Nicholson Baker on the Kindle
Within, lying face up in a white-lined casket, was the device itself. It was pale, about the size of a hardcover novel, but much thinner, and it had a smallish screen and a QWERTY keyboard at the bottom made of tiny round pleasure-dot keys that resisted pressing. I gazed at the keys for a moment and thought of a restaurant accordion.Like Baker, I prefer reading Kindle books on my iPhone. He said switching from reading on an iPhone to reading on a Kindle was "like going from a Mini Cooper to a white 1982 Impala with blown shocks."The plug, which was combined with the USB connector, was extremely well designed, in the best post-Apple style. It was a very, very good plug. I turned the Kindle on and pressed the Home key. Home gives you the list of what you’ve got in your Kindle. There were some books that I’d already ordered waiting for me—that was nice—and there was also a letter of greeting from Jeff Bezos. “Kindle is an entirely new type of device, and we’re excited to have you as an early customer!” Bezos wrote. I read the letter and some of “His Majesty’s Dragon” (a dragon fantasy by Naomi Novick set during the Napoleonic Wars, given away free), “Gulliver’s Travels,” and “Slow Hands,” a freebie Harlequin Blaze novel by Leslie Kelly. I changed the type size. I searched for a text string. I tussled with a sense of anticlimax.
The problem was not that the screen was in black-and-white; if it had really been black-and-white, that would have been fine. The problem was that the screen was gray. And it wasn’t just gray; it was a greenish, sickly gray. A postmortem gray. The resizable typeface, Monotype Caecilia, appeared as a darker gray. Dark gray on paler greenish gray was the palette of the Amazon Kindle.
This was what they were calling e-paper? This four-by-five window onto an overcast afternoon? Where was paper white, or paper cream? Forget RGB or CMYK. Where were sharp black letters laid out like lacquered chopsticks on a clean tablecloth?
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Nicholson Baker is a national treasure. I was surprised he didn't totally trash the Kindle, given his generally bibliophilic grumpiness.
Couldn't agree more. The kindle just fails all around. The screen is too small and until it can access ALL of the web, what's the point?
Actually it turned out to be a pretty good review for the Kindle if you kept reading the sentence past the 1982 Impala.
An ereader that can "disappear" so that you can focus on and become one with the content is a pretty good ereader, if you ask me.
"I was locked into the plot and it didn’t matter. Poof, the Kindle disappeared, just as Jeff Bezos had promised it would. I began walking up and down the driveway, reading in the sun. Three distant lawnmowers were going. Someone wearing a salmon-colored shirt was spraying a hose across the street. But I was in the courtroom, listening to the murderer testify. I felt the primitive clawing pressure of wanting to know how things turned out."
Yeah, I'm sold on Kindle for iPhone. It's perfect for my commute. Kindle on Kindle? Not so much.
It's really too bad that he didn't mentioned how Amazon "giveth and taketh away" if they choose too.
I wonder if Jeff Bezos now sends the apology for removing ebooks from the library on the Kindle.
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/07/23/jeff-bezoss-kindle-a.html
The review is quite good and it proves one thing: The Kindle as a gadget sucks. The provider can take your books away anytime it pleases and later on post an apology.
And it's interesting that a smaller screen like the iphone beats an engineered and designed ebook reader.
I read the last 80% of Stephenson's Anathem on my Nokia N810. I make the text a almost-white light grey and the background a deep, deep navy blue to avoid eye strain. It worked really well, probably because of the pixel density factor mentioned in the article (the n810 has 800x480 in 4.3" diagonal).
I tried a Sony eReader at Fry's and just didn't get it. ePaper clearly has amazing potential, but to my eye the contrast is still just way too low to justify an expensive, dedicated device (also mentioned in the article).
Yes, I have to say I was surprised that the review wasn't just the typical boring ignorant diatribe against the very *concept* of e-books, given Baker's fetishistic obsession with the printed word (as described in Double Fold), but I have to say I'm very surprised that he preferred reading on an iPhone to a Kindle.
I own both, and while I enjoy the option of reading on the iPhone (granted, I'm the sort of guy who read on his Palm Pilot ten years ago), I much prefer the Kindle when I have it with me. Would it be better if e-ink was black on white rather than black on grey? Of course. But that doesn't mean that it still isn't the best electronic reading experience to date.
That, my friends, is a sexy sentence.
I adore reading on my iPhone. Been doing it for about a year.
As someone who goes through 2-3 novels a week, it's been a big change to my way of life. For the first time, I don't have to carry a massive man-purse around with me everywhere.
Any ebook reader experience will have to be a damn sight better than stanza + iphone to get me to change my ways.
