Kindle, eBooks Discussion in The Horn Book This Month...

Lately I've had Kindle on the brain. First was the Oprah to-do in which Ms. Winfrey declared it to be her favorite new gadget and said it changed her life. Then I started seeing tests for a Kindle version of CWIM. (It's OK but not great at this point. It seems the Kindle's not awesome with books that are not straight text. There are some funky icons and weird caption placement and things like that, but I'm told Kindle users are used to such things. I was surprised how good the images showed up, however.) Getting our Market Books (as well as a host of other F+W Media titles) ready for Kindle and other electronic readers is a hot project around here.

Seeing the CWIM test was actually my first in-person encounter with the Kindle. I can understand it's appeal, but I'm not sure it's a gadget I'll be snapping up any time soon. I'm in love with the printed book. The feel. The smell. The piles in the corner of every room. The 87 boxes of them I have to back every time I move. I don't mind lugging a book in my carry-on luggage. And at $359, I'd rather buy an iPhone or a really awesome pair of boots.

When I opened my November/December issue of The Horn Book which a big section titled "When e- Is for Reading," in which several writers discuss reader-gadgets, I read it with great interest. Here's a bit from Stephen Roxburgh that puts things in perspective:

And, for the moment, let’s not engage in the “death of the book as we know it” debate. Technology is the means to an end, and not necessarily the end of a means. Think about the fact that people still walk, bicycle, ride horses, drive cars, take trains, and fly to get where they are going. When we read, we have a goal in mind. We are going somewhere.

Click here to read the rest of Roxburgh's piece along with the others.

Anybody out there tried the Kindle? Do you like it? And what do you think of CWIM on the Kindle?

Some (Very Exciting!) Harry Pottery Stuff in the News...

Interesting piece in the PW Daily today about Scholastic's investigation of Deepdiscount.com who apparently shipped copies of HP#7 to some 1,200 buyers--and the books began arriving yesterday. So PW is talking about investigating for breach of contract and asking readers who have gotten the books early to not open them until July 21 at 12:01 along with everyone else caught up in the Potteracious frenzy.

The kicker (and this is not mentioned in the Publishers Weekly piece) is that one of the guys who got his copy early (and apparently alerted the media) sold his book on eBay for $250 plus shipping to (wait for it)... Publishers Weekly. What fun!

I'm very amused by all of this--all the hyping and the party planning and speculating and counting down and the breaching of contracts. It's refreshing and wonderful that a book can cause so much commotion when it has absolutely nothing to do with Oprah. Perhaps one day, in a world free of Harry-hype, I will finally crack open book one and see if I can finally understand all the fuss.