Like a Kindle in the wind

‘Twas the week before Xmas, and I gave in to consumerist pressure, and ordered a Kindle2. I had of course immediate buyer’s remorse, went back to the site, but alas, it was already too late to cancel. Amazon is really happy about impulse buying, I guess, the whole Kindle philosophy is based on that. Oh well, I guess I will have to live with my poor choices.

But seriously, I had pondered for a long time about the opportunity to buy a eReader. I love books on paper, I collect them in various editions, read them in every possible place in the house (I’ll spare you the details) and leak coffee on them. Yes, never borrow a book from me, please. And I told everyone I know and their wives that it wasn’t yet the time to shell out the hard-earned dollars for a eReader, given what will happen in 2010 with the current ebook frenzy. Lots of people seem to be on the phone with China to produce new or rebrand old eReaders. Then there’s the Nook, dubbed the “most advanced eReader in the world.” I actually went to a store and tried one, and quickly realized that I needed something perhaps less advanced but that would actually work. I tried the Sony series, great screen (the non-touch version) but no user input. The touch version had great user input but terrible screen.

Then I went to the Apple store. Apple is allegedly working on an eReader killer that will do all sorts of things, some say it will look like a giant iPod Touch. So I tried a small one, for starters. Brilliant! But  the problem is, I don’t want a device that does all sorts of things. I don’t want it, because I have about just about a truckload of them already. They are called PCs, Macs, Laptop, Netbooks. They have brilliant shiny screens of the kind that I stare at all day every day, and I have no intention to spend additional time reading on one. There are nice apps for the iTouch, loads of them. Except my netbook has probably more, and they are all free. And I can use it to write too, with a pretty decent non-virtual keyboard. Sure, the iTouch fits in a pocket. But my pocket is already occupied by my Moleskine and Tradio pen. So no thanks, Apple, and I’m not looking forward to the iMyth tablet either.

So I went back home and I thought about what I really needed:

• A eInk reader, easy on the eyes
• Something I could use for a variety of materials, including:
• Books I read for reference, to check about the state of lit in the genres I might be working on. Very often is stuff that I do not care about having on paper.
• Scientific papers (so far I kept my day job, as it’s often recommended)
• Comics & manga... why not!
• All sorts of stuff I find on the web daily: articles, short stories, webzines, etc.
• News, again, as I'm tired of reading them on shiny screen

I realized that I buy 75% of my books from Amazon anyway (the other 25% being from local bookstores, 15% Independent, 10% big chains, and always on paper). And that I will keep buying the books that I want to keep and share on paper. At that point the choice was pretty easy. I’m still hoping of course that:

• Amazon will support at some point the ePub format
• The choice of newspapers and magazines will expand to include some I actually would like to read
• Amazon.fr will start selling Kindle-format ebooks. Because of the caution France is using in digital publications, and the desire to protect traditional outlets, this might take a while.

The truth is, there will be always a better deal and a better device next year, or even next month. The question is, will this one work for me and do all of the things I listed above? Waiting for the UPS Santa Elves to bring me the answer. Happy Holidays!