‘The Book vs. the Kindle, Part 1 of 10’
What’s better—an old-fashioned book or a Kindle?
Over at the Green Apple Core bookstore in San Francisco, they’re having a “smackdown” with a series of videos. The first is here. Yep, Green Apple obviously intends to play up Amazon’s 1984ish episode to the hilt, and I don’t blame ‘em.
Any thoughts from Kindle-lovers and others, in regard to Part I?
July 30th, 2009 at 9:16 am
NIcely made point – pbooks have a resale value, ebooks do not.
July 30th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Cute. It’s clear so far (having seen episodes 1 and 2) that they have a viewpoint and want to push it. That’s cool.
It would be just as easy for ebook advocates to make a cute series of shorts that portray the inconvenience/hazards/dangers/disapointments in buying/owning/using pbooks.
Will the Kindle score any points or will it be a shutout?
I look forward to the remaining episodes.
July 31st, 2009 at 11:05 am
There are benefits to each format, and of course Amazon’s stealth tactics creeped a lot of us out, even Kindle lovers. I think it’s worth mentioning that the books removed were illegal copies– totally Amazon’s fault, not the buyers’ who did nothing wrong– but they were sold in violation of copyright law. What’s getting lost in the scuffle is that this points out a benefit of ebooks not mentioned before– like all electronic text, they can be corrected and reissued. So, if you buy a print book and it has a mistake in it– a typo, a missing word or paragraph, misinformation– it’s never going to be corrected. But if an ebook is wrong, it should be easy for a publisher to reissue it, and, assuming everyone gets their ebooks ducks in a row, for the seller to allow customers free access to a corrected copy.
This is now a benefit now, but one that’s possible in future.
July 31st, 2009 at 11:06 am
There are benefits to each format, and of course Amazon’s stealth tactics creeped a lot of us out, even Kindle lovers. No one is trying to rip print copies away form anyone who wants them.
I think it’s worth mentioning that the books removed were illegal copies– totally Amazon’s fault, not the buyers’ who did nothing wrong– but they were sold in violation of copyright law. What’s getting lost in the scuffle is that this points out a benefit of ebooks not mentioned before– like all electronic text, they can be corrected and reissued. So, if you buy a print book and it has a mistake in it– a typo, a missing word or paragraph, misinformation– it’s never going to be corrected. But if an ebook is wrong, it should be easy for a publisher to reissue it, and, assuming everyone gets their ebooks ducks in a row, for the seller to allow customers free access to a corrected copy.
This is now a benefit now, but one that’s possible in future.
August 3rd, 2009 at 2:26 am
Why do we need to determine if one is better than the other? They are different and both have their place – surely they can exist side by side with each having their own market. Should we have to decide between apples and oranges when we go to the supermarket – can’t we buy some of each?
Chris Warren
Author and Freelance Writer
Randolph’s Challenge Book One – The Pendulum Swings
September 16th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
The Kindle is great for newspapers and magazines for so many environmental reasons, but I suppose that the age of the book as an aesthetic object outside of its content is coming to a close.