It *could* get better. As when John Cleese got 'turned into a newt', but 'got better',
Anyone remember Apple's first, 1989 'portable' computer? 16MHz ... 16 pounds, 4" thick, no backlight, lead-acid batteries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Portable
What's an iPhone weigh?
But I'm thinking that, when the tablet computer arrives, the Kindle will be a memory. Except for the 1984 recission. he he
I'm surprised people enjoy reading on their iPhone. I love my iPhone, but it's just too small to be a good reader. Chopping up sentences to fit on the screen really wreaks my reading cadence, and I end up flipping pages constantly. The Kindle needs a lot of work, but the potential is there. The iPhone, by its very size, just doesn't do it for me.
I was very surprised.
Unlike the vast majority of journalists writing quasi-informed, half-baked articles about e-ink readers Nicholson Baker obviously did his homework.
There *are* a few facts he did get wrong ;-)
- The first device featuring e-ink was not Sony Reader PRS-500, it was Sony Librie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Librie made exclusively for Japanese market. It was a spectacular failure due to insane DRM scheme.
- LCD screen does not have to be backlit, the device he mentions - the Jetbook - has a non-backlit black and white 5 inch LCD screen with better contrast than a typical e-ink.
- He got wrong the name of Hanlin device, V2 is hopelessly obsolete and V3 (6" e-ink model) is slowly taken over by V5 (the new 5 inch model)
The new Hanlin V5 that will be sold in USA under the name Astak EZ Reader Pocket Pro has rediced the page-turning flash significantly.
- The Caecilia font is used on Kindle but I have no idea what he means when he writes "Monotype Caecilia". Caecilia an expensive font and was developed specifically for display on a low resolution screen, because its serifs are blocky. Yes. E-ink IS a low resolution medium. Anything under 300dpi is very low resolution from typographical point of view and 6" e-ink display has only 166dpi.
I have read more than a thousand e-books. I started quite a long time ago on a very obsolete small notebook, then moved into various PDAs. I have read several hundreds of books on my Sony Reader PRS-500 and now I find reading of paper books awkward. You have to struggle to keep those stiff paperbacks open, the page turning is slow and awkward and you need two hands to turn the page.
This is great for eReaders, and useless for tablet computers. Meanwhile, tablet computer displays aren't great for reading from, require faster refresh rates, and draw far more power than the Kindle's screen.
Until we have a display/battery technology pair that is optimal for both eReaders and computers, both will continue to exist as distinct devices.
I too am surprised people enjoy reading on their iPhone, or any other miniscule backlit device.
I'm also quite sick of the 'light grey isn't white!' argument. 'White grey isn't cream' is even stupider, if you ask me.
What subtle color the 'paper' is doesn't matter a lick, except to people who are really clinging dearly to their dead trees. The contrast is better than a lot of trade paperbacks, and worse than ink on bright white paper. That about sums it up. I can effortlessly read my Kindle at night by oil lamp. It's great at doing what it does.
It's not a perfect device. Publishers don't seem to have the hang of the concept yet - things get formatted strangely from time to time, and often they don't seem to know how to stick images (diagrams are all that I'm really concerned about) in their ebooks. Yet I still think it's a great alternative to the space-consuming, hard-to-hold-open-while-I-lay-in-bed paper format. Much more practical in my day-to-day life.
Which said fetishistic obsession, to be fair, is a response our own culture's fetishistic obsession with rendering books and printed matter outmoded, so much worthless "content" for the iPhone generation to skim over whilst multitasking. Baker's stance is a stance, it's not ignorance, and considering some of his arguments--that nineteenth-century newspapers must not, cannot be scanned and replaced, for example, without losing some of the medium-specific qualities that make them so beautiful and useful--he's right on a lot of the time.
Reading ebooks on the iPhone has one huge advantage, which Baker covers in his review: reading in bed. The iPhone excels at this, because of its small size and the ability to read in a dark room. Maybe not so useful a feature for some, but for me it's all-important.
Also, if you use a highly configurable reader like Stanza, you can adjust things like fonts, text size, background color, etc. to make reading much more pleasant than one might expect. Once you get used to it, it's actually not that bad. It's also nice to be able to hold the "book" and turn pages with the same hand.
I guess it boils down to personal preference, but I find that for every disadvantage of reading ebooks on the iPhone, there are a couple of advantages, so it works for me.
Hey, wow, that portable Mac looks just like a giant Nintendo DS without the bottom screen.
I read books on my iPod Touch all the time. And if I'm not in the mood for one book, I have tons of others in the library. Try doing that with a backpack and a hardback.
I love it.
