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Kindle Schmindle

Posted By Christopher Guerin On In books & writing,technology | 8 Comments

I have a house full of books. Every room in the house has bookshelves. Last summer, I put four new six foot tall shelves in the basement and filled them, front and back — that got the books off the floor around the rest of the house. That’s the second time I’ve done this.

So, some people like the clutter of books, as I do. Some love the feel of a nice deckle-edged hardback with crisp paper — some more than others.

I understand, even if I don’t share it, the appeal for some of having all their books in a convenient, portable form. And, undeniably, it’s cool to be able to have instant access to a big library of books. (How big is something I’ll return to.)

But, for me, the Kindle is not that. Look, toilet seats are made of the same stuff that Kindles are (and the comparisons don’t end there).

The iPhone (or iPod Touch) Kindle, is a different matter. Instead of black ink against grey, you get stark black type on white, very legible. It’s also smaller and lighter and the pages turn instantly. And it’s not plastic.

So, am I won over? Maybe eventually. Several huge problems remain. First, you never know how many pages long anything is. I think Jeff Bezos thinks his numbering system is somehow the obvious, futuristic equivalent. For me, it’s just dumb.

And, I’ll never get comfortable with the idea that Amazon can delete (flush) anything I buy. iTunes can’t even do that.

But, worst of all, is the incredibly limited number of books in the Kindle store. If you’re looking for modern poetry, forget it. Wallace Stevens? No. T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets”? Nope.

How about Science Fiction? Robert Heinlein? Two novels, but no Stranger in a Strange Land or Door into Summer. And there is nothing by perhaps the greatest Sci-Fi author of the latter 20th century, Stanislaw Lem.

There’s no Vladimir Nabokov and the only Faulkner is Carolyn (a specialist in SM fiction, as it happens).

I could go on and on.

Amazon advertises that there are hundreds of thousands of books available. Maybe someday they’ll have books I’m interested in reading.

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Christopher Guerin [4]

Christopher Guerin is the author of two books each of poetry and short fiction, a novel, and more than a dozen children’s books. If he hadn’t spent 26 years as an arts administrator, including 20 years as President of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, perhaps he’d have worked a little harder getting them published. His consolation resides in his fiction and poems having been published in numerous small magazines, including Rosebud, AURA, Williams and Mary Review, Midwest Quarterly, Wittenberg Review, RE: Artes Liberales, DEROS, Wind, and Wind less Orchard. His blog, Zealotry of Guerin, features his fiction and poetry, including his sonnet sequence of poems after paintings, “Brushwork." He is the V.P. of Corporate Communications at Sweetwater Sound, Inc., the national music instrument retailer.
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