What Is Jeff Bezos Smoking?
Pete in Parkrose sends along a link to the new Kindle device from Amazon. Out just in time for the holidays, it’s a handheld computer which allows you to download entire books in seconds and have them with you anywhere. You can also subscribe to your favorite newspaper and read blogs on it too! I so want to bash the thing, but Toni Morrison says it’s cool, so it must be cool…right? If it’s one of Oprah’s favorite things today, I guess I’ll have to go buy one as a gift. I know just who to give it to. The same person who’ll use it as a paperweight.
They’ve tried to foist similar devices on us in the past and they’ve all failed. It turns out people like to read books. And when they’re done they like to stack them on shelves in the corner. How the Hell are you going to show off your copy of A Free Life if it doesn’t exist?
Perhaps with the success of the iPhone and other handheld devices, Bezos believes the time for a wireless book reader is finally here. It isn’t. I can already read all of my blogs on my Treo. I can get headlines too. As for books? I still have my library card. The Kindle is a Segway for literature. It screams 1999. You’d think Bezos, of all people, would have learned.
