Kindle

I’m sitting on the tube, reading a book. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time is written by Mark Haddon. It’s the story of a boy who has Aspergers syndrome and who one day discovers that the dog belonging to the next door neighbour has been killed with a garden fork. He decides to turn detective and during the quest to find out who did it, finds his life taking a dramatic turn. It’s a remarkable book, written in the first person and is littered with illustrations from the boy as he articulates his story.

I look up from the book as the tube train pulls into Earls Court station. The doors open and two ladies walk on. One looks to be in her late 60’s and the other in her early 40’s. They are in mid conversation as the older lady takes the seat next to me, with the other sitting opposite. “I’m not sure I believe in them, what’s wrong with books anyway?” says the older lady. “But Kindles are so convenient Mum” says her daughter.

Ah, Kindles - I’m suddenly reminded of a conversation I recently had with G on the same topic. “They’re so convenient” she had said. “I can have my whole library with me to dip in and out of on the tube”. Now in fairness, G might struggle to fill a couple of shoeboxes with her library. She’s more of a magazine fan than a book reader. She is however, a gadget freak and it’s probably here that the conversation first stemmed. It got me thinking though. Does the dipping in and out, convenience argument of the Kindle really hold water? I’m not so sure. It’s fine if we’re talking about MP3’s, where you might want to chop and change between tracks and albums frequently. But how many times have you honestly wanted to flit between books, mid-read on the underground?

There’s more too. With books there is also an accessory factor. How many times have you been to someone’s house or flat for the first time and found yourself browsing through the books on their shelf, curious to see the sorts of things they have in their collection. They may even recommend one of them and let you borrow it. Indeed, this is how I came to be reading the book I’m reading. However, when was the last time you walked up to anyone and said “Excuse me, but what do you have on your Kindle?”

Also there’s the look and feel of a book. Last week I was having lunch with G2 (friend of G’s who appeared in an earlier update) who was given a Kindle last Christmas. She told me that she found it convenient, in so far as it was less bulky than some of her books. However she missed the feeling of knowing and being able to physically see how far through a book she is and how far she has to go to finish it.

Is this a debate between technophobes and technogeeks I wonder, or is it more a generational thing? Certainly the debate being had by the two ladies on the tube seems to be more generational and one where I find myself falling into the older camp.

I’m trying to multi task between reading and listening in on the mother/daughter sparring session. In the book, the boy has just been taken to the zoo by his father and has drawn a perfectly detailed map of it’s layout for the reader. In the debate, I am hoping the mother will come up with a killer argument that will leave her daughter stumped. ‘Come on mum, you can’t lose this one’ I’m thinking, when suddenly I hear her say “What about illustrations? Do they have books with illustrations on Kindles?” ”Oh mum...” says the daughter. She rolls her eyes and smiles at me as if to say ‘sorry about my mother’. “When was the last time you read a book with illustrations?” I slowly turn the book over to show her and smile back. She shrugs her shoulders and laughs "Ok, fair enough". I want to high five the mother, but don't - it's a generational thing.