Even with Amazon's offer of Oprah's $50 off certificate, the newest Kindle still runs $309 which is all well and good, but the books are where I get off the new technology train.
New releases and best sellers are $9.99 each. Yes, you can store but you can't share a book unless you lend out your Kindle too. On the seller's side, he's selling the same book over and over again without much cost to him. You also can't put the book on your shelf. It just remains asleep inside your Kindle until you run out of room and replace it.
Now maybe it's because I don't usually read the bestsellers (at least for another twenty years–I'm a hard person to convince) so maybe I'd save money because the classics that I seek would be much cheaper–I don't know, I haven't looked. But then, aren't 'classics' meant to remain on bookshelves for re-reading? Or maybe it's because I'm a physical type; I need to touch paper and smell the musty pages and see the color of the book cover to make me feel a part of the experience.
Maybe once Kindle's price per book goes down a bit, or maybe when it allows you to post to your weblog as you read–since that's my main interaction with books–I'll reconsider. Or maybe when I'm a world traveler and need six months' supply of reading as I trampsteam down the river to Timbuktu. But for now, I guess I'll have to stick with my old-lady laprobe, flipping pages, and forever falling-out bookmark.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology