Object of the Week

The Kindle

Quote of the day:
“People do more of what’s convenient and friction-free.”
--Jeffrey P. Bezos, chief executive of Amazon.com

Six months ago Amazon introduced an electronic book reader called Kindle. It has been very popular. For a while they were having trouble keeping up with demand.

As much as I am interested in the applications of technology, I’ve always been very skeptical of devices on which you can read books. Most are hard on the eyes and emphasize technology over the actual reading experience.

I do love getting news and information from the internet, especially since page layouts have become more intuitive and attractive. There’s a hitch to this, though.

Even with a bright and sharp monitor, it can be quite tedious to read anything long. I think the internet is built for browsing. Hence the “browser.” And it’s built for referencing.

Images, sound and video are important tools on the web. These three things are irrelevant in the average book. Novels, poetry and non-fiction may contain black-and-white illustrations, but that’s about it.

I’ve always considered reading a book a unique experience. I wouldn’t consider reading a book on the web. It’s never entered my mind to even try it.

For the same reasons I would also not consider reading a book on my iPhone, or any PDA. It’s a little-bitty screen, and I would be fumbling with it so much it would distract from the experience.

Book lovers say things like “there’s nothing like the feel of a book.” They talk about its portability, and a vague connection felt with the author through the physical pages. All of this is true.

From everything I’ve read about Kindle, it succeeds admirably in replicating key parts of the “book experience.” The screen is practically identical to a printed page--black on white with a high resistance to glare. Very easy on the eyes--and you can enlarge the text.

Owners seem to love the chance to carry around a few dozen books with them. And they rave how easy it is to preview, buy and load books directly onto the Kindle from anywhere. The size and weight of it are just about ideal--roughly the same as a paperback. You can highlight and make notes in the margins.

Evidently, there are a couple of major drawbacks. While more than 100,000 books are available, when Merrie went searching for many of the books she wanted to read, most were not available. I suppose this will be remedied over time as Amazon secures more rights.

More unfortunate is that the design of the keys on the device is clunky and not intuitive. Many owners complain about accidently turning pages, or having to fish around for the “home” key which takes you back to your list of books. They also complain about the time lag when turning pages, and the menu functions in the software design.

Amazon is the biggest book seller in the world. They know about books. They are not hardware or software designers.

I think a device like this is in our future, and is a very good idea for many reasons, personally and ecologically. I give Jeff Bezos a huge amount of credit for the work done on this product. It’s also admirable that one of Amazon’s (huge) goals is to increase the attention span of Americans. Kudos for that. (I don’t use the word “props” yet.)

Wouldn’t it be interesting if Amazon worked in partnership with Apple to get the design right?

Colons Everywhere

Quote of the day:
“No man ever became extremely wicked all at once.”
--Juvenal

Another pet peeve today. Get ready.

This one I’ve mentioned before, but it’s bugging me again. Why is it that EVERY single nonfiction book being published has a colon in its title? Check it out. See if you can find a new nonfiction book without a colonified title.

Colons Shouldn’t be Necessary: One Would Think.

Abridged Creativity: Writers and Publishers Have Limits.

Forget What Your Mom Said: If Everyone Does It, Do It!

Endless Possibilities: Obnoxious Punctuation in Book Titles.

Never Semi: The Colorful History of the Full Colon

Colon Epidemic: Why You Shouldn’t Read This Book.

Rhyming With Colon: The Life of Colin Powell.

Cleaner Than Yours: The Story of My Colon.

The Oscopy Dilemma: Colon or Sigmoid?

Titles With Colons: How Annoying Can You Get?

Quote of the day:
“I never forget a face, but in your case, I'll make an exception."
--Groucho Marx

Search facts of the day:
A Google search for “I’d like a middle seat” brings no results,
while “I’d like to die in a plane crash” does.
A Google search for “armpit hair topiary” brings no results,
while “nose hair topiary” does.
--Gene Weingarten, “The Washington Post,” August 5, 2007

I have a question. What is with this trend of putting colons in book titles? Sometimes it seems that every nonfiction book published has a colon. Do we think there is no meaning in our titles if they do not contain colons? Do we feel such a burning need to elaborate on a title that we must add a colon followed by a descriptive clause?

Not only are they everywhere you look when you walk in the bookstore, but listen to these ten colon-ensconced books coming soon:

“Lose Weight in Three Weeks: A Foolproof Way to Shed Pounds While Scarfing Carbs”

“Hard Truths: What Your Mother is Not Telling You About Your Father”

“Hemispheric Imbalance: The New Science of Nerdishness”

“Wads of Cash: Five Spiritual Strategies To Lose It Fast”

“Boiling Hot Coffee: Don’t Get It On Yourself”

“Making a Million in Real Estate: 8 Keys To Admitting You’ve Really Screwed Up”

“Government: Everything You Fear is True, But Too Bad”

“Beyond Badness: A Life Spent Sitting in a Birdbath”

“My Goodness: That Is a Large Growth”

“This Title Does Not Have a Colon: Oops, I Made a Mistake”

A Free and Green Christmas Gift

Quote of the day:
“This is the story of an unprejudiced heart, and how it changed our valley forever.”
--Introduction to the movie Babe, written by George Miller and Chris Noonan.

How’s this for an environmentally-friendly Christmas gift--a library card and a trip to the library. Give the opportunity to borrow some books, CDs and DVDs for free.

When you borrow instead of buy, it saves the paper, plastic and energy needed to make a book or CD or DVD just for you. It saves you money and is low-risk, too. If you borrow a book, CD or DVD and don’t like it after you’ve sampled it, you can just bring it back. You don’t have to feel guilty about not reading it, watching it or listening to it.

As an ordained minister I have gained a lot of experience with book accumulation. The field requires a lot of reading and reference work. The little secret is that most ministers don’t use or even read most of the books surrounding them in their offices. Just like in many homes, the books wind up as expensive and heavy shelf decoration, and they bring status.

I have served four churches. Each time I moved out of my church office, I donated approximately half my remaining books to various worthy groups. It wasn’t hard to locate and pull out volumes I had used rarely or not at all.

I love books, but I love books to read, not just to have around. I continue to buy them from time to time. But I also love to browse at the library, and pick up some books and CDs that look interesting.

Wouldn’t that experience make a great gift?

1984 22 Years Later

Quote of the day:
“Never try to hug your rabbit; most don’t like it.”
--Steve Dale

Proposed bumper sticker of the day:
“Too cool for drool.”

Quote of the day no. 2:
“Like many ambitious people, I had developed a dependence on adrenaline. I could get so much done when my anxiety was in the red zone that I learned to live right on the edge of panic, in that optimum zone between alarm and collapse.”
--Barbara Brown Taylor

Political quote of the day:
“The language of American politics increasingly resembles an Orwellian monologue.”
--Christopher Lasch

And we have adapted to (and perhaps accepted) this “Orwellian monologue.” We are accustomed to ballot propositions on which a “no” vote actually means “yes” and politicians who say one thing to one audience and its seeming opposite to a different audience hours later. It’s part of the normal course of things, we say. Apparently it was not the normal course of things when George Orwell wrote "1984" and coined the term “doublespeak.”

His book portrayed a world in which doublespeak was the norm and no one seemed to mind. Everywhere there were declarations that up was down and good was bad and pain was pleasure.

And no one seemed to mind.