Kindle-ing the Flames of Desire

About a third of an inch thick, it weighed around 10.2 ounces (she stopped here, a bit confused) and was therefore “lighter than a typical paperback.” (“Ah,” she thought. “I get it.”)

“Live Outside the U.S.?” the page asked. “Click here to see information specific to your country.”

She clicked.

“We are excited to now ship Kindle to Philippines,” it declared.

Oh no. Her heartbeat sped up, and dread mixed with anticipation flooded her senses. What do I do now?

If she got one, it was going to be like she had a bookstore travelling with her, she supposed. A free 3G wireless connection was supposed to allow the user to download books into the device in less than 60 seconds – no need to look for Wi-Fi hotspots, then. It could hold up to 1,500 e-books, and was supposed to read “like real paper without glare, even in bright sunlight.” It even had an experimental feature, which could read whatever it contained out loud, “unless the book’s rights holder made the feature unavailable.” (Ah, intellectual property rights, she mused. Must look that up. Seems a bit strange, though, why, if the book’s rights holder made the book available, not allow someone to read it out loud?)

The website boasted of “over 310,000 English-language books to choose from; plus U.S. and international newspapers and magazines are available for your country. Because publishers give us eBook rights on a country by country basis (Huh, she didn’t know that. Then again, she never tried buying e-books online.), available titles for your country will vary from our current U.S selection. We are actively working with publishers to get the rights to all titles for every country and adding this selection every day.”

Right.

Okay, so whatever happened, she still preferred real paper. ‘Real’ books, so to speak. There was nothing she loved more than lying in bed, wrapped up in a comforter (with the air conditioner on, of course), reading a good book. She loved how turning the pages added to the building suspense. She loved reading, going at her own pace, flipping back to pages that had parts that jumped out at her. (Maybe the read-to-me feature has a rewind button? She snorted internally.) Besides, how could she be sure that a lot of the books she wanted – the ones that were so very hard to find in print, because they were kind of old – were included among the “310,000 English-language books” to choose from? She was from MassComm – she knew how... (*ahem*) convincing... advertising could be. There was truth in advertising, yes, but the word “half” often came before truth in the real world, and she couldn’t bet U.S. $259 on that. Heck, her parents wouldn’t even let her get a credit card. Assuming she got the device, how was she supposed to buy the ebooks?

So, no. She wasn’t going to run to her parents to beg them to get her one for Christmas. Or maybe the next two Christmases, including this and next year’s birthdays. It would be the height of impracticality, an expense she – as an unpaid day-student in law school – could not afford. It would be... It would be...

Ah, whatever. She wanted one.

Maybe she could sell her dog.


[end, blog no.1; all information on the device could be found on http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reading-Display-Generation/dp/B0015T963C/ref=amb_link_85978271_2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0T47915P4ZP9VMSFDHQ6&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=500168551&pf_rd_i=507846 – which was liberally quoted.:)]