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What Steven Johnson likes about the Kindle
He wrote a list of pluses and minuses, but this one stuck out at me:
When he was on John Stewart, Jeff Bezos mentioned that the Kindle was great for one-handed reading, which got a salacious chuckle from the audience (and Stewart), but I think it's best for no-handed reading: i.e., when you're reading while eating a meal, one of life's great pleasures. It's almost impossible to read a paperback while eating, and you really have to snap the spine of a hardcover to get it to lie flat, but the Kindle just sits there on the table helpfully while you cut up your teriyaki.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on March 25, 2009 at 11:40 AM in Books, Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
This is my favorite thing to. (I read on an iPhone.)
Posted by: MikeD at Mar 25, 2009 12:22:55 PM
How is it for reading while exersizing?
Posted by: aaron at Mar 25, 2009 12:24:18 PM
On the other hand, I'd be much less likely to use a multi-hundred dollar bit of electronic gear where I might spill something on it, where that wouldn't be so much of a concern with a paperback book.
Posted by: quanticle at Mar 25, 2009 12:27:32 PM
His point about eating & reading is a good one. I just hate bending up the books I read.
Posted by: gc at Mar 25, 2009 12:33:09 PM
How is it for reading while exersizing?
Sounds a bit risky, what with the danger of dropping it.
Posted by: Peter at Mar 25, 2009 12:35:31 PM
This suggests a whole genre of "It's one of life's great pleasures to do X while Y (or while Y and Z ...)." There is a Seinfeld episode in which George attempts to enjoy his three favorite things -eating, television, and sex at the same time, while hiding the first two activities from his partner for the third.
Posted by: Martin at Mar 25, 2009 12:42:13 PM
Just take a heavy hardcover and use it to hold open the pages of the book you are reading.
Posted by: MH at Mar 25, 2009 12:45:23 PM
Another question: how is it for bathroom reading?
There is a Seinfeld episode about this too.
Posted by: MS at Mar 25, 2009 1:16:42 PM
I found the Kindle2 hard to hold with one hand - the back is metal and the front is slick plastic so you have to squeeze it to avoid slippage.
Posted by: mark at Mar 25, 2009 1:45:39 PM
It has an undocumented feature where it can turn the page every 10 seconds. http://www.koozie.org/2008/08/kindle-automati.html. I use this on the elliptical machine at the gym, setting the font to the largest or next-largest size. It makes things much less boring.
Posted by: Andrew at Mar 25, 2009 1:48:58 PM
I've been reading electronically for years (though not with a Kindle). It's great for reading during meals at the table. But also, unlike the Kindle, what tablets with backlit displays are great at is reading in bed in the dark. No need to sit up or flop back and forth as you turn the pages -- and no need for a reading light that will annoy your spouse who's trying to sleep.
Posted by: Slocum at Mar 25, 2009 3:35:47 PM
My spouse reads his Kindle in bed while lying on his back. Last night when he fell asleep, the Kindle fell too and hit him hard on the nose. Any solutions?
Posted by: Francesca at Mar 25, 2009 3:44:16 PM
Anyone know how well the kindle handles pdf conversions to kindle format if the pdf has a lot of equations? Still readable?
Posted by: Dan in Euroland at Mar 25, 2009 6:14:15 PM
In response to Dan, the Sony Reader is lousy at doing it, it was a big disappointment for me. I've heard Kindle is the same in that regard. There is some software floating around that is supposed to help, but I haven't been able to make it work yet.
Posted by: Sean at Mar 25, 2009 8:23:19 PM
The years I would read during lunch, I used a stainless steel bookstand with J-shaped braces that folded out to hold the covers/pages open of most any sized sturdy hardcover (paperbacks were always too small, but I read lots of cloth editions anyway). I only had to wipe my fingers before turning a page. The appeal of low-tech reading persists, and if energy consumption continues to be a concern, printed books must still cost less to produce and distribute than running a machine through a 45- or 60-minute lunch break day after day, no?
Posted by: Edward Burke at Mar 25, 2009 8:29:14 PM
The cure for most of the Kindle issues already mentioned (slippage, fear of spills, upright reading) already exists in the form of the M-edge Platform jackets. The killer-app for the Kindle is periodicals, especially dailies. I've been reading WSJ online for years but subscribed to NYT on the Kindle. It's much more convenient to cart around. It's less intrusive on public transport, and there is nothing to recycle. As I live in sunny SoCal, it's nice to be able to read comfortably for hours in direct sunlight.
Posted by: David at Mar 26, 2009 1:32:38 AM
I remember a scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey where one of the Jupiter-bound astronauts read the news hands-free from his kindle-like device while eating his breakfast.
Of course, I may be wrong, 'cause I haven't seen it since it played in the cinemas over 40 years ago...
Posted by: alphie at Mar 26, 2009 4:18:16 AM
I wonder if paying attention to reading versus eating at the dinner table could lead to increased calorie intake?
Posted by: Riz Din at Mar 26, 2009 12:25:43 PM
I wonder if paying attention to reading versus eating at the dinner table could lead to increased calorie intake?
Posted by: Riz Din at Mar 26, 2009 12:26:12 PM
Francesca, your husband could try wearing a helmet with a facemask to bed. A lacrosse helmet would be ideal.
Posted by: Bob Meade at Mar 27, 2009 2:13:37 AM
If your hardcover books won't lay flat unless you crack the spine, they are not *real* (signature-bound) hardcovers but glue-bound trash.
Posted by: John David Galt at Mar 30, 2009 11:15:53 PM
