Words of Redemption

As you may well know, Amazon released a little item called the Kindle last year. It’s an eBook reader. Better still, it’s the FIRST eBook reader, in the way that the iPod was the FIRST Digital music player. All others missed the point. That point being: decent product + great distribution channel = killer app. For the iPod, that channel was the now ubiquitous iTunes Music Store. For the Kindle, it’s Amazon’s genius provision of free internet so you can always buy books from the Kindle Store.

But enough of telling you what you already know.

When the Kindle came out, I was skeptical, just like almost everyone else. I love my computer, but I HATE reading anything longer than a few pages on a computer screen. When I finish something I’m writing, I print it out for review. When I have to read a Whitepaper or article for work, I print it out. Not very friendly to the environment, I know, but I will retain next to nothing in twice the amount of time if I have to read on a screen.

So I expected the Kindle to be similar to my experience of trying to read on a Tablet PC a few years ago: A nice idea, but impractical, nowhere near like reading on paper and hard on the neck.

Over time, though, everything has pointed to the contrary. For one thing, the Kindle is the size of a paperback and weighs about the same, which eliminates the clunkiness and weight problem of using a full-fledged computer for reading. What’s more the eInk Electronic Paper Display used in the Kindle has finally resulted in a high-contrast and low-power display that is as close to paper as one could imagine¹.

And being the incessant gadget freak that I am, I caved and bought a Kindle from Amazon about three weeks ago. I use the term “bought” loosely because Amazon has been oversold on the Kindle since before Christmas. So my purchase was not unlike taking a number at the DMV and waiting patiently in the hardest plastic chairs ever created while the “Now Serving” display is stuck on 29 because everyone at the counter is arguing about what constitutes acceptable forms of identification to replace a lost license, and I’ve got number 43.

And I waited for three weeks, all the while telling myself that I could use the time to catch up on books I should read before I retreat into digital reading for good, with some exceptions of course.

But then a funny thing happened this weekend. On Friday night, Sarah and I were at dinner² and she asked me:

“Are you sure you want to buy a first generation product like this?”

Which really means:

I’m not going to let you buy another one of these until this one gets so slow that you can take naps between pages, so you’d better be sure this one will last for a long time.

She, of course and as always, has a point. As I’ve already said, I am a gadget guy. I’ll buy the first version of anything, so long as I can get rid of it when version two comes out. Putting it another way, I’ve had my current iPod for about eighteen months and it’s only a matter of time before I come up with a good reason for a new one.

Thankfully, one of the things that Sarah brings to our marriage is a much-needed sense of fiscal restraint. She has kindly capitulated on my getting a Kindle, either because I am incessantly annoying about wanting to buy “gadgets” or because she knows how important the odd technological indulgence is to me and relents, even though she has no idea why I would want such a thing. Probably both.

Even still, she asked a good question. To which, I answered:

“You know what, that’s a good point. Maybe I should wait.”

Simple as that. I canceled my order, and now I m waiting.

I’m not exactly sure how long. I decided that I’m going to do this like I do when I am running a long distance and I start to feel the desire to quit.

Set a minor goal out in front, reach it, then reassess.

My minor goal is my current backlog of books. Once I’ve read these, I’ll reassess and either buy a Kindle, or wait a bit longer.

In order to keep myself honest, here’s the list, organized by place in line³:

“The Polysyllabic Spree” (Nick Hornby)

“Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print” (Renni Browne, Dave King)

“A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier” (Ishmael Beah)

“Stone Crossings: Finding Grace in Hard and Hidden Places” (L. L. Barkat)

“My Name Is Russell Fink” (Michael Snyder)

“Orthodoxy” (Gilbert K. Chesterton, G. K. Chesterton)

“The Stories of John Cheever” (John Cheever)

“The Shack” (William P. Young)

“Characters and Viewpoint (Elements of Fiction Writing)” (Orson Scott Card)

“The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century” (Thomas L. Friedman)

“Peace Like a River” (Leif Enger)

“Writing the Breakout Novel” (Donald Maass)

“Notes From Underground” (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

“St. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics (Norton Critical Editions)” (Aquinas Thomas)

“On Eloquence” (Denis Donoghue)

Okay, so I’ll admit when I started this blog post that I didn’t expect the list to be quite this long. But there it is.

I estimate that this will keep me busy for at least four months. I’ve been averaging 4 books a month so far this year, but a few of these books have the density to slow me down. That puts me into August at the earliest. By then, I expect one of three things to be true:

1. Kindle supply will have caught up to demand, meaning I can order a Kindle and have it in a few days.
2. Amazon will have released another version of the Kindle⁴
3. Apple will have released an eBook reader of its own.⁵

If any one of these is true by August, I’ll be happy and will seriously consider taking the plunge for good. Or, at least, I’ll know enough to wait a bit longer.

Until then, there’s nothing better than a good book, and I’ve got about several waiting for me.

I’ll leave you with the wisdom of Nick Hornby:

“Books are, let’s face it, better than everything else. If we played Cultural Fantasy Boxing League, and made books go fifteen rounds in the ring against the best that any other art form had to offer, then books would win pretty much every time. Go on, try it. “The Magic Flute” v. Middlemarch? Middlemarch in six. “The Last Supper” v. Crime and Punishment. Fyodor on points. See? I mean, I don’t know how scientific this it, but it feels like the novels are walking it.” - Nick Hornby, The Polysyllabic Spree

Popularity: 46% [?]

1. The irony of spending loads of money to make something digital look as feel as close to the physical is not lost on me [↩]
2. Sushi, if you’re curious [↩]
3. it won’t stay this way [↩]
4. probably not very likely, but still [↩]
5. And I don’t mean on the iPhone, that display is too small for serious reading. [↩]

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