“Reads like real paper!” –Amazon Kindle

Well I didn’t know this was possible but in this world it seems that anything is. I just read all about the Amazon Kindle which was made in 2007. Perhaps this is common knowledge to most people but it was news to me. They’ve come out with a 10.3 ounce blobject that is a library in your hands! Students. Forget using the Library as a cover for your nights of drinking because Mom and Dad are buying you the Amazon Kindle for your homework!

Let me explain this blobject to you. It’s a small virtual and personal library in your very own hands! It has the same technology as cell phones and has free wireless to Wikipedia (a ‘reliable’ researching tool we know all students like to use). This little device can apparently hold up to 100,000 books, newspapers, magazines or blogs that the user purchases and it doesn’t need any wires or computers. Imagine...you can be anywhere and look up books to read at any time you want. You will never have to go out of your house when you have a paper due the next day!

What an interesting creation! In digital history class we’ve often discussed the possibility of libraries (the physical ones students find themselves sleeping in) becoming extinct. I am a believer that this day will never come. However, the Kindle certainly does bring an interesting wrench into the argument. One downside I can see though is that at the local library, you don’t have to pay to read or take out books and the Kindle requires a payment of at least 9 bucks per book.

I do wonder if this little device, and perhaps the many models that will follow, will contribute to a decrease in library attendance. Are we becoming completely digital?? Apparently the screen “looks and reads like real paper” which might be a bonus for those of us who get tired of reading on a computer. I’d like to see if this claim is actually true. Computers do get annoying when you are using it everyday for long periods of time. This would definitely make some library sympathizers consider purchasing the item.

Either way, I think the Kindle will definitely make some big changes.

Check it out and see what you think.