Answers re: Kindle 2 (updated)

I will update this post if/when there are more questions. Before I get to the questions there is something else I want to tell you. It isn't easy to tell when the Kindle is doing what you told it to do. For instance when you buy a book it supposed to be delivered in under a minute. It isn't like downloading something from the Internet. When you do that you see a little progress bar and can watch as it slowly download. With the Kindle it is more like nothing happens for almost a full minute and then the book is loaded in five seconds. Presumably the book has been bouncing off cell phone towers.

There are other times when I find myself wondering if the Kindle is doing what I asked it to do (like search for something) because nothing seems to be happening. I did finally notice the little circle in the upper left hand corner that whirls when it is working.

1. Are there illustrations: yes. They are of course black and white, but they are pretty good.

2. Is it worth the cost? Well, for me yes it was. Part of it was that I started giving myself an allowance and I did want to save up to do something with it. It's been a long time since I have been in that situation, having a certain amount of money every month for whatever and then picking out a goal for it. I might have just saved it, but I think I was also demonstrating to my family that it can be done.

I also need to buy more books impulsively, which I know sounds strange. I don't read as much as I should in my field because I talk myself out of paying for the books. I can order them for the library but that process takes so long that by the time they get here they just aren't as compelling. I am hoping that more and more of what I want to read is available. If I still have to buy many paper books I will be frustrated.

Will it be worth it for you? If you mean will you save money over buying paper books that obviously depends upon how many books you buy and whether/how often you replace or upgrade your Kindle. If you read classics it's a steal. You can get the collected works of Shakespeare, Jane Austin, Charles Dickens (and quite a few more) for under $5 each. Most new releases are $10. My main goal isn't saving money. It's instant gratification. Deciding you want to something and then having it in under a minute is pretty cool.

3. Will the price go down? I don't think it will by much. Your cell phone is cheap(er) because much of the price is rolled into the cost of service over the lifetime of the contract. Amazon has rolled the cost of wireless delivery via Sprint into the cost of the machine and books.

4. What's with the cat on the mat? Well, there was a spell in which it seemed that everyone who wanted to talk about meaning and reference or the correspondence theory of truth used "the cat is on the mat." It has become a sort of philosophical joke. My colleague has a section of wall in his office covered with photos and drawings of cats on mats. When I came here and saw it I laughed out loud. No one else sees why it is funny. To be fair, the most over-used sentence-as-example in philosphy is "a bachelor is an unmarried man."

We philosophers are a wild and crazy crowd.

Updates:
5. Further notes: if you buy a Kindle book from Amazon and the wireless is turned off on your Kindle, you should select "synch and check for items" on your Kindle when you turn the wireless back on.

6. Do I think that paper books will be totally replaced? No, I don't, although it is possible we will come close. Children's books though I think will remain in paper for a very long time. Even when Ereader screens are bigger and in color, it won't be the same. Though I find I don't miss the feel of paper in my hands, I think children in particular need to be able to see and hold books.

Ereaders can't replace scholarly books until there is a standard method for citation. I don't imagine right now that I could get an article published using Kindle location numbers.

Theoretically, it could come close. I can imagine a world in which ebooks have replaced paper books the way email has replaced letters ... although I still see cards and children's books in that world.