Friday, March 26: Bandersnatches
KINDLE THIS
by Steven Steinbock
I’m not an advocate of e-books. I don’t own a Kindle or a Sony e-Reader. I may one day. It’s hard to tell. But I haven’t gone down that road. I have an antique iPaq – a pocket PC device that’s a little bigger than an iPhone (which I also don’t have) but without all the bells and whistles. If I really wanted to, I could load e-books onto the iPaq. But why would I want to?
Is it just me, or is Kindle a really bad name for a reading device? When I hear the word “kindle” I’m far more likely to imagine book burning rather than book reading. I mean kindle and Fahrenheit 451? Come on.
Having said all the above, it is tempting. I’m not immune to the draw of gadgetry. But in the balance, the high price-tag and my love of physical books has kept me on the skeptical side.
Then our friends over at Killzone come along and mess me up. I sat in the hotel bar with four of them one afternoon during Left Coast Crime. These are nice people, good bloggers, and even better novelists. They have a short story collection out now, Fresh Kills which is only available as an e-book. The book features seven short stories – one from each of the seven Killzoners: James Scott Bell, Michelle Gagnon, John Gilstrap, Clare Langley-Hawthorne, Kathryn Lilley, John Ramsey Miller, and Joe Moore.
The book is available for $2.99 from Amazon as well as from Smashwords and Scribd.
And no, I haven’t bought it yet. I haven’t decided which source to use. (I’m leaning toward the Scribd version which comes as a nice, neat, cross-platform PDF format.)
But in the process of downloading the preview of Fresh Kills to my computer, I installed the Kindle for PC application. This led me to ManyBooks.net, a site that offers 26,598 free e-books. I was astounded at what was available for the lover of classical mystery short stories. From R. Austin Freeman there are over a dozen books, including at least three short story collections. (In particular, I would draw your attention to John Thorndyke’s Cases and The Singing Bone). There are sixteen novels, stories, and collections by Jacques Futrelle, but nothing very complete or comprehensive. You’ll find H.C. Bailey’s Call Mr. Fortune
There are fifteen titles by Maurie LeBlanc, forty-three titles by G.K. Chesterton, and (apropos to Bandersnatches) a bunch of Lewis Carroll titles (including seven versions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland).
Stay tuned for more Bandersnatches next week. But for the moment I have a lot of reading to do.
Two things, Steve. One, keep in mind that Kindle is proprietary. If you use it every book you buy is money for Amazon. Other machines you can supply with ebooks via, say, your independent bookstore if you wish.
Second, I have a firend with severe physical handicaps, to the point where turning pages is a problem. She has tried Kindle and its competitors without any luck. She is hopeful that the new ipad from Apple with be a solution. I hope so too.
Steve — I guess I’m the only person ever to have read Ben Bova’s satirical CYBERBOOKS (1989), a book which looks more and more like failed prophecy.
Bova evidently thought the introduction of e-book readers would be so revolutionary and upsetting to the status quo (think “water engine”) that a panic could result and big print publishers would go to extremes, including violence, to suppress them. As far as is known, nothing like that has happened — yet.
Like you Steve, I don’t own an iphone, ipod, cell phone, but especially an ereader. I do have what Barnes and Noble calls an ereader on my computer but I haven’t noticed that it is any different from reading text in PDF format.
I have several ebooks that I intend to read in PDF. I visited ManyBooks.net and now I’ll start reading ebooks, even if it means sitting at the computer more than an hour.
I’m not fond of reading anything longer than a magazine article on my computer screen. Call me ecologically careless, but if I want to read something, I’ll print out a copy. To read an entire book in PDF format on my screen would be torture.
One of the interesting things about ManyBooks.net is the odd assortment of what you find. I’d expect to see lots of Doyle and Chesterton, but I also found digital copies of some really obscure books that I have (in solid, tangible form) on my shelves. Arthur B. Reeve’s The Master Mystery and Harold McGrath’s The Man in the Box. I also spotted a few books that didn’t seem old enough to be Public Domain, novels by Craig Rice and Norbert Davis and others from the 1940s.
These ebooks are great if someone wants to read a book without paying a fortune, going to the library, or risking damage to an antique. But I’m still one for hard copies.
Rob, I’m with you regarding the proprietary nature of the Kindle. That’s part of a whole package of things I find annoying about it. If I were ever to get an ebook reading device, it would more than likely be a Sony or some other open-source reader.
Mike, I’ve read Ben Bova, but not Cyberbooks. Sounds interesting even if a little paranoid.
Louis, I do have a cell phone. And you and I both have computers. It didn’t put either of us on “the Dark Side.” You’re braver than me if you’re willing to read a whole book as a PDF on your screen.
Mike- regarding publisher’s resorting to violence: at least not that we know of. But you gave me a great idea for my next book…
Thanks, Steve. Hope you enjoy Fresh Kills, Ramsey’s story is still giving me nightmares.
Haven’t used Kindle yet, but I have read a few books and the Thinking Machine stories online. (I actually have an aincient copy of the John Thorndyke’s Cases!) To me, the name suggests the bad pun “Bell, Book and Kindle.” And Rob, I hadn’t thought of the advantages of electronic format to the reader with disabilities.
And you and I both have computers. It didn’t put either of us on “the Dark Side.” —
Could’ve fooled me. I can’t see you.
I like holding the books and then either keeping to re-read or take them to a nursing center, or shelter or something.
I, like Jeff, had not thought of those with disabilities and think its is a great opportunity for maybe helping get them for them or something. (new project forming).
Meanwhile, for myself, I’ll continue spending buttloads of money on paper in order to irritate tree huggers and people who don’t like to hold books for whatever reason.
I do have a cell phone that has a touchscreen that is overtaking my life because I don’t like it and I bought it and it is laughing because I can’t figure it out.
I love my mp3 but it is very plain and easy to load and isn’t touchscreen.
And I love my laptop and desktop. They are plain too.
Come to think of it, I am just a plain person.
Enjoyed your article.
Can’t wait to hear the “rest of the story…”
I don’t have a Kindle or any other kind of electronic book reader yet. (I recently bought an android phone because I didn’t want to go with AT&T, but wanted general the features similar to an iPhone).
Why I’d want some sort of e-book reader: save space on storage, cheaper to buy the books, I love gadgets, unlike my PC, I can read on the couch, in bed, on the balcony, in a plane, etc., I hate having to pack and unpack them each time I move.
Why I would still buy hard copy books: I love the look and feel of them, I love how they look on my shelves, Ballentine Books smell especiallially good!
This thread is probably essentially dead, but in case anyone does read it at this late date, I wanted to follow up on my earlier message. My disabled friend got her iPad and LOVES it. She had no trouble learning to use it (unlike some of the competing brands) and is able to use the controls to read books and watch movies on it, despite her manual limitations. So bravo to Apple.