Lord Kindle, the Bookstore Slayer?
The other day, Seth Godin posted this article on his blog (which is really a great site for when you’re looking for a little motivation, by the way).
In the post, Seth suggests that you shouldn’t look to the rats as warning of your boat sinking — you should look to the rich people. When all the major companies switched to faxes, letter delivery services had to go. It didn’t matter if Grandma would still use them to deliver a letter every six months — that’s not how the services made their money.
The Kindle is arguably the hottest gift this holiday season. It makes buying and owning books convenient for ravenous book buyers. It’s not a big deal for the average American though – all the reasons a Kindle is convenient don’t matter to someone who only buys one book a year. But, as with the fax machine example, these light readers aren’t how bookstores make their money. Seth predicts bookstores are the next to go, and it’s hard to disagree with him.
With the impending e-Book revolution, we’re one step closer to Star Trek technology, which I always assumed would excite me (first the Kindle, next the Holo-deck!). So why do I have a preemptive case of nostalgia instead?
An artist's representation of a Kindle actually incinerating a bookstore (image from telos.tv/blog).
Reading is already an isolating hobby. It’s comfy to curl up in bed with a good book, but sometimes I like to trick myself into thinking I’m social, and I’ll go into public to read at the Barnes and Noble up the street. It’s quiet, it has a nice atmosphere, and you may even look up from your book and actually meet another human being that reads (which is a trait that becomes rarer by the year). If I can buy and read all the books I could ever want right at home on my Kindle, my carefully constructed illusion of getting out of the house is shattered!
I wonder what place this leaves for libraries in our society. They’re already the victims of constant budget cuts. When reading words on paper becomes a laughable antiquity, how long will we set aside funds for libraries? And if libraries simply become a place to go to read digital files, why have a physical location at all? Just put it all online. I’ve never been one for the library — I generally like to keep books I’ve read. A full bookshelf is a comforting thing to me — evidence of my literary adventures. The Kindle, however, both defeats the purpose of the library and takes away the need for my shamefully large bookshelf. I hate the infernal device, but the technophile in me still wants one!
What do you guys think? Any of you get a Kindle this holiday season? Would you read more if you had the convenience of one? And do you think this e-Book thing is just a fad? Or is it the future?
I want to buy one for the next time I go traveling. It’d be good for reading on overnight trains or something. Otherwise, I assume I’ll keep buying books since I love having a bookshelf. But who knows! When’s the last time I bought a CD? Couldn’t tell you!
Haha, oh no. I can tell you – the last CD I bought was seven years ago – Metallica’s “S&M!” That does not bode well, haha.
I’ve found it to be a quandary though… music’s popularity on the internet has generated numerous legitimate services to pay to download music, so that affects the business model for companies. However, enough people want music that mp3 pirating is rampant. You can get any song you want instantly for free. I wonder how long/if it will become the same way for e-Books? I’m not sure that reading is popular enough in our culture that it will ever be “easy” to just pop on and find a torrent for the book you want.
Perhaps the declining readership will actually be the publishing industry’s saving grace against loss of sales due to piracy?
…I’ve downloaded books for free already (torrents and otherwise). It is pretty easy. There’s also Project Gutenberg and a ton of other free e-book sites. It won’t be as easy as going to YouTube and hearing any song you want instantly, but I definitely think that e-books are the future. Just not sure if that means books will be obsolete or not. Do you remember on cartoons when they talked about reading books on computers/screens? I can’t remember any specific one, but now it’s HAPPENING and that’s kind of neat. Next, talking dogs.
Hard to say what will happen. Newspapers have lasted pretty long, considering pretty much everything in them is found on the internet. I’m sure their readership is way down but I thought they would be mostly gone by now (and perhaps they will be soon).