. The "Look Inside" feature on Amazon usually didn't work right. Sometimes pages would skip. I don't know -- it was probably because I was on DSL. But this Kindle whispernet thing using Sprint is amazing. And you can download a sample chapter of whatever is in the Kindle store. So I downloaded a few. Then I read a few over lunch. The screen is fine to read on -- really easy on the eyes. I had a good time. And wierdly, what it replicated was the experience of being in a bookstore and picking up a book and reading a few pages. Now I know I WASN'T in a bookstore, but it was kind of nice just browsing books from my own kitchen table with my favorite Earl Grey tea.
Frankly, it kind of freaked me out, because it sort of quenched my urge to go to a bookstore that sold new books. I love going to bookstores. I don't know what that means -- I'm just saying it. Because I thought the big losers here were going to be authors -- now I'm wondering about bookstores.
So far the biggest thing I don't like about it is that everything seems to cost money on this thing. You have to set up the "1 Click" Amazon purchasing to use the Kindle, and that's an issue for me -- I hate '1 Click.' But I did it to try this thing out. And impulsive -- or, accidental -- buying seems way too easy. You connect to the Kindle store. Select a book. And... page regroups...you find yourself right on top of the "BUY" button. The BUY button? What? And the button that you use to navigate -- tentatively since all you were doing was looking -- is a tiny joy stick. If you press it too hard, you will purchase that book. Let's say you press it. Next? A thank you screen with a message at the bottom that says "Purchased by accident? Cancel this order." Come on! Can't Amazon let you land on say the "Try a Sample Chapter" button?
Still, I am having fun trying this out. It's a fun toy for us.
Kindle, bookstores in tech 
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Reader Comments (1)
The impact on brick and mortar stores worries me too. I recently talked about all this on my host day for "Share a Story - Shape a Future" - my topic was "Technology and Reading - What the Future Holds." There was an interesting letter sent to Shelf-Awareness saying that booksellers are now "information providers" - a very different approach/concept. My favorite solution so far was the idea of bundling a hardcover book with the ebook and audiobook version (Thomas Nelson is doing this). It keeps you in the bookstore but lets you buy all the various versions you may want to enjoy the story you just bought. Otherwise, I'm not sure what the solution is.
Hmmmm,
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