Electronic Highways
Amazon Kindle: revolutionary reading device?
Imagine the ability to access an entire library full of books right at your fingertips. Through the efforts of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, this is now a reality.
In the fall of 2007, Amazon launched its e-book reader, the Amazon Kindle, in the United States. With a unique electronic paper display, the design mimics reading on paper instead of a harsh computer screen. The Kindle allows users to download more than 240,000 books, newspapers, magazines and blogs through a free, wireless connection with no need to worry about location or access to a computer. Kindle owners shop from the Kindle Store, with the cost of most e-books around $9.99.
Bezos states that his ultimate goal with the Kindle is to have "every book ever printed in any language available in less than 60 seconds." Beyond having a handy reading device to accompany a commute or airplane ride, the implications for consumers are intriguing. Could fast, on-demand access to books promote more reading? Will students eventually store all their textbooks onto one slim Kindle? What effect will e-book readers have on the publishing industry?
Amazon recently announced the Kindle 2, an updated version of the original e-book reader that became available for purchase last month. The Kindle 2 is as thin as most magazines and offers a text-to-speech feature that will read material aloud. There also is a 250,000-word dictionary that allows readers to automatically look up words. To help promote the Kindle, famous fiction and horror writer Stephen King wrote a novella to be distributed exclusively via the device. The novella, titled "UR," tells the story of a college English instructor who orders a Kindle with supernatural powers and consequently gains access to an entirely new literary world.
Having witnessed the rapid acceptance of cell phones and MP3 players into society, perhaps e-book readers soon will become a commonplace gadget. Journalists and bloggers continue to debate whether e-book readers will revolutionize the way we read. Many refute the widespread popularity of e-book readers, insisting that nothing could ever replace the tactile and personal experience of receiving a book from a library or book store.
Still, for the bookworm who desires plenty of reading material—whenever and wherever—the Kindle may be the newest obsession.
For more information, check the latest news articles and search for "Amazon Kindle" through the UB Libraries newspaper databases.
—Ligaya Ganster, Arts and Sciences Libraries
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