I am, by many definitions, a bookworm. I love reading books. I tend to read every time I have some spare time when I’m not doing anything in particular; I read while I walk around the garden, I read when I’m waiting for someone to come, I read while I wait for someone to arrive, I read when I’m waiting for a store to open, because I arrived earlier and so on. I almost obviously read when I… well when I’m unavailable for most people looking for me.
Only time I was unable to read was while I was at the hospital. While I was able to actually read some comicbooks in the ICU, and I was able to read some joke books hat a friend lent me, I was unable to read a “normal” book, as I was unable to concentrate on words for too long. In that instance I did something slightly unethical, but the situation was exceptional, so I bought a DRM’d audiobook from iTunes.
Said this, I found myself confused when I had to learn about Amazon’s Kindle from Robert Love’s blog. Oh well, I have to thank Love for writing about it, especially since learning this from an actual user rather than an overhyped press material.
At any rate, it seems a nice way to actually get the concept of eBook to something more than a couple of HTML files merged together in some kind of container. It’s too bad that it’s not available in Europe (yet?). I certainly will be looking forward for it. Even if it isn’t cheap, I’m quite sure I could easily cover it after a few months, depending on the selection of books available.
Oh well, returning on normal books, I’m finishing At Risk by Patricia Cornwell, a very intriguing book, although it’s nice to actually switch between John Grisham and Patricia Cornwell, because of their different styles; when you read too much by the same author without switching to something different, it’s easy to get bored by the style (previously I read The Broker – which by the way was two years old standing to amazon just two days ago).
Sometimes I wonder how could I live without books. They fill my world most of the time. Although it’s depressing to think I don’t really know anybody around here who likes reading this much… especially I don’t know any girl who likes to read 😛
I find it somewhat odd that you’re referring to buying a DRM’d audiobook from iTunes as unethical, but are enthusiastic about Kindle, which is even more locked down. You can’t share books dl’d to your Kindle or make a copy to another medium (while you can record your iTunes stuff to CD).Some links: http://diveintomark.org/arc…http://daringfireball.net/2…Even Sony’s eBook reader is more open.
Well, the device itself sounds good, the policies I’ll comment when they’ll arrive in Europe.And the problem is the availability of alternatives. I don’t see Sony’s reader being available as an alternative so easily; for audiobooks there are alternatives (audiobooks on CD can be easily found even in Italy, as strange as that might sound), for eBooks… I can’t see any at the moment.This is the same reasoning I apply to DVDs: they are (in theory) protected by CSS, but the legal alternative is VHS… which ain’t an alternative on the same plan at all.Sure I’d like something more open with the same availability, but… I’m pragmatic sometimes, and I’m afraid that the alternatives might take many many years before being available.