Comments

1
"My main concern, what do they plan to do with the Kindles?"

Reselling them on craigslist and buying books at $.05-$.50 from Goodwill.
2
I get the appeal of preferring hard-copy books and zines to e-readers, and I generally like Microcosm--but goddamn, I wish those opposed to e-readers would stop trying to characterize them as "fad" and "faux-literary" technology. Not only is there nothing inherently "literary" about format, but the whole "print vs. e-readers" thing simply isn't an either/or proposition. Insisting that it is just seems silly.
3
Exactly, whatever your name is. Always thought I would hate a Kindle, now I can't put it down. I would be curious to see how many Kindles they net in this deal.
4
@Erik +1

@Microcosm +meh
5
Yeah, I don't know if my experience is typical, but my Kindle is kind of an occasional-reader; I use it if I'm going on a trip or on the rare occasion that I need to track down a book immediately and Powell's doesn't have it in stock. It only accounts for maybe 10% of the total reading I do, but I really like it when I use it, and I don't want to choose between it and books!
6
This is a Portlandia skit waiting to happen.
7
What a shitty idea. Shame.
8
I think kindles are making people read more. If there could be a statistic for how many books read before kindles and eReaders in a year, and then a stat for how many books+eReader books read in a year now, I bet the latter would win out by a long shot.
9
so now you're saying my alf doll is obsolete?

next thing you're going to want to ask for is my baby on board sign. AND I DONT EVEN HAVE A BABY
10
So Kindles are ALF dolls and cell phones are going to wane in popularity. That's some rock-solid logic.
11
I want a Nook, and then I want to hack it into running Android. So then I'd have an ereader AND an Android-operated tablet. FTW.
12
I realized that I really didn't want a kindle when I looked into buying the latest Sookie Stackhouse book. It just came out in paperback. On Amazon, the hardcover costs $14.70 new. The paperpack is $7.99. Was I wrong in assuming the kindle version would be less than the paperback? I mean, shouldn't e-books cost, like, $3.00 since there is no shipping or printing involved?

NOPE. WRONG. The kindle edition cose $12.99.

That's just ridiculous. If one day Kindles cost $50, and e-books never cost more than $5, and $4 of of that goes to the authors and editors and designers, THEN I will buy one. Until then they are a big, stupid rip off for something your smartphone or laptop can do just fine. Displaying text isn't really a specialized functionality.
13
Making a crappy shrine out of old Kindles seems really wasteful. I know that Kindles aren't "eco-friendly" or anything, but they're also not made of dead trees. Fact: read ten books on a Kindle and you've effectively saved the life of a baby fir tree.

And @Alison: One or the other!!! You can't like both paper books AND Kindles. It's impossible.
14
i'm looking forward to this just-around-the-corner day when everyone tosses their faddy cellphones and goes back to friendly knock knock pop-ins

perhaps we can also toss away a few more fads and eliminate those wonky coal and steam powered printing presses and gummy bound leaves of wood and go back to only generating wealth from raw resource extraction. perhaps if we are feeling avant garde we can allow ourselves one refinement of each raw resource, so at least we could have some sugar or maybe create a tool for jabbing our eyes out and quickening the bleeding out

15
UPDATE: I figured out what they are going to do with the kindles!! Nothing! BCUZ NOBODY WILL BRING ANY IN? get it?
16
@nickeyrobo: I agree with most of what you're saying but I have to disagree that ebooks should cost anything like $3. You're overestimating the proportion of shipping, printing (and storage) relative to the entire cost of bringing a book into existence. Plus ebooks involve the added expense of listing and accounting for all the different isbns and the conversion costs. Am I boring everyone yet?
I work in publishing and was involved in the thread linked to above, and while I probably came across as a bit too anti-ebook there, I do think it's more of a trade-off than people might think, and many customers have unreasonable demands about how inexpensive they should be. Still, the sales growth overall has been a good thing for publishers who've kept up with the trend.
17
Sherman Alexie wants to hit Kindle users on planes.

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