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How the Kindle will change the world

10.03.08

For no obvious reason, some months after it launched in the US, the Times carries a review of Amazon.com's ebook device: the Kindle. "There is scepticism about this change in the publishing world, and a lot of fear. I’m a writer who straddles two genres - I write online games as well as literary novels - so my less technologically literate novelist friends often ask me, with trepidation, whether the new technologies mean the end of the traditional novel. Publishers also look nervously at the experience of the music and video industries."

The conclusion is: "The Kindle isn’t likely to revolutionise our book-reading habits and ways of writing just yet. And many of these theoretically possible technological advances may not pan out. Yet, 10 years ago, nobody saw the iPod coming. The e-book will change the book world: it is just a question of when, and how."



The Times

Amazon.com digital ebook Kindle

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By Ric Marshall

The Kindle is the new paperback - a more convenient, less expensive means for enjoying books and reading, and much like the paperback itself will more likely increase than negatively impact the demand for new books and other forms of written communication. I am an avid reader, and also a collector of certain kinds of books, and view the Kindle as a most welcome addition to my current 'library'. On the road, or waiting at a doctor's office or other appointment, the Kindle will most likely replace entirely the cheap paperbacks that are my current constant companions, but that will hardly lessen my pursuit and enjoyment of the wide range of hard cover and trade paper backs at home. If any thing it will free up more cash for me to pursue more of the latter.

10 Mar 08 13:25

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