Kindle love, and a little ambiguity: the New York Times
On the second day that I had my new Kindle, I continued to be overwhelmed by choices. So much content, and what to get? I had my symbolic first book -- but what to get next?
The answer came to me quickly enough as I was on my way to work. There's a cafe that I like to stop at (Cafe Fixe in Brookline MA, if you want to know), and the reason that I like to stop there is that they have about the best espresso I've had anywhere. A lot of other people think so too, because the place is busy in the morning. I don't mind the wait -- the place has a nice atmosphere, and they have a copy of the New York Times on the counter. Waiting for my cappuccino at Cafe Fixe caused me to renew my love for the venerable Gray Lady, in fact: I've been a fairly dedicated Boston Globe reader for decades now, but after a few cappuccino-waits I had to admit that the writing in the Times was altogether more thought-provoking (even the sports page). So I came to look forward to the cappuccino delays as they'd give me time for a quick cruise though a section of the Times. The only problem with that was that there was only one copy, and if some pig-animal got to it before me, and I couldn't get a section to read while I waited for my cappuccino...well, that just sucked, is all.
So it was on this morning: long line, lots of people, long wait, and no Times for me. Except now, I had a Kindle, and as slamonella had pointed out to me the night before, a lot of newspapers have Kindle subscriptions, and most of those have free trials. So I fired up the Kindle store. This was the first time I'd tried purchasing from the Kindle store -- I had read somewhere that it was a lot easier to do your purchasing from the website, and I sort of took it on faith that the process of using the Kindle store from the Kindle would be hard. In fact, purchasing is very straightforward -- it's just that you don't have as many searching or filtering options as you do on the website. But I knew what I wanted: the New York Times, and voila, there it was! Subscription information...$19.95 a month...and a 60 day free trial! Woohoo!!! I clicked the button, got a confirmation...and next thing I knew, there it was in my Home: The New York Times and the day's date.
Reading it was just slightly weird at first. If you're a newspaper reader, you're used to a page with multiple articles on it. Getting one article at a time was just a bit strange. It was, however, very readable, and the article forward/back and section index made it very easy to get around. I looked around Cafe Fixe and chortled. Take that, you appropriators of the New York Times! I have my own copy!!!
The next excellent thing, of course, was reading it on the trolley. Anyone who's tried to read a newspaper on the bus or subway knows the only reason why the Boston Herald stays in business: because its tabloid format is easier to read with one hand while your other hand is holding onto a strap than a broadsheet. The Kindle leapfrogs the whole problem of paper layouts by placing the entire paper into a format that you can both hold and page with one hand. Even a paperback book is enormously more difficult to read on the subway than a Kindle. It is the one true format for the commuter.
So where's the ambiguity? Well...my love for newspapers developed around the breakfast table and the shared experience of reading the newspaper while eating breakfast with my family. The Kindle is not a medium for shared reading: you can't say "Pass the sports section." And reading a newspaper together is a lovely, companionable thing. I hope, selfishly, that the paper-on-paper won't ever vanish...but having experienced it in this other medium, honestly, I'm not sure how it can survive. It isn't just that the idjits of the world have turned away from reading anything with real content: it's that even those of us who do want content are turning to other media. I'm not sure how to resolve this, but when my trial subscription is up, I think it's quite possible that I will become a regular Times subscriber -- via Kindle.
The answer came to me quickly enough as I was on my way to work. There's a cafe that I like to stop at (Cafe Fixe in Brookline MA, if you want to know), and the reason that I like to stop there is that they have about the best espresso I've had anywhere. A lot of other people think so too, because the place is busy in the morning. I don't mind the wait -- the place has a nice atmosphere, and they have a copy of the New York Times on the counter. Waiting for my cappuccino at Cafe Fixe caused me to renew my love for the venerable Gray Lady, in fact: I've been a fairly dedicated Boston Globe reader for decades now, but after a few cappuccino-waits I had to admit that the writing in the Times was altogether more thought-provoking (even the sports page). So I came to look forward to the cappuccino delays as they'd give me time for a quick cruise though a section of the Times. The only problem with that was that there was only one copy, and if some pig-animal got to it before me, and I couldn't get a section to read while I waited for my cappuccino...well, that just sucked, is all.
So it was on this morning: long line, lots of people, long wait, and no Times for me. Except now, I had a Kindle, and as slamonella had pointed out to me the night before, a lot of newspapers have Kindle subscriptions, