Comments on: Is Kindle the iPod of books? http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2007/12/03/is-kindle-the-ipod-of-books/ ... at the intersection of media, technology, business and the web Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:01:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: Charlie http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2007/12/03/is-kindle-the-ipod-of-books/comment-page-1/#comment-375207 Charlie Tue, 04 Dec 2007 12:20:34 +0000 http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2007/12/03/is-kindle-the-ipod-of-books/#comment-375207 Unlike music there is a huge body of literature which is out of copyright. You could read forever and never infringe a copyright. You don't really need BitTorrent either; War and Peace is only 3MB. Unlike music there is a huge body of literature which is out of copyright. You could read forever and never infringe a copyright. You don't really need BitTorrent either; War and Peace is only 3MB.

]]> By: scrawledinwax http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2007/12/03/is-kindle-the-ipod-of-books/comment-page-1/#comment-375206 scrawledinwax Tue, 04 Dec 2007 10:39:13 +0000 http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2007/12/03/is-kindle-the-ipod-of-books/#comment-375206 I'm a grad student in a literature program, so I'm totally biased... But I think the thing people are sorta' missing about the Kindle is the enormous cultural import of books. The book is perhaps *the* cultural artefact that we have chosen to define ourselves by. Even us bloggers look to books for crystallizing and distilling big ideas (i.e. the Long Tail). As a result, I think the digitization of books will take a long time, not only because of the practical concerns, but because of the enormous cultural transition it will entail - what Sven Birkerts suggested was the shift from a text-based culture to a screen-based one. Birkerts is a bit of an alarmist luddite, but I think his insight still holds - how we think of books and printed language relates to how we conceive of meaning and knowledge. It'll take time for this shift to happen as literacy and reading undergo this fundamental shift. <br><br>All that said - please release one in Canada soon! I'm a grad student in a literature program, so I'm totally biased… But I think the thing people are sorta' missing about the Kindle is the enormous cultural import of books. The book is perhaps *the* cultural artefact that we have chosen to define ourselves by. Even us bloggers look to books for crystallizing and distilling big ideas (i.e. the Long Tail). As a result, I think the digitization of books will take a long time, not only because of the practical concerns, but because of the enormous cultural transition it will entail – what Sven Birkerts suggested was the shift from a text-based culture to a screen-based one. Birkerts is a bit of an alarmist luddite, but I think his insight still holds – how we think of books and printed language relates to how we conceive of meaning and knowledge. It'll take time for this shift to happen as literacy and reading undergo this fundamental shift.

All that said – please release one in Canada soon!

]]> By: Charlie http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2007/12/03/is-kindle-the-ipod-of-books/comment-page-1/#comment-342778 Charlie Tue, 04 Dec 2007 07:20:34 +0000 http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2007/12/03/is-kindle-the-ipod-of-books/#comment-342778 Unlike music there is a huge body of literature which is out of copyright. You could read forever and never infringe a copyright. You don't really need BitTorrent either; War and Peace is only 3MB. Unlike music there is a huge body of literature which is out of copyright. You could read forever and never infringe a copyright. You don't really need BitTorrent either; War and Peace is only 3MB.

]]> By: scrawledinwax http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2007/12/03/is-kindle-the-ipod-of-books/comment-page-1/#comment-342777 scrawledinwax Tue, 04 Dec 2007 05:39:13 +0000 http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2007/12/03/is-kindle-the-ipod-of-books/#comment-342777 I'm a grad student in a literature program, so I'm totally biased... But I think the thing people are sorta' missing about the Kindle is the enormous cultural import of books. The book is perhaps *the* cultural artefact that we have chosen to define ourselves by. Even us bloggers look to books for crystallizing and distilling big ideas (i.e. the Long Tail). As a result, I think the digitization of books will take a long time, not only because of the practical concerns, but because of the enormous cultural transition it will entail - what Sven Birkerts suggested was the shift from a text-based culture to a screen-based one. Birkerts is a bit of an alarmist luddite, but I think his insight still holds - how we think of books and printed language relates to how we conceive of meaning and knowledge. It'll take time for this shift to happen as literacy and reading undergo this fundamental shift. <br><br>All that said - please release one in Canada soon! I'm a grad student in a literature program, so I'm totally biased… But I think the thing people are sorta' missing about the Kindle is the enormous cultural import of books. The book is perhaps *the* cultural artefact that we have chosen to define ourselves by. Even us bloggers look to books for crystallizing and distilling big ideas (i.e. the Long Tail). As a result, I think the digitization of books will take a long time, not only because of the practical concerns, but because of the enormous cultural transition it will entail – what Sven Birkerts suggested was the shift from a text-based culture to a screen-based one. Birkerts is a bit of an alarmist luddite, but I think his insight still holds – how we think of books and printed language relates to how we conceive of meaning and knowledge. It'll take time for this shift to happen as literacy and reading undergo this fundamental shift.

All that said – please release one in Canada soon!

]]> By: mathewi http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2007/12/03/is-kindle-the-ipod-of-books/comment-page-1/#comment-342776 mathewi Mon, 03 Dec 2007 23:27:02 +0000 http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2007/12/03/is-kindle-the-ipod-of-books/#comment-342776 Thanks for the comment, Mark. That was designed to cover everything<br>from last week to three months ago, because I couldn't be bothered to<br>check exactly how many it was. Thanks for the comment, Mark. That was designed to cover everything
from last week to three months ago, because I couldn't be bothered to
check exactly how many it was.

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