The Kindle 2 is thin, fast, and far better than reading from a computer screen but does Amazon's new eBook beat a real book? Tom Leonard beats the crowds in New York to have a look.
If this is the future of literature, then I can only say I'm very glad I didn't drop it. More illuminated medieval manuscript than airport novel, the wafer-thin Kindle 2 sits in your hand like a small, fragile bird. Wrap this one up in your beach towel and forget about it at your peril.
Amazon calls the flat panel its "purpose-driven reading device" but it's hard to work out whether it's really a book designed by a computer lover or a computer designed by a book lover.
In its monochrome simplicity – white surround, grey screen, black text – seems to be saying that it wants to be a book. But its technical wizardry – the 60-second internet synching and built-in dictionary - speaks instead of its computer aspirations.
Fans of iPods, iPhones and BlackBerrys will be reassured by the tininess of the buttons and the six-inch diameter screen. The keyboard appears to have been designed for a dormouse.
But it is quick. I was able to download (for the price of $9.99) a copy of the popular novel The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society in about 30 seconds. If I wanted to break off and, say, peel potatoes, the Kindle could read to me in a voice like a speeded up Stephen Hawking. Fine for a text book, maybe, but not Gone With The Wind.
The page turning button works smoothly but, personally, I'd rather see more than four paragraphs on the page at a time. The literary experience becomes something like reading a rather long text message, and then another, and another.
But – and it's an important but – it is much more pleasant than reading from a computer. There is virtually no screen glare and there are 16 shades of grey for background.
Optimistically for publishers and writers, you can see why fans say it has encouraged them to read more widely. For those who won't miss the feel, the weight and – of course – the smell of a book, Kindle may do the trick.
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