What is a Kindle?
Kindle (v):
The act of setting something on fire.
Synonyms: ignite, alight, Kobo eReader, torch
The act of setting something on fire.
Synonyms: ignite, alight, Kobo eReader, torch
I am, of course, being fas.. fash.. faceesh.. facetious! When I refer to my Kindle, I am talking about the aforementioned Kindle Paperwhite, but the device does share similar properties, I find, with a piece of kindling you might find in another setting. The Kindle is incredibly light, weighing less than a regular paperback book, yet still holds enough weight to feel secure in my hands. The fact that it can store many hundreds of books in its digital memory, that the screen can be read in any level of brightness or dimness, and that its battery can last many weeks on a single charge has without a doubt rekindled my love of reading.
'But, Matt!' you cry, 'my ordinary paperback is as light as most paperbacks, can be read in brilliant sunshine, or in darkness with a torch, and its battery life is infinite. How can you possibly say that yet another piece of technological carry luggage is better!'.
My friend, you just presented a competent and convincing argument for continuing support of the print industry. Most of those who dissent against the buying of e-readers and ebooks (please don't ask me to explain why one is hyphenated and the other is not) will cite these points and demand that a prospective buyer will not contribute to the ever declining readership of the modern society. I understand where they are coming from. I agree that it will be a very sorry day indeed when the last book is taken off the shelf, to be replaced by holo-texts or whatever we have reached by that time, as a valuable piece of communicative history will have been lost. I personally hope that I will never see it happen.
The printing of books began in earnest in 1455 with the Gutenberg Bible, following the earliest metal-type printed work which was a Korean Buddhist textbook, emerging in 1377. From the time of Moses, notably, and before, systems of language and written text are evident, and thus it is a terrible idea that such industry could be destroyed, even if under the wheels of modernisation and 're-imagined mechanisation'.
However- and this is a rather large however- there are reasons why the Kindle Paperwhite and its creed are beneficial to folks such as me.
I am a student, and therefore streamlining my work process (and costs) is a very sensible move. My kindle can receive and display documents and PDFs of my choosing, sent by email, such as my student handbook, timetable, seminar notes, presentation script etc etc. This is incredibly useful for me in particular, as I am an off campus student, driving in to Uni with only my bag for the day. By uploading my documents to Kindle, I can reduce the amount of paper I need to remember to pack, and also save space in my bag for the items I do need, like seminar work, handouts, notebooks and often-times, my packed lunch.
Furthermore, American college students in particular will be aware of the exorbitant fees that your college/university will ask you to pay, not only for tuition, but for the books they say are 'absolutely essential to the course, and you mustn't set foot within our establishment without a copy (preferably bought from our bookshop)'. These books are ALWAYS ridiculously over-priced, over-published with only minor changes being made between each reprint, and are likely to be only used a couple of times over the course of the year. The same is true to a lesser degree when considering the purchase of fictional literary texts. For my course, I was asked to purchase a large and expensive anthology of Romantic literature, which I am going to fork out for, along with numerous other classic works, which I am decidedly not. Though I support the preservation of such great works in paper format, and will still buy hard copies if I particularly enjoy that volume, the combination of the Project Gutenberg library and my Kindle has, and will save me a lot of money as well as space in my bag. According to British copyright law, following a period of seventy years after the death of an author, their works become public domain and therefore are free to download and keep. Given that the Romantic period was some one-hundred-and-fifty to two-hundred years ago, works of that age are available for free on Project Gutenberg.
What is Project Gutenberg?
Project Gutenberg is, according to their Wikipedia entry:
'a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". It was founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital library.'
Used in tandem with an e-reader, tablet, computer or even some mobile phones, one can have access to over 53,000 ebooks. You won't find any brand new bestsellers in the Gutenberg library, but for someone with tastes like myself, all the old classics (literally- they have Homer, Euripides and Flavius Josephus in there!) are available.
A lot of these out of copyright books are also available to download straight from the Amazon store, which is even quicker, and sometimes contains neat extra features such as the 'X-Ray' mentioned below. If Amazon doesn't have an old text you're looking for, though, you can bet that Gutenberg will. Here is a link:
What about new books?
If so inclined, I can still buy new releases from the Amazon Kindle store, and they will download automatically to my Kindle for me to read. It really is as simple as that. There are some funny issues with buying ebooks from other suppliers, as they are not readily transferable across different types of e-reader, unfortunately. Then again, most people don't generally buy a car, and then hope they can stick bicycle wheels on it.
But, just think of the children!!
Ok, so it is a sad fact of life that many children today are being introduced to the world of literacy, not by looking at a whiteboard and set of early reader books, but instead by spending hours glued to a tablet or computer screen. Sic transit gloria mundi. A Kindle e-reader is not a tablet, and kids will not be wasting away their precious childhoods by doing exactly what adults do: playing mobile games.
The words on the screen are formed in e-ink, and change only when you turn the page. The Kindle is made entirely for presenting beautiful words, and it does a fantastic job of it. Yes, children should have the enjoyment of actual paper books. Who didn't love holding a Fantastic Five paperback in hand, or literally poring over a Harry Potter novel? But, if the Cult of Technology really has taken over the world, as it seems it has, is it not a good idea to at least provide an environment with the appearance of technology, and the benefit of learning transferred through paper? The Kindle has a 'Kindle for Children' setting, where parents can choose exactly what their child can read, for how long, and with various additional features to supplement their learning such as in-line word definitions, highlighting, and note taking. Which leads me into my next point, how the Kindle is good for bigger kids.
Writing in the margins, digital style.
Have you ever come across a second hand book, which some inconsiderate person has doodled all over, or scrawled notes in, where you hoped you would be able to make notes yourself? I have. With my Kindle, I can highlight words, make notes on the text using the on-screen keyboard, and send portions via social media. The best part is, all of these notes, highlights etc are erasable. I find this useful for studying both in a University context, and for making notes in my Bible (another fantastic addition to my digital library, which I can carry anywhere).
For those who need reassurance, or are studying particularly difficult texts, by holding your finger on a word to highlight it, you can also see a dictionary definition of a word, translate it from a foreign language (whilst connected to the internet), and using the Kindle's unique 'X-Ray' feature (available for books downloaded from the Amazon store), see where that word/ name occurs throughout the rest of your text. This really is invaluable to me, as the novels I'm reading love their flowery, ever-flowing, obtuse language. The X-Ray feature is great for, say, Jane Austen novels when you have a hundred different Mr and Mrs's and you're starting to lose track of who is who.
So everyone should buy a Kindle then, that is what you are saying?
In essence, yes. I don't know that they are to everyone's tastes, but I bet a lot of people have not even considered getting one. I find it to be an incredible tool, as well as a pleasure to read with, and it has certainly rekindled (!) my desire to read as I used to. I have gone from maybe ten texts in a year, to almost that many in a month, aside from my own personal documents which I can reference on a nice, portable screen. The ability to read books downloaded from Project Gutenberg is also fantastic, and I look forward to buying some new releases sometime soon also. I am determined that I will not abandon the fantastic physical libraries and bookshop atmospheres that I love so much, and I certainly will not support their systematic dismantling; however, I also cannot recommend the Amazon Kindle more highly.
