By Bethanne Patrick
You may read this as the mutterings of a crank, but before you dismiss my complaints, please note: I was an early Kindle adapter, and an even earlier ebooks adapter.
Hell, I was doing book content on the web before most of you even knew what a blog was. Back in 2004 when I took over the AOL Books channel, I had to explain to each and every major imprint whose offices I visited in New York what a “blog” was and why it might be important to promoting books and authors (I even took over one publisher’s Stanford preso at her behest). I even demo’d the Rocket eBook in 2002, and guess what? I kind of liked it, then. It wasn’t perfect, but…
…neither is the much-vaunted Kindle 2
Meh. Those features are interesting (the sampling is the best of them, as far as I’m concerned), but I’m more than a bit put off by the Kindle 2’s transformation from booklike to gadgetlike. Many people hated the Kindle 1’s bulky profile, cheap portfolio/cover, and cranky construction (the rubberized back pad slid off at the slightest provocation). It wasn’t elegant, like the Sony eReader, with its click wheel, leather cover, and slim lines.
What the Kindle 1 had was a) e-ink, b) WhisperNet, and c) a kinship with the traditional book. Now, a) and b) are available on the Kindle 2, and they are both amazing. Anyone who poo-poos e-readers by saying “Who wants to read on a SCREEN?” has not tried a Kindle. I’ve been researching and writing about e-ink for several years, and it is truly a breakthrough technology. I read on my Kindle all the time (traveling, in bed, at a desk, in waiting rooms) and I’ve never experienced the slightest bit of eyestrain. I also adore the fact that (Amazon hegemony notwithstanding) I can download a new book or magazine in a matter of seconds.
Let’s talk about c) though, since this is the point I haven’t seen discussed in any other reviews of the Kindle 2. The Kindle 2 looks and feels like a giant iPod—white plastic front with screen, smooth brushed metal back (which, by the way, makes it more difficult to hold without purchasing a separate, expensive cover). Its keyboard has rounded iPod-esque buttons, and the new Next/Previous page buttons have been re-engineered to make it less likely to click ahead too quickly.
The Kindle 1 wasn’t sleek, pretty, or altogether easy to use (that keyboard!), but: It felt like a book. When I read on it, it felt as if I were holding a version of a book, and that counted for me. I didn’t realize how much it counted until I began reading on my Kindle 2. With its slightly smaller screen, skinny width, and page buttons that click rather than push, it feels like all of my other e-devices and not at all like a book. There is no gentle slope from “spine” to “page edge” as there was in the Kindle 1 and no easy way to grip the back, which makes it seem less as if I’m holding something that I’m interacting with and more like I’m clutching a— yes, I’ll say it—screen.
All that, and still no built-in reading light (NB: If you know there is one, tell me! I can’t find it!)? I think I may just stick with my old Kindle until something better comes along.
Bethanne Patrick blogs at stilllifewithbookmaven.com and hosts WETA’s 
Author, Author! interview series at weta.org/authorauthor— soon to be relaunched at “The Book Studio.” She tweets as @TheBookMaven and can be reached by email at thebookmaven@gmail.com. Bethanne also hosts the Center Stage Book Club for BN.com: bn.com/centerstage.
flickr photo of Kindle 2 by treydanger
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Goodness, someone who had a Rocket too! I used it to dip my toe into eReaders (when they dropped the price to a couple of hundred dollars) and I was sold. Then followed the Gemstar, which I still like. I was an early adopter of the Kindle One – purchased the day they went on-line at Amazon. And yes, the plastic thingie on the back falls off lots of times.
It did it replace my Sony eReader (500 and subsequently, because of a trade-in option by Sony, the 505) because I have 100 titles on my Sony and hadn’t finished reading them.
I don’t have a Kindle 2. At least not yet. I have to agree, it really does need the cover because I won’t read a flat plastic screen – which is what it looks/feels like.
If I didn’t have a Kindle One already, I would buy a Kindle Two – with one of the leather covers because, all technology aside, there is something to the “feel” of a book in your hand while you are reading that is part of the experience. My partner traded up so I’ve gotten my hands on the new one. I’m just not sold yet.
eReaders do lack one thing that dead-tree variety books have. Reading a book is an holistic experience. You can feel how close to the end of a reasonably sized book you are – there is something about the transfer of weight from right to left as you read. Not so with an eReader. I’ve “run off” the end of a number of books, particularly those that are part of a series because I got lost in the story and the little cues on the screen, usually out of the way, didn’t catch my eye.
A minor point, but there is something to what people say when they talk of their experience with books – and their certainty that they cannot get the same experience from an eReader.
But it’s not enough to persuade me that eReaders are bad. But the Kindle is not as good from the “experience” aspect as it might/should have been.