I use an old Nokia 770 as an ebook reader, it does the job splendidly. I do most of my book reading in bed.. Am I right in thinking that this Kindle device would require me to have the light on?!
What I object to is the blanket dismissal of e-books by people who have never tried them. To Baker's credit, he wasn't one of those people. But many essay writers are. It's like the early 1980s when computers were replacing typewriters and there were all these articles saying how horrible it was and how typewriters were so much more wonderful.
Can you loan/give away an eBook? Can you easily pencil in marginalia? Can you trade an eBook in at a used bookstore? Why do eBooks cost almost as much as their paper counterparts? Why is it more expensive than an iPhone? And I cannot picture Paul theroux, nor myself, comforted and companioned by a kindle.
I prefer reading on e-ink (kindle) screens to reading on luminant displays like monitors and cellphones.
My entire working life is reading screens-- reading on kindle is much more relaxing on my eyes.
I shouldn't be surprised that a Kindle post on boing boing should turn into an iPhone thread, but I am.
Back before I stopped buying Poison Apple products I read Charles Stross' "Accelerando" on my gold iPod mini. It kind of sucked, as not all of the hyper-links were intact, but it proved to me that if a story is gripping, I'll forget where I am in meatspace. I could probably read a novel written in the sand and forget that I'm on the beach.
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I agree, but going by the number of favorable comments I've seen from iPhone Kindle users, it sure seems to be scratching an itch. When Apple cuts loose with a 10" tablet -- and if it's the scaled-up iPhone/iPod Touch that it's rumored to be -- Amazon is going to find itself with a lot of unsold Kindles on its hands.
If nothing else, look for high-end Kindles to become extremely affordable after this supposed Götterdämmerung of e-readers takes place.
My wife can't stand reading on a backlit screen, the letters dance around and she can't focus on them for long. The Kindle on the other hand gives her no problem at all. I, on the other hand, have no problems reading on my HTC Touch Pro (I read "The System of the World" and "The Confusion" on it!). I like the Kindle, but it's just another thing to carry around. Stripping the DRM makes the ebooks much more usable to boot.
I read the article and he makes valid points but I prefer reading on the Kindle to reading on my Touch.
The Kindle is perfect in my family when we travel. I don't take my laptop anymore because I can get basic web access on my Kindle and most of the people I visit have computers I can borrow if there's an emergency at work. It's great to just have a small device I can shove in my purse.
I frequently travel with both my mother and my daughter. Mom and I share mysteries on the Kindle. She'll use the Kindle since it's easier on her eyes, I'll use my Touch and my daughter has a Touch.
My only complaint is that there are a lot of books I'd like to read on the Kindle that are only dead tree. I do have more books than I can ever possibly read and I've downloaded a lot of free books from Feedbooks. All in all I'm very satisfied with it.
Ho-hum, another non-issue, another false choice. I read books, and I read books on my Kindle 2 and my iPhone. I like to read, so the more devices that enable me to read, the better, I say. You disagree? Well, that's fine too. There's room for everybody on this one...
Just because you have all convinced yourselves that you enjoy reading books on your Touch, Kindle, I-phone - whatever wonderful new techie device you've been led to believe you HAVE to own - everything good and wonderful is tossed aside for that all important god called Convenience...
I finished reading his article and all of your comments. I've used my friend's Kindle when I'm over at his house. He loves it. I'm horrified. Since we were in Jr. High we have been huge book collectors, readers. For almost 30 years we've been reading and obsessing over our books.
I'm 41 years old. I've been a techno-geek all my life. My first computer was an Apple II Plus, Every little new gadget, gaming device, console, etc I have bought, used, and abused...
Why do we need 'new' technology for reading a novel when the book is the perfect technology. Ah yes, convenience. Is it truly a 'fetish' - definition from Merriam-Webster online diction is ' an object of irrational reverence or obsessive devotion' - to enjoy reading a book, holding a book in my hands, paperback or hardcover, the texture, the smell of the paper, is this a fetish? Outdated like the typewriter, the mighty pen, landlines, etc etc etc.
I find myself disassociated from the story, not as involved, not as invested into what I'm reading when I'm reading it on a computer, a hand held device, etc. Holding the book in my hand, feeling the texture of the pages, the smells, is an important part of the process to me.
I'll use this as an example but bear with me. Dungeons & Dragons books have been available in PDF formats for some time. I had and have all the books from every edition in PDF format - I'm an avid obessive collector so I get everything. What myself and my friends have discovered is that first of all, our interest in those books we find lacking. There is no physical copy in the 'real' world. Nothing to look at, nothing to grab off a self, to hold, to flip through. So you forget about it, find something else that holds more of an interest. We I would read the PDF's on the computer or laptop I find my attention wonders, I don't concentrate as much as if I had the book in my hands.
