The Future of Reading

"Music and video have been digital for a long time, and short-formreading has been digitized, beginning with the early Web. But long-formreading really hasn't." Yet. This week Bezos is releasing the AmazonKindle, an electronic device that he hopes will leapfrog over previousattempts at e-readers and become the turning point in a transformationtoward Book 2.0. That's shorthand for a revolution (already inprogress) that will change the way readers read, writers write andpublishers publish. The Kindle represents a milestone in a time oftransition, when a challenged publishing industry is competing withtelevision, Guitar Hero and time burned on the BlackBerry; literarycritics are bemoaning a possible demise of print culture, and NormanMailer's recent death underlined the dearth of novelists who cast giantshadows. On the other hand, there are vibrant pockets of book lovers onthe Internet who are waiting for a chance to refurbish the dusty hallsof literacy.

"If you're going to do something like this, you have to be as good asthe book in a lot of respects," says Bezos. "But we also have to lookfor things that ordinary books can't do."

First, it must project an aura of bookishness; it should beless of a whizzy gizmo than an austere vessel of culture. Therefore theKindle (named to evoke the crackling ignition of knowledge) has thedimensions of a paperback, with a tapering of its width that emulatesthe bulge toward a book's binding. It weighs but 10.3 ounces, andunlike a laptop computer [or every Apple device on earth --Paul] it does not run hot or make intrusive beeps.

A reading device must be sharp and durable, Bezos says, and with theuse of E Ink, a breakthrough technology of several years ago that mimesthe clarity of a printed book, the Kindle's six-inch screen postsreadable pages. The battery has to last for a while, he adds, sincethere's nothing sadder than a book you can't read because of electiledysfunction. (The Kindle gets as many as 30 hours of reading on acharge, and recharges in two hours.) And, to soothe the anxieties ofprint-culture stalwarts, in sleep mode the Kindle displays retro imagesof ancient texts, early printing presses and beloved authors like EmilyDickinson and Jane Austen.

E-book devices like the Kindle allow you to change the font size: agingbaby boomers will appreciate that every book can instantly be alarge-type edition. The handheld device can also hold several shelves'worth of books: 200 of them onboard, hundreds more on a memory card anda limitless amount in virtual library stacks maintained by Amazon.

Some of those features have been available on previous e-book devices,notably the Sony Reader. The Kindle's real breakthrough springs from afeature that its predecessors never offered: wireless connectivity, viaa system called Whispernet. (It's based on the EVDO broadband serviceoffered by cell-phone carriers, allowing it to work anywhere, not justWi-Fi hotspots.) As a result, says Bezos, "This isn't a device, it's aservice."

The Kindle, shipping as you read this, costs $399. ... No way around it: it's pricey. But if all goeswell for Amazon, several years from now we'll see revamped Kindles,equipped with color screens and other features, selling for much less.