the Kindle

The Kindle device was leaving me nonplussed. I like reading books because they are books. It gives me a very different feeling from reading chunks of text online. I completely ignored Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road when it came out in serial, as i couldn't be bothered to read it online, knowing that it would be better enjoyed when it would be collected in a book.

Bookninja suggests something very obvious that i ignored completely. Reference books. Yeah, that would be useful. I already carry one bird book around with m all of the time (National Geographic, because it has paintings, not photos, and the range maps are on the same page as the pictures.) It would be kinda cool to carry books around for insects, reptiles, flowers, ect. or just cram it full of Wikipedia entires. However, the Kindle does not look much more robust than a laptop. And 30 hours of battery life? Why bother?

Yeah, i'm unconvinced. It looks like an utterly useless device.

Ed Champion has ten arguments against it.