Amazon Kindle: would you really want to read something that ugly?
Amazon’s UK website is currently plugging its wireless reading device, the Kindle. I won’t be buying one.
Firstly, as I won’t even spend £15 on a memory stick because I keep losing them (losing a few kilobytes of data wouldn’t be so bad, but a few gigs is another matter), there’s no way I’d pay £175 for a piece of kit containing 200 books that I’d also forked out for. Somehow it’s different for music; maybe because there’s no real – and time tested – alternative to consuming music on the move (books have been around for over 500 years, a lot longer than the Walkman). And a song lasts a few minutes, so it makes sense to cart around a whole load at a time; not so with books.
Secondly, the physical object of a book or newspaper is generally comfortable and aesthetically pleasing. I know it’s an old argument, but I really can’t imagine wanting to spend a train journey with an electronic version of The Guardian when I can enjoy the award-winning design of the paper version.
Which brings me to my main point: the Kindle is bloody ugly. It’s no accident that many books are very pleasurable to read, often beautifully crafted by expert designers, and so an electronic reading tool is always going to have to contend with that. But from the images I’ve seen, Amazon hasn’t even tried to rise to the challenge. Come on guys! You’re up against centuries of great typography and book design, and you come up with something that looks like it dropped out of a 1980s maths lesson?
Okay, so its wireless capability allows you to buy books when you want them, rather than waiting for them to be delivered or traipsing to a shop. That might be good for very long journeys, but I’m not convinced I’d use that feature very much. And I can already read online newspapers on my PDA.
Maybe I’ll change my mind when I’ve seen a Kindle for real, but until then I’ll maintain that books are probably safe.
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