42 Kindles: A Discussion on the Evolution of Text

[1] How long does it take to start a revolution? The past decade has simultaneously hailed the coming of the eBook, declared that the eBook is dead, and greeted the eBook’s resurrection via a multitude of charming devices with sophisticated prices. The National Endowment for the Arts has noted the decline of readers who read for the purpose of pleasure and leisure.1 Wayne Wiegand, historian of libraries and library services, has stated on multiple occasions that there are more libraries in the United States than McDonald’s restaurants.2 Is the book dead or merely in a state of metamorphosis? [2] On the same day the NEA published its report in November 2007, Amazon.com released its eBook reader, the Kindle. A thousand blog posts were launched; bloggers, posters, and reviewers who had used the device declared it useful if clunky, while those who hadn’t declared it fugly or smarvelous (variously). It is difficult to judge a book by its cover when it does not have a cover but rather a leather carrying case. The information becomes a text instead of a book—a means rather than an end to itself. And then, of course, that same collection of blog posts reported both that the book was dead and thus the whole argument moot, and that the book was brand new all over again and better than ever. [3] Salon.com’s Farhad Manjoo evaluated the Kindle. He crunched numbers to determine whether it was worth the price tag for readers: