Thing 17: One New Thing

Something new today is the Amazon Kindle, an e-reader that is hitting the market as this post is being written. I've been reading about it in the Newsweek magazine that arrived a few minutes ago, and also in Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog. It is supposedly the future of reading, the shape of things to come, the best improvement on the 550-year-old technology called "the book." I'll let you read about the features of the Kindle in the Newsweek article, or in Johnson's blog at http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/. Suffice it to say that it's a device the size and shape of a trade paperback that allows you to download novels, magazines, and newspapers and read them from the screen. The initial investment is $400 for the device, and the downloads of course have a price as well. But at $9.99 for a best-selling novel, it could pay for itself.
My initial reaction was, who'd want to read a screen? And my co-workers of a certain age tend to agree with me. But when I show the photo and article to students, I hear, "Wow!" and "Cool!!" and "I want one!!!" They're all for it. Then we talk about the ramifications of having volumes of information contained in a small device - an entire library in 5 Kindles? All of a year's textbooks in one Kindle? It could do away with heavy backpacks. English teachers could study different novels each year by choosing different downloads. The World Book could be updated with information as it happens. It's almost too much for a dinosaur like me to take in!
I don't plan to be an early adopter of the Kindle, but I'll be watching it closely.