Prologue: Light on the Dark Side
Friday, February 29th, 2008
I’m addicted to my iPhone to the point of having developed what must, to the uninitiated, resemble a nervous tick, doing something/anything with the device whenever I’ve got at least a few precious seconds to spare. However, when I first caught a glimpse of Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader, I knee-jerked a nuh-uh … no way am I going to fatigue my eyes with yet another LCD screen in my day. So I scoffed at the Kindle a bit, albeit with the brand of light-hearted jabs that make for good cocktail party banter but don’t draw blood.
Then … I finally test-drove one. Early review: fantastic, gotta have it. I was most surprised that the screen does an A-/B+ job of looking like paper. Again, my main concern was that the last thing I need right now is another eye-burning screen in front of me given how much time I’m already staring at my desktop, laptop, smartphone, nav system and plasma.
Still, this Kindle, man, it’s nice. Easy on the eyes, not bright and glossy at all. Actually quite gray, in a good way. As I said, it looks a lot like printed ink on the page. And, suffice it to say, it’s a got a leg up on bound paper in how easily you can advance through the pages … click, click, click.
Don’t get me wrong though, I’m a long-long way from deep-sixing all my Old School books. There’s no Fahrenheit 451 taking place on my lawn anytime soon. But I’ve got to admit, the Kindle’s more than just kinda cool. Now, if they will just drop the price to something akin to trade paperback I might actually begin a new chapter and buy one.
Posted by: Colin Mangham
