Why I Won't Buy a Kindle

A twentysomething explains why she hates e-readers
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 4, 2010 2:50 PM CDT
Why I Won't Buy a Kindle
In this May 25, 2010 photograph, an Amazon.com Inc. Kindle e-reader is shown at the annual Amazon.com Shareholders Meeting in Seattle.   (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Unless all the hype is wrong, e-readers like the Kindle are the future—and precisely the sort of thing a twentysomething technophile who loves to read must adore, right? Meet 26-year-old Emma Silvers, who explains in Salon why she's actually a little repulsed by the idea and won't give up her beloved real books. Part of it is the thing itself: "To deny books their physical structure simply ignores far too much of what makes them enjoyable," she writes. "The commitment they require, the way they force you into a state of simultaneous calm and focus."

And then there's all this multitasking nonsense. "The capabilities that Kindle lovers extol as having improved their reading experience are, in fact, the very features that make me want to run in the opposite direction. The highlighting. The online 'sharing.' The ability to just zip on over to Facebook for a minute." And her least favorite feature of all—having thousands of titles at the fingertips. "Will anyone ever finish Infinite Jest on a device that constantly presents other options?" Click the Salon link for the full essay. (More Facebook stories.)

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