iPod vs Kindle
I just can’t excited about the Amazon Kindle.
My gadget addiction really wants to, but I can’t convince myself. I think that the reason is the idea of buying a book and not getting . . . an actual book.
I was able to make the jump a lot easier when it came to music. For me, the “physical aspect” of music has been shrinking my entire life. I grew up in the vinyl age which is just about when music packaging peaked. From there it shrunk down to cassettes and finally CDs. Now 80% of the music that I buy is digitally and it doesn’t bother me at all. It somehow seems like a natural progression (unless you want to talk about music fidelity, but that’s a whole other conversation).
Unfortunately, I just mentally can’t get to that place with books. I’m not ready to give up the physical thing to throw in my backpack, to put on a bookshelf when I’m finished.
I’d be far more likely to already own a Kindle if Amazon offered something like “Buy the book, get the Kindle version for a $1.00″ or something like that.
Another difference is that with music is that I can create the physical CD if I ever need to. The same can’t be said for books. It’s not like the Kindle has a Print or even better Print & Bind button.
Of course the one thing that the Kindle can offer that buying books at Amazon can’t is the instant gratification factor. Those “get the book in less than a minute” tags when browsing books are might effective. For now though, at least there is Schulers when I need it now.