Waterstones to stop selling Kindle

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Paul Whybrow

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Jun 20, 2015
Cornwall, UK
An article in the Guardian this morning set me thinking about old and new technologies, and how they can co-exist.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/06/waterstones-stop-selling-kindle-book-sales-surge

Recent sales figures for ebooks and print books need to be taken with a pinch of salt. Deciding that ereading devices are on the way out, on just nine months of sales figures for print books that grew by almost 5% is foolish.

Part of the problem with ebook pricing has been the greed of some well-established traditional publishers, who insisted on their digital downloads being as expensive, if not more, than a print book. I'm not saying that ebooks should be priced so low that the author cannot make a living, but there has to be a sensible compromise.

There's perceived value to take into account, which takes on a peculiar twist with modern technology. It's hard to feel love for a digital edition of a paperback, that's stored in a file on your laptop, phone or Kindle, but easy to be fond of a battered hard copy of the book that has been on your shelf in five different homes. Apart from anything else, there's the tactile nature of a physical book to enjoy. Easier to enjoy the illustration on your favourite version of a book cover, wondering lots of things about it, than to stare at a digital representation of it on a shiny screen.

Some old technologies make a resurgence. Just look at how we listen to music. In my lifetime, I recall old 78rpm shellac long-playing records being replaced by vinyl versions. These gave way to cassettes, then CDs, followed by digital music files. MP3 has its advantages, mainly portability, but has been heavily criticised for being antiseptic by removing the richness of the original recording. Neil Young has recently produced a listening device for his own digital music service called Pono, which aims to improve audio quality. I understand his annoyance with what's been allowed to happen to music, but to be honest, my ears can only hear so much.

I sometimes listen to music on cassettes and LPs, and even though my players aren't posh the sounds that they make are more textured than digital versions. There's been a rise in vinyl record stores opening, and some bands are releasing albums in cassette and vinyl formats. Original records and cassettes are highly collectable.

What old technologies have is simplicity. We're frequently advised to KISS, a principle that cuts through the bullshit and gets to the heart of the matter. I remember seeing an electric carving knife for the first time back in the 1960's, admiring its apparent efficiency but wondering at the pointlessness of it too - why complicate a simple job and have to pay extra to do so?

I sense that the backlash against modern technological forms of art has much to do with their being perceived as disposable: mere temporary manifestations of something real that can be destroyed with the click of a mouse. Such is the way with Kindles. If you lost an ereading device, anguish would be caused by its value not because you'd lost fifty books. Print books are more like friends to us.
 
Interesting piece. Like most people I love me a hardcopy. For a while there I did the Luddite absolute refusal to even open the wife's present of a Kindle until I realized three things:

1. There is no more considerate way to read in bed next to a sleeping partner than a silent, slightly glowing Kindle.
2. I find eyestrain on the paperwhite not to be a problem (though the science is still out, e-ink feels better than LCD)
3. Travelling is so much lighter and easier-- except for wildlife fieldguides which need pictures!

On a sadder note: twice now I've been reading a regular book and tapped at the bottom to turn the page. o_O
 
Interesting piece. Like most people I love me a hardcopy. For a while there I did the Luddite absolute refusal to even open the wife's present of a Kindle until I realized three things:

1. There is no more considerate way to read in bed next to a sleeping partner than a silent, slightly glowing Kindle.
2. I find eyestrain on the paperwhite not to be a problem (though the science is still out, e-ink feels better than LCD)
3. Travelling is so much lighter and easier-- except for wildlife fieldguides which need pictures!

On a sadder note: twice now I've been reading a regular book and tapped at the bottom to turn the page. o_O

Technology can affect us in lots of strange ways. When I first used computers back in 1999, I was startled by how my dreams took on actions that I did to navigate around the internet, as I scrolled through scenes, searched for answers on lists of possibilities and even paused a dream to send that image to my mental printer.

There's been several reports from sleep researchers on how the light from the screens of electronic devices disrupts sleep:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...dd2726-27a7-11e4-958c-268a320a60ce_story.html

I work from home, and am online for up to sixteen hours a day while researching and writing. I found that going straight to bed after closing my laptop made it hard to relax enough to drift off to sleep. To deprogramme myself, I read for at least half-an-hour from a real book. Another thing that helped me to sleep peacefully, was to cover the various operating lights in my room. Within a few feet of my bed there's a red light switch on a surge protector, a green diode on the laptop AC adapter, two blinking lime green strips on the laptop to show it's charging, a red standby diode on the television and the red numbers on a clock-radio. Eyelid skin isn't that thick, so I must have been aware of these distractions, even when asleep.

Kindles have the same advantage that any small device with chips inside has, in being able to store masses of information. An acquaintance of mine regularly travels the world trying to promote her cosmetic business. She speaks a few languages well enough to transact deals, but not to a fluency that she can enjoy reading literature - and English editions of paperbacks aren't always available. Being able to carry 100 titles on her Kindle is a joy to her. Mind you, she's the only person out of about fifty correspondents that I polled, who has a Kindle. A dozen friends said that they used their smartphones for accessing the internet, but that they never read books on them.

I've never even seen a Kindle, Nook or other e-reading device. This caused me a few head scratching moments when learning how to format manuscripts to be acceptable for consumption as ebooks, so I downloaded Amazon's free Kindle reader app to see what my book looked like.
 
'There's perceived value to take into account, which takes on a peculiar twist with modern technology. It's hard to feel love for a digital edition of a paperback, that's stored in a file on your laptop, phone or Kindle, but easy to be fond of a battered hard copy of the book that has been on your shelf in five different homes. Apart from anything else, there's the tactile nature of a physical book to enjoy. Easier to enjoy the illustration on your favourite version of a book cover, wondering lots of things about it, than to stare at a digital representation of it on a shiny screen.'

Amen, Paul. I buy digital for a quick read, and a research read. I buy hard copy in hopes of wanting to read the book again.
 
I do have a kindle and it is incredibly useful. I wouldn't say it is on its way out just based on some sales figures but I do enjoy holding a physical book.
 
My kindle allows me to read, probably 3 or 4 books on the go. My problem is I travel between Spain and Switzerland quite a lot and carrying a library is not always an option. A kindle or any e reader does give you that portability option.

Nothing beats the pleasure for me of browsing in a book shop, or taking a glass of wine and a good read to a hot bath.

My kindle just isnt that type of companion.
 
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