Kindle Envy

Is there anyone else out there who covets a kindle so badly they feel their bones squeak?

And it's just so dang exciting that this transition is happening in the world of the written word, just as shifts are happening with music. It's a bumpy evolution, lots of folks hollering for various reasons as the old ways become obsolete, but it's time.

It's about manufacturing costs, sure, as peak oil renders the pressing of cds too expensive, and the felling of trees just plain stoopid. But it's also about Having Less, as in less possessions, less material stuff to haul around. We're at a perfect place to get that We Are Not What We Have. To stand in full realization that it isn't about the container a thing is transported in, like a book or a round plastic sphere or a human body, but the creative juice, the rhythm of aliveness that dances inside it.

This also changes the game of creativity, which has slowly been delegated to a small group of professionals, with the rest of the population as spectators. Now, with recording as easy as launching your garage band software, and distribution as easy as pushing the publish button to uTube, Lulu, your blog, or myspace, we're all artists now.

When I publish my book, it'll be with a publisher who wants to dive into the waters, who's open to launching a hybrid that will use twitter and blogs and blogher and all sorts of lovely net whatnot in addition to the more traditional ways.

Yeah, sure, doom and gloom and peak oil and global warming and awful environmental sh*t and crazy a*s capitalistic bait and switch games but really: Can you feel the wonder of this amazing time we live in?

Comments

[deb]

"Can you feel the wonder of this amazing time we live in? "

Yes I can baybee, yes I can. Weeee! (ain't it grand?) :)

[Will]

I love the wonder too---but sometimes it just won't move fast enough for me. I love the Kindle concept (I started reading books electronically and loving it back in the mid 90s when the would come as an extra on a CD rom subscription). I have supervisors that travel get into a mini Kindle war, shaming each other until they both had one on trips instead of a big lug of books. They both love it.

Me, I'm waiting for Apple to do it perfect before jumping in. Bring on that tablet Mac!

[Will]

And Kim (my wife) says Hi! She apologizes that she hasn't been on in a while.

[paula]

in a way, the kindle is more democratic, probably paving the way for more people to self-publish, and yet the price tag ($359?) is so much less democratic than buying a book, or finding one for 25 cents at a garage sale (or better yet, free).

but maybe less money goes to the publisher, more to the writer?

i can see two sides to this. i'm sort of anti-technology in many ways, but at the same time, paperless means fewer trees cut down.

it's never simple :)

[melissa]

I'd prefer for us to find more sustainable ways to make books (e.g. sustainable materials or tree farming, and then composting books when thrown out - not put in a landfill).

Also, this technology, although it saves trees, still has an environmental impact with the production and disposal of its parts - chemicals, plastics and metals all mixed together.

I can see the benefits though - especially the wireless delivery instead of shipping books all over is very cool.

But on a personal level, I just can't curl up with a good...computer. I want the physical feeling of a book, its pages (and with used books, the connection to past readers), and not a computer screen.