Monday, September 14, 2009

Topic: Kindle 2

10-second review: Will the Kindle 2 replace books made of paper pages? No.


Title: “A New Page. Nicholson Baker. The New Yorker (August 3, 2009), 24-3o.


Summary: “Amazon is very good at selling things, but to date it hasn’t been as good at making things.” Problems: The electronic text fades in the sunlight. Many of the author’s favorite books are not available on Kindle. The text-to-speech feature made a number of mistakes, like translating “Miss” into the name of a state. It doesn’t do well with pictures and diagrams, often not including them in the electronic text. And you can’t pass your copy of the book to a friend, because, unlike real books, they are not transferable.


Comment: I’m assuming the reader is acquainted with Amazon’s Kindle 2, an e-book reader. Sounds, from this review, that it is a good idea which is still not ready for prime time. RayS.

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