When I have a book in my hands, I am fully invested in it. I give it my full attention. I don't have music blasting in the background like a narcotic, I am concentrating on the words in front of me, the feel of the book, the weight of it, the smell.
Now my best friend loves the Kindle. In fact today we were talking about the new Joe Abercrombie book. I just bought the hardcover and he got in on the Kindle.
This just makes me sad. May all your books get erased from Amazon while you sleep.
1) I love books for their content; I could never understand the fetish for the object itself. Or people who obsess about getting first editions. That seems as empty as stamp collecting (a hobby which I don't understand either).
2) I own hundreds of physical books. That's part of my interest in e-books; I just don't have the room to get more books without getting rid of the books I have already.
3) There is a lot of stupid FUD out there about the Kindle. The classic example is the "Amazon can erase your books". No. They can't. At most they could erase the copy on your Kindle. People don't seem to understand that you can store Kindle books (even DRMed ones) on your computer. You can get them on your computer in two ways: You can download it directly from Amazon's website or you can copy it from your Kindle over USB. That option is something people don't seem to get -- namely, that you can copy things back and forth to your Kindle without Amazon at all.
My wife and I had a Kindle (first-generation) and we both found we preferred reading on our iPhone/iPod Touch instead. The Kindle's lower contrast ratio was part of the problem, as were its lack of backlight illumination and its frustrating control setup, but the number one reason we didn't like the Kindle was the delay when turning pages. I never timed it with a stopwatch, and I understand it's been improved somewhat in the Kindle 2, but it felt like a good couple of seconds and was certainly long enough to interrupt the flow of reading. Having to wait, usually in midsentence, for the machine to do its thing, page after page, was a fairly disagreeable reading style for us both. Kindle for iPhone snaps the new page into place without delay.
A secondary benefit once I switched to reading on the phone was that I found I really liked having an interface to Wikipedia embedded in the same gadget. Often what I'm reading will spark some kind of curiosity quest, and on the iThing I'm just a couple taps away from looking up more details on whatever I've just been reading about.
Incidentally, as far as iPhone reading apps go, I much prefer Stanza to either Kindle or eReader. Stanza has much more control of font and text size than the others, and includes the killer feature - for me, anyway - of being able to adjust screen brightness on the fly without exiting to the control panel. Stanza can't read Kindle books but can read eReader.com books, and as a result I've been leaning more towards eReader books than Kindle books (DRM questions aside) despite eReader's higher prices.
I think the Kindle is perfect for non-illustrated books, but the couple of times I have played with the gadget it just did not have anything approaching 300 bucks worth of interest for me. I could buy a few gorgeous books for 300 bucks.
If I was given a Kindle, I am sure I would spend quite a bit of money on Kindle ebooks. But in the meantime, I can get along fine with my iPhone, Stanza, and a "stack" of free books like Moby Dick, Uncle Tom's Cabin,Montaigne's essays, Cory's Little Brother. Great alternative to twitching over email, facebook, or twitter.
Oh, well. I consider myself a geek: I'm the go-to guy for a lot of my friends when it comes to tech, I liked Vista, I am an evangelist for Windows 7 (and Kindle), I also use Mac and Linux, and I love my Kindle. If we held a grudge for everything that happened in the tech world, like the recent Amazon gaffe, we wouldn't buy or use any of it. Bezos apologized, let's get over it. I have bigger things to worry about. I consider the Kindle the start of something big; who knows how we'll be reading in a year or 3. I don't care. I'm getting tired of people telling me why my Kindle is not the way to go. I like it; read how you want.
There are actually a wide variety of Kindle hacks that allow you to change the text to a sharp, bold black. I was on the verge of returning mine when I discovered this and have been thrilled with my Kindle ever since.
I read that as "white 1982 Impala with clown shoes." Which is much the same thing.
I'm also quite sick of the 'light grey isn't white!' argument. 'White grey isn't cream' is even stupider, if you ask me.
What subtle color the 'paper' is doesn't matter a lick, except to people who are really clinging dearly to their dead trees. The contrast is better than a lot of trade paperbacks, and worse than ink on bright white paper. That about sums it up. I can effortlessly read my Kindle at night by oil lamp. It's great at doing what it does.
One of the reasons I much prefer hardbacks to paper is the contrast. Too many paperbacks are being produced with semi transparent dark grey pulp.
(The other major reason, which may lend some insight into my neuroses is that a paperback book, once read, shows signs of wear-- the cover never lies completely flat and the pages all too often fox. It is, like a modern textbook, essentially disposable.)