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Squinting into the future of reading


by Jerome Weeks 29 Jan 2008 10:33 AM

In my experience, Amazon’s new Kindle portable book device is a clunky thing — too big to be a paperback and fit in your pocket, too small to offer easy typing and with such small pages on the screen that any halfway speedy reader is constantly flipping to the next page. But Randall Stross in the business […]
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In my experience, Amazon’s new Kindle portable book device is a clunky thing — too big to be a paperback and fit in your pocket, too small to offer easy typing and with such small pages on the screen that any halfway speedy reader is constantly flipping to the next page. But Randall Stross in the business pages of The New York Times argues that the Kindle or a similar gizmo is the future of reading. Mostly, it seems, because the thing is wireless and downloading books is easy.

 Here’s a different reason to have faith in the future of the book: They’re the most popular item purchased online.

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About Jerome Weeks

Jerome Weeks is the Senior Arts Reporter/Producer for KERA. Previously at The Dallas Morning News, he was the book columnist for 10 years and the drama critic for 10 years before that. His writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Salon, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, American Theatre and Men’s Vogue magazines. View more about Jerome Weeks.

COMMENTS

  • Now, I am an old guy, so maybe I don’t represent the future, okay, I’m sure I don’t. I don’t find the idea or reading books on a gadget appealing. I love the tactile nature of books. I love the scent of a book. (I’m sure Al Pacino would agree too.) I love underlining in books, highlighting passages for later reference.

    My favorite picture of me is reading St. Augustine’s Confessions leaning on the trunk of a Maple in a box canyon in Big Bend. I stuffed the paperback in my daypack. It’s now held together with duct tape.

    And yet, I do not hold the gizmo in disdain, If the youngsters will read that way, it’s okay with me, The printing press was after all a technological advance.