Brian Kenney

My requisite Kindle post
July 11, 2008

God knows every other bookish editor has already held forth on the Kindle. So here's my belated take on Amazon's reading machine.

This week I traveled to Cleveland (off to interview the wonderful Carolyn Brodie who won the Scholastic Library Publishing Award--more on that later). Yes, it's just a 63 minute flight. But between the playful nature of the airline industry and the freakish nature of the weather, there's no telling whether that 63 minutes to Cleveland will turn into seven hours in Buffalo.

So I did what you probably do. I packed a bag of books. And it's got to be a mix: mysteries (subgenres too embarrassing to mention), biographies (eclectic, less embarrassing), information science (someone has to...just be glad it isn't you), and young adult novels (usually galleys recommended by Trev Jones).

See why the Kindle is on my mind?

It's not like I didn't already have my Kindle moment, or in my case, "lost weekend."

Back in March I headed down to South Beach for few days. No physical books, just the device. It was kind of exciting, made all the more so by the fact that it was a borrowed Kindle.

I didn't bother with it on the flight (opted for mood music instead) and was a little too nervous to use it on the beach (sand in the Kindle...I certainly wasn't worried about anyone in South Beach stealing it.) But by four o'clock I headed back to my hotel and along with the rest of South Beach slipped the do-not-disturb sign on my door handle. It was Kindle time.

So I started to read...and read some more. And then kept going. I know the technorati say I shouldn't be using some special device just for reading--I think I'm suppose to be reading on my phone or Blackberry or something?--but I liked it. I spend my whole life in front of a screen and I get plenty sick of it but this--without the backlighting--felt different. And yes, there's all that middle-aged font stuff you can do.

But then something funny happened. I'd purchased several books, but I couldn't settle into one. I couldn't commit. I'd start a book...only to be reminded of other books I might enjoy more. And I'd go to the Amazon site and start browsing and shopping. I'd start another title, then thirty minutes later I'd be back at Amazon again. My perfect weekend book was there, somewhere, if only I could find it.

Book-buying with the Kindle was just to easy--which may well be its point--and I spent the weekend more a giddy consumer than an enthralled reader. And by the time Monday morning rolled around, I couldn't remember a darn thing I read.

But I'm older and wiser now. The Kindle, it turns out, is just one more thing I need to be disciplined about.  Maybe it's time to try again.

Besides, it's on sale. And I come from one of those sale-only families.

If only I could buy it at Filene's Basement, in a discontinued color.

Posted by Brian Kenney on July 11, 2008 | Comments (1)