The UB Post

Let's take a moment to bask in the glory of a technological era that provides us with an instant link to anything and everything at any time. We have our music, our friends, our families, and now, thanks to the Amazon Kindle, a wireless portable reading device—even our literature is always at our fingertips.

Really, that we can now take books with us in a bag, a pocket or in the palm of our hand is something so fantastic it's hard to contain my excitement. They've even managed to design a screen that looks like real paper. I wonder how long that took?

For the hefty price of $399, you can own a device that does exactly what a book does, only jazzier. It's sleek and sophisticated. You can store dozens of books on it at a time. You can download text to it instantly. Look, Ma, no computer needed!

Now you can have "War and Peace" at your fingertips, but do you really need to have "War and Peace" at your fingertips? You must, because Kindles are flying off the shelves, but just who's buying them? Anyone with any passion for reading, for the tangible feel of a page, isn't likely to get caught up in the design, and on the flip side, anyone who doesn't like reading isn't likely to be awed by the capacity to access and store dozens of books they don't want to read.

That said, it's still easy to explain the Kindle's appeal. It's new and instant and, to anyone who has never spent time poring over cover art and dust jackets, it might almost seem pretty. I am one to wax poetic on the subject of books, but poetics aside—practically speaking—it just doesn't make sense.

Sure, there may be something to compressing multiple books into one small package, but where is it you're going that you need dozens of books? Reading is a totally different activity from talking on a phone, listening to a song or watching a video. It requires more attention than those activities.

You can't read on the go, so what's the point of a library on the go? There's not much of one—unless you're a student with a great many weighty volumes in your backpack. In that case, the Kindle is convenient, but only when it comes to size and weight. You still have to do all of your reading and studying on what is still, essentially, a computer screen.

Durability also sides with the printed word. Books are tough. You can drop them, spill coffee on them, leave them out in the rain, step on them, bend them, tear them in half and tape them back together again. I wouldn't try any of those of with a Kindle.

I can only hope that the Kindle proves to be a fad—an invention mentioned forever as the epitome of frivolous technology. The Kindle might even serve as a reminder that some technological frontiers do not need to be explored. Some things are better off the way they are.

Wittstruck, MFA student and staff writer for The UB Post, can be reached at lindsey.wittstruck@ubalt.edu.

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