Open the glass doors, and the warm aroma of freshly brewed coffee ensnares the senses. A deep breath, and it's as though reality has floated away. Hundreds of shelves lined with colorful books lie ahead, to the left and to the right. It's almost daunting, but at the same time, deciding which way to turn is a highly pleasurable experience. Each possible choice has the potential to be rewarding. Fiction, non-fiction, young adult, sci-fi, romance; all possible book categories are calling. Which to choose?
Walk up and down the aisle, fingers grazing the vibrant spines and settling on one that looks interesting. Draw the cover back slowly, and read the first page. A new world emerges.
This is what I experience every time I walk into my local Barnes and Noble. It's an experience I treasure greatly. Nothing is more valuable to me than a good book. I love the feel of the pages between my fingers, the crisp white smooth and cool. I love the sound the spine makes the first time the book is cracked open and the way the glossy sheen of the front cover reflects the lights overhead.
So why is Amazon trying to ruin this experience by turning a book into a technological device?
Today, Amazon announced that it would increase the size of it's electronic book reading and storage device, the Kindle, to allow textbooks, newspapers and other forms of published work to be more easily read on the go. It currently provides a smooth, sleek, paper-thin reading surface for over 275 thousand books. The price of the new device runs upwards of 450 dollars, not including the cost to download the books into the device's storage unit.
Books can be downloaded in a minute's time using 3G wireless technology, meaning a world of books is at your fingertips whether you're at work, in class or sitting on the toilet.
Sound great, right Amazon?
NOT!
I am so upset by the device, and the recent announcement of its expansion, that I could spit. Being able to a purchase a book from my bed while in my pajamas may be great if I'm too sluggish to move, but at the same time, it's stealing away motivation to get to the bookstore, nestle in a cozy chair with a cup of tea and read a rainy day away. It's robbing me of the experience of interacting with other shoppers in stores, asking for recommendations or reviews of a book or author I heard mentioned on campus the other day.
It's robbing employees of bookstores, like the stock workers and cashiers, of their jobs. How can they go to work to sell books if a handheld electronic device is capable of doing the same from the "comfort" of one's home? The answer's obvious: they can't.
With a Kindle, I cannot pull back the edge of the next page to read the last sentence in a hasty attempt to make sure my beloved main character is going to survive a dangerous situation. It is not allowing me to underline or highlight important phrases or quotations that I simply adore and wish to share. The pages do not get worn, do not get broken in. A book never becomes my own, because I don't have the opportunity to touch it.
Amazon needs to slow down and back it up. As with everything, consumers will spend massive amounts of money on these senseless gadgets, more will own them and the prices will drop. Consequently, the masses will buy even more. Books will stop being published on paper, and I'll never be able to buy a copy of the latest best seller and dive in. I never be able to turn a page and hear a crinkle, not only because the material is now electronic and pricey, but because real books will be too old fashioned and cease to exist.
I don't want books to disappear.
Amazon, you started as a bookseller. Please, put down the technology, stop selling files, and go back to selling books.
For the sake of this book-lovin', English major's sanity.
Comments (15)
they hatin'
Amen. Barnes and Noble is my heaven.... nothing will ever replace the joy of holding a book up to your nose and inhaling that special smell, the feel of a book in your hands and knowing when you turn the page you're stepping into an alternate reality... Great post on this (and that's why I will never buy a kindle from Amazon!)
I could never own a kindle, I love the smell of books too much.
I am never going to replace books with that.
I truly believe books will still be around, even with technology because people like you and I will still want that experience for our senses. Look at it this way, people who like to read for enjoyment won't buy the Kindle. That will be for those who HAVE to read something and don't want to sully their hands. I do agree though, that Amazon has lost it's appeal as a bookseller. I try and avoid them at all costs. Give me a corner shop, full of wooden shelves stacked high. The smell of Tuscany, the taste of Germany and the diving in the Great Barrier Reef just steps away. Fiction, Sci-Fi, Mystery and Self Help all battle for my attention. To spend a hour or two just browsing until you find that quaint and rare piece that screams "MINE" is pure heaven.
Thanks for writing this. Now I want to head to the bookstore!
@AnamcharaConcepts - I really hope that you're right. I just worry sometimes, because it feels like technology is taking over the world. And I really don't want it to.
@afadedphotox - We need to then keep showing the young how amazing non-technical things can be too. I know we try to do that as much as we can.
@AnamcharaConcepts - My main motivation for going to school to be an English teacher? To maybe get some kids to start enjoying reading. Hopefully, that's a successful endeavor.
*applause* Very well said. When I first heard of that thing, I cringed. Yuck.
I realize the convenience and all, but it's just one more nail in the coffin of laziness that this society will be buried in.
I don't honestly think the Kindle will spell the end of books--bound books--as we know it. It's an expensive piece of technology and that alone makes it prohibitive. I suspect it might be used most by college students as textbooks are so ridiculously overpriced with e-versions being less so. A Kindle can put all that information in a compact, easily portable and easily searchable medium.
Another thing to keep in mind is that a good number of ebook buyers actually print and bind their own books. They are buying an electronic product, but making it into a physical book by their own hand. That's a laudable skill and pastime.
So I wouldn't have a stroke over it just yet.
As long as there are books, there will be bibliophiles.
It's scary, isn't it? If I were a college student, I would love the idea of the Kindle--for my big textbooks only. I could see how the Kindle would make my backpack lighter. No big A&P textbook--just my little handheld. I don't, however, like it for pleasure reading.
Plus, the growing demand for a Kindle makes me think of F451. "It was a pleasure to watch things burn..."
YIKES!
I want a Kindle. But, I want one for the books that I already have hard copies of. Like my copy of Feed, which is signed by MT Anderson - I'm afraid to OPEN that one, now that it's been signed. My copy of Clan of the Cave Bear could use an electronic copy too. I go through one of those every few years. I don't think we need to worry about the death of books for a long time. First and foremost, right now the general public can't afford a Kindle. Secondly, this culture is so anti-reading that someone spending hundreds of dollars on a reading device, even if they can afford it, is usually pretty absurd.
I was just about to head to Borders. Boyfriend won't drive me to Barnes and Noble. >_> Jerk.
My grandmother bought me one for Christmas last year. I promptly returned it and purchased $450 in real books. Call me elitist, but I fail to see the usefulness of one of those things. I highlight the living daylights out of my textbooks, I scribble in the margins of my regular books, and I hardly ever read newspapers or magazines. And when I do its generally for the puzzle, which I think would be hell to complete on one of those suckers. And I cringe to think of what would happen if I was trying to multitask while reading on one of those things.
@into_the_lens - Ahh! Feed was such a good book. Lucky, having a signed copy!
technology is going to doom us one day.