I have a serious case of gadget lust for Amazon's new Kindle e-book reader gizmo. I'm not going to completely do an upaid commercial for Amazon, but it's clear that they're trying to create the ipod for books, and they may have succeeded. (Note to Jeff Bezos--send me a tester! I'll totally blog about it!).
There's a lot that scares me about it--mostly how you have to buy your books through Amazon (but they whiz through the air and into your hands instantly! How cool is that?), and what is that going to mean for good old bookstores? You can't really browse online--I mean, yeah, technically you can, but it sucks compared to actual browsing. The Kindle is cool because if somebody recommends a book to you (Like my novel Dear Catastrophe Waitress, available to download onto your Kindle for $7.99! Have I mentioned it's got hot sex?) you can do the instant gratification thing and download it right away when it's still fresh in your mind, and not have to do the "Uh, I'm looking for this book by this one guy?" thing in the bookstore.
But, on the other hand, if people are buying the books they hear Terry Gross talk about without going to the bookstore, they won't pick up the impulse buys, and they'll probably buy fewer books. It's a problem with any search-driven shopping thing (from the perspective of the seller). How do you get people to buy the thing they didn't know they wanted if they can search and go straight to what they want? I've had quite a few people tell me they first picked up one of my books because they saw it in the bookstore and it had a cool cover. I don't know how you reach those people on a website. And if the bookstores can't bring you in to buy that book you heard about because you've already downloaded it, how are they going to stay in business?
On the other hand, if books can now be associated with a cool gadget, maybe people will read more books.
I don't know if the Kindle will catch on, but something like it will, and it's going to revolutionize bookselling. Scary!
Finally, if you check out the Kindle page on Amazon, you can find videos with well-known authors like Neil Gaiman, Toni Morrisson, and Daniel "Lemony Snicket" Handler talking about how the Kindle is the best thing to happen to books since the printing press, and all I could think while I watched them was ,"Dammit, Jeff! Why not give us obscure authors some video face time! I would have whored myself for you for probably less than half what you're paying those heavy hitters! Cripes!"
