Yes, for years there have been books on cassettes and compact discs, but now Amazon has come out with a revolutionary new way to read a book. They call this device a Kindle.
The device basically seems to be an IPod for your books. The Kindle is a wireless, portable device that can hold over 200 hundred titles at a time. Plus, there are over 120,000 books to choose from. Also, newspapers and magazines can be downloaded daily. It is even possible to download a book and read a couple of chapters before the book is purchased. The Kindle has an extremely long battery life and can be taken anywhere, without ever having to look for a hotspot to connect. Plus, the screen is like reading off of paper; there isn’t a glare and will not cause eye strain. So is this new device going to sweep the literary world or is the transition from books on paper to books on a technological device more controversial than one would think?
 It is hard to argue that the Kindle would negatively impact the literary world and our society in general. After all over 120,000 books would be at immediate access to those with the device. The convenience may encourage many people to read more often and read new books that they might not have thought of reading before. Many of the books are only nine dollars, which is considerably cheaper than most books in the bookstore (of course one must figure in the $400 purchase price of the Kindle).
It seems that Kindle is just the right device for a society that relies so much on technology. Everything else is personalized and easily accessible, why not the books we read? Yet then again, could this new technology cause libraries, bookstores, and other material items we associate with the literary world to become virtually extinct? It seems that technology has impacted the literary world greatly causing some things to go extinct and others things to change drastically. For example, many universities teachers have to make it a requirement to use an actual book as a source because so many students just use websites. The art of writing handwritten letters that are mailed has virtually been replaced by email, and libraries have basically been replaced by the internet. Who is to say that Kindle will not replace libraries and bookstores as well?
Now is there anything really lost with the use of this new device, after all books will still be written and read, just in a new way. More traditional literary enthusiasts may argue that something is lost when a magnificent bookshelf in the living room filled with stories and new worlds bound between ornate covers is transformed into a technological device that weighs only ten ounces. Or what about book stores, could shopping on the Kindle compare to walking into a bookstore and exploring all the shelves? And then there are the people who love to write in their books. What would the people who love to mark up their books with comments and highlight certain quotes do? It would be rather difficult to write inspirational thoughts and analytical comments in the margins of the Kindle. Plus, wouldn’t cute bookmarks, bookends, and bookshelves eventually become extinct? Alright, the last question may be a little far fetched and not relevant until the far off future, but it seems the things we’ve imagined the future holding are coming into reality today.
I encourage any literary enthusiast to view the description of Kindle on Amazon.com and create their own opinion. |
