The Future of Books?

I may have caught onto the Kindle rather late, it was only bought to attention about a month ago and even after reading many articles in various newspapers on Amazon's new digital reading device, I'm still not entirely convinced.

Amazon itself describes the Kindle as "to provide an exceptional reading experience" which I have no doubt it is, but is it a worth while reading experience? As a student, I would like nothing more than to carry the 18 text books I lugged home for the holidays, and to be able to fit them into on small digital device. One newspaper article pointed out this very thing, also siting Lawyers as targets for the Kindle. But there has already been problems with the technology itself. Customers were quick to complain they were having to pay for documents such as newspapers that with their computers they could get online for free. These however are minor complaints, what I am more interested in, is the relationship between the reader and the material itself.

I first heard about the Kindle in a seminar where the class was being encouraged to engage with the theories concerning text, and our relationship to the written word. Up until recently, the written word has predominately been found in the book, or at least the academics and professors and students will rely heavily on what they can find in a library. Still in essays, almost all the references you will have will be from a book, with far less dedicated to online referencing. Hours are spent squeezed in between book shelves trying to find that one article, only to find its on long loan and you won't be seeing it until June. Either way, when considering something like the Kindle the hours pent in the library seem to fall away and what you are left with is mobile reading, downloading and a more leisurely way of finding that information you need. Text becomes accessible from anywhere and it becomes an interactive experience, rather than just an active one. Texts can be deleted at the touch of a button and disregarded within seconds. They can be borrowed from the comfort of your own room and never returned, forever saved on the memory of a hand held computer.

To delve into a philosophical debate just for a moment. The text survives beyond its author, which it has always has done in many respects. In a digital age, and with the Kindle the text survives beyond its author but it also survives beyong the book. It is in the hands of the reader to do as they please. The text is now mobile. It can be moved, downloaded and deleted as the reader wishes. The Internet continues to shift the boundaries of the text and make it so that the text does not exist in any one place, it exists where we want it to.