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| Image by Jantoo Cartoons Link to: {http://www.jantoo.com/cartoons/keywords/bookstore} |
Imagine a day when instead of having to hop in the car and drive all the way to the bookstore to get a book, you can sit at home and find any book you might ever want on your very own electronic device. Imagine a day when instead of taking up space on your phone for the many wonderful books you’ve downloaded, you can download those books to their own device -- made especially for books and without the added distraction of Facebook or Gmail. Your imagination has become a reality because, ladies and gentlemen, Amazon Kindle lives!
The Amazon Kindle enables people to shop, browse, download, and read e-books and other digital media. Besides access to books, users can make notes on their device, highlight particularly striking passages, and organize their books into collections (No more searching forever on your walnut bookshelf to find that one book; that book is now just a couple finger taps away on your Kindle).
Now, some say hold on. While the Kindle shines as such an incredible device for avid readers, it can also be an isolating device. Nothing about the Kindle requires human-to-human contact. To buy a Kindle, all it takes is creating an Amazon account, pecking in credit card information, and finding the Kindle edition that’s right for you. To buy or download free books on the Kindle, first make sure that your Wifi connection works. Next, click the shopping cart icon and browse the millions of books in the Kindle bookstore. Click on a title that appeals to your taste, and it quickly downloads to your handheld device. Now, to read those books, all it takes is curling up on your bed, couch, or soft patch of grass and reading to your heart’s content. No human contact. No socialization.
The Amazon Kindle enables people to shop, browse, download, and read e-books and other digital media. Besides access to books, users can make notes on their device, highlight particularly striking passages, and organize their books into collections (No more searching forever on your walnut bookshelf to find that one book; that book is now just a couple finger taps away on your Kindle).
Now, some say hold on. While the Kindle shines as such an incredible device for avid readers, it can also be an isolating device. Nothing about the Kindle requires human-to-human contact. To buy a Kindle, all it takes is creating an Amazon account, pecking in credit card information, and finding the Kindle edition that’s right for you. To buy or download free books on the Kindle, first make sure that your Wifi connection works. Next, click the shopping cart icon and browse the millions of books in the Kindle bookstore. Click on a title that appeals to your taste, and it quickly downloads to your handheld device. Now, to read those books, all it takes is curling up on your bed, couch, or soft patch of grass and reading to your heart’s content. No human contact. No socialization.
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| Image by WhoTalking Link to: {http://whotalking.com/flickr/Kindle+Touch} |
While this aspect of the Kindle doesn’t sound so bad to the bookworm like me, there comes a time when we read a book that tangles our hearts and wrecks our minds and if we do not talk to someone about this book our life will fade like an old photo.
For this reason, Amazon bought and improved the remarkable (and free!) website called Goodreads. Here, readers catalogue the books they’ve read, create virtual bookshelves, and find recommendations based on his or her previously read books. But more importantly, Goodreads provides the opportunity to socialize with current and new friends about the books users have read. (No more fade outs.) Readers can compare books they have in common with their friends, write reviews for books they love or hate, and create groups or forums to discuss the books they’ve read or are currently reading. Goodreads provides the social outlet that we readers need.
The Kindle is a handy device, but without the social outlet Goodreads provides, readers may become isolated in their own imaginary world that books provide and forget about the need to share the pleasures of reading. So get a Kindle but take care. Your living friends need you.
For this reason, Amazon bought and improved the remarkable (and free!) website called Goodreads. Here, readers catalogue the books they’ve read, create virtual bookshelves, and find recommendations based on his or her previously read books. But more importantly, Goodreads provides the opportunity to socialize with current and new friends about the books users have read. (No more fade outs.) Readers can compare books they have in common with their friends, write reviews for books they love or hate, and create groups or forums to discuss the books they’ve read or are currently reading. Goodreads provides the social outlet that we readers need.
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| Image: Link to {http://mattmaldre.com/2013/03/29/good-news-and-bad-news-from-amazon-buying-goodreads/} |
In a blog post titled "'Words with Friends': Socially Networked Reading on Goodreads", Lisa Nakamura shares an example of the usefulness of Goodreads. She writes, “A commenter on Shteynegart’s Super Sad True Love Story used the update feature of reviews to record every time he laughed out loud while reading it. This way of sharing the pleasure of reading is surely as effective as writing an eloquent analysis.” While reading the article (on my Kindle) by Lisa Nakamura, this excerpt so struck me (I highlighted it for future reference) because it reminded me of one time when I was sitting on the couch in the living room with my nose in a book. I was so involved in my story that I laughed hysterically without thinking about my roommates sitting next to me. My roommates just smiled and asked what was so funny, but trying to explain was like retelling a joke that someone didn’t understand the first time. The explanation required me to go into too much information so by the end of my explanation the part that I thought funny wasn’t funny anymore. Goodreads allows readers to find others that have read the same books as they have, so they can share the funny and the sad and the poignant and the startling, and all the other moments readers love about books, together.
The Kindle is a handy device, but without the social outlet Goodreads provides, readers may become isolated in their own imaginary world that books provide and forget about the need to share the pleasures of reading. So get a Kindle but take care. Your living friends need you.
I really liked your post! But you do raise a good point; do you think there will come a time when readers and society in general will suffer for lack of real, human interaction? All the introverts will rejoice, true, but there is something to be said for learning to socialize face to face.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the future will hold with all of this. It's obviously going to keep progressing, but humanity can't socialize on technology alone (although the introvert in me says otherwise!) it can be hard to find that right balance right now. Ha although I'm sure that's what people were saying when the landline telephone was invented as well.
ReplyDeleteSaren I think you raise a great point. What did people think when cell phones became accessible? Or when people stopped writing letters and started emails. Both of those inventions make my life 5 jillion times easier and yet, I'm sure there were some who opposed. It's important that we look at all of the amazing things that digital reading can do and focus on that, because it seems that whether we like it or not, the digital age is taking over the world of reading!
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