John Miedema

It is time for me to give an ereader a serious shakedown. In Slow Reading, I asserted that print books are still the superior technology for reading anything of length or substance; that view remains. However, it is clear that the writing and publishing world is changing. I am discovering excellent writers who are publishing their material independently, often as ebooks. I want to read this material, but not on a computer, and without printing it. A specialized reading device might fill the gap.

Amazon’s ereader, the Kindle, came to Canada in late 2009. No doubt there are good reasons not to buy a Kindle. Personally, I find Amazon’s competitive practices too aggressive (such as disabling the buy button for publishers who do not use their print-on-demand service). Also, I was vaguely aware that Kindle uses Digital Rights Management (DRM) to try to restrict access to its content, unlike Sony’s Reader which uses the open epub format. I am better informed now. However, Amazon was the first to offer a wireless reader in Canada. I was curious and felt the need to play. I put the Kindle on my Christmas list.

The Kindle was not previously available in Canada because Amazon had not reached a deal with local wireless providers. Even now the deal is limited. In Canada, Kindle wireless only permits access to Amazon’s store and Wikipedia. In the US, users can also browse the web, read blogs, and email documents to the device. My hope is that the Canadian wireless deal will eventually match the American one. Amazon has said as much about their document delivery service. Sony later followed with wireless capability but the equivalent product costs a hundred dollars more.

I ordered the Kindle 2 with six-inch display for $259.00 CAD. (Just recently the larger Kindle DX has become available internationally.) It arrived very quickly, left on my front porch even though no one was home. It was a Christmas wish so I had to wait until Christmas to open the present. I felt that delicious feeling of geeky discovery like playing with the web back in the early nineties. The Kindle was slimmer and lighter than I expected. Although I have never experienced eye-strain from back-lit devices, I prefer the reader’s e-ink. I can read it comfortably in the living room, like a book, and distinctly unlike the visible and even anti-social presence of a laptop. When the device is turned off the screen shows black and white pictures of literary figures; nice touch. My first impression was that the Kindle had potential for long form reading.

Over the next several weeks, when I read the Kindle in public it always stirred quiet attention. In a plane, I wondered if the steward would tell me to turn it off during takeoff, like other electronic devices. The steward looked at me, looked at the Kindle, then walked on. It appears the Kindle is considered more book than device.

This post is the first in a nine-part series about my experiment with the Kindle. In the series, I will share my experience with its hardware and software, reading books and subscriptions, and much more. I will also return to the Apple tablet. I will say in advance my finding that single-purpose reading devices like the Kindle can be expected to play an ongoing role in long-form reading, supplanting some but not all of the territory previously fulfilled by print books.