A New York Times article last Wednesday demonstrates how prevalent the e-book has become in the States. I've been out of touch, since there are no English-language bookstores here. Since the Capt and I agreed to limit our trips to the US, my access to books has dwindled to our local library, where I volunteer Friday mornings. But when I lived in California, one of my favorite pleasures was browsing bookstores such as Barnes and Noble and Crown. Not that I could afford to buy many volumes, other than an occasional markdown from the sale tables. I went the book club route for a while, finding I couldn't keep up with it and books started coming to me that I didn't want. Later on I bought my share of books from Amazon.com.
But I liked browsing stores that sold used books, and libraries, accepting the fact that the hot new novel wouldn't reach me for three or four years. I stopped going to movie theaters, too, and settled for movies on TV, or DVD rentals. I'm not bothered by being a half-decade behind the times.
So when I first heard of the Kindle e-reader, I wasn't keen on buying it. Now I'm on the fence. What I like about it is the portability (perfect for boat people, road-trippers and frequent fliers) and the ability to store thousands of books in such a small space. But I'm so used to free and cheap used books, the idea of spending $25 or more on a new novel seems ludicrous to me.
Yesterday at our exchange library a discussion came up about the Kindle e-reader. Bob, one of our patrons, was asking Barbara, a staff member who bought one as a gift a couple of years ago, whether the Kindle was worth the investment. Barbara paid $300 for hers, but the price has gone down and the Kindle is starting to look like a good deal. That the newest unit ($189 at Amazon) now comes with wifi and even 3-G wireless so you can order a book online without your computer makes the $300 unit obsolete already. The newest model will work as an audio book, too. And it holds a vast library of 3,600 books, more than I'd ever find room for in my house. There's a waiting list for the new Kindle, by the way, just to give you an idea of the unexpected demand.
Barnes & Noble bowed to the inevitable and came out with their own e-reader, called the Nook, which is $259 but has space for a million books. All the reading devices on the market are compared here.
The big drawback for me is the expense factor, with e-books even on Amazon going for at least $10. There's no market for used e-books because they can't be resold. Too bad for readers like me, who never reread a novel while there are so many more out there to discover. (I do have a reference collection that I'll probably always keep.) I'd probably delve into free e-books available through services such as the Baen Free Library and Project Gutenberg, if I had a Kindle. Googling "free e-books" yields page after page of sources, not that you'll find Nora Roberts or John Grisham there.
Meanwhile, our little exchange library flourishes, with more used books coming in every week. Our space is limited so we put any duplicates on our sale table, at a peso apiece, to help pay our ongoing expenses. We have a chatty group of patrons, and when the subject of e-books and e-readers comes up, most people say they still like to browse, hold volumes in their hands. And of course, the free trade aspect of coming in with five books and walking out with five we've never read is irresistible. So is the fact that we can freely pass on books to friends we think would enjoy them. It looks like, for the foreseeable future at least, the Kindle and its ilk won't put us out of business.
The huge brick-and-mortar bookstore chains, and the smaller stores that carry predominantly new printed books? It looks like their days are numbered.