When you buy a Kindle electronic-book reader for $400 from Amazon.com – the only place you can get one – and open the box, the first thing you see printed inside is: "kindle: v.t. 1. set on fire. 2. inspire, stir up. v.i. 1. catch fire. 2. become animated."
That's apparently what Jeff Bezos wanted to do with the very concept of traditional books and how we read them when he introduced the Kindle on Nov. 19. Bezos is the chief executive officer of the diverse online merchandiser Amazon.com, which sells, among other things, a lot of traditional books.
Newsweek magazine got carried away in its coverage of the Kindle's debut when the headline on its story proclaimed, "The future of reading."
Is it really all that? Or is the Kindle another niche product in the multibillion-dollar book industry – in that regard, akin to the audiobook?
Or is it more than that? Will it help an older audience of traditional book readers overcome its fear of computer literacy? Will it help push a digital-savvy younger generation into doing something that is becoming increasingly alien – that is, reading?
E-book readers have been around in one form (primitive) or another (sophisticated) since the late 1990s. As of today, though, the Kindle is king. Its main competitor, the Sony Reader, debuted in 2006 and for a while was sold exclusively at Sony and Borders stores but is more widely available now. It's $100 cheaper than the Kindle but has a more roundabout way of downloading books, from the source to a computer to the Reader.
The Kindle's main advantage over the Reader is the simplicity and speed with which books can be downloaded – wirelessly and within a minute. The technology allowing that is a high-speed data-transmission system called Whispernet.
The e-book industry is growing, yes, taking a $33 million share of the publishing business last year, up from $6 million in 2002, according to the International Digital Publishing Forum, a trade association. Still, those millions represent only 1 percent to 2 percent of the pie, depending on which source you consult.
I test-drove a Kindle for two weeks to gain some insight into bookless books – a technological giant step that could become a cultural phenomenon with huge implications, or not. Let's not forget that CD-less music has been a hit; just think of the MP3 player.
On the occasions when I announced my possession of a Kindle, people would either excitedly gather around and ask a dozen questions, or look blank and ask, "What's that?"
To satisfy such curiosity, here's a Kindle primer.
What is a Kindle?
It's a plastic-body, hand-held computer that serves as a wireless reading device. At 7.5 by 5.3 inches, it's close to the size of a trade paperback book but smaller than a hardback (it's 0.7 inches thick). The screen is 4.75 inches deep, 3.5 inches wide and 6 inches diagonally.
What are all those buttons and bars?
A cursor bar that "guides" the electronic cursor; a dual-function select wheel that moves the cursor up and down the cursor bar, and clicks on selections; two "next page" buttons; a "previous page" button; a "back" button ("allows you to retrace your steps, like the back button on a Web browser"); and a mini- keyboard that contains a "home" key and a "search" key.
On the back are the main power switch, a wire switch that allows material to be downloaded, a speaker (for broadcasting audiobooks and background music), a volume control, a headphone jack, a USB port to transfer content between the Kindle and a computer, and a power adapter jack for charging the battery.
It sounds complicated
It does, but it isn't. Using the Kindle controls is quite intuitive. However, like any computer, it's like an onion – many-layered. In my case, the more I peeled, the more I cried. For instance, it took me 2 1/2 hours to read and understand the tutorial. The explanations for some of the more esoteric functions may be everyday-speak to the computer literate, but not to me. I kept asking, "Why would the Kindle engineers include that?" The answer kept coming back: Because they could.
Call The Bee's Allen Pierleoni, (916) 321-1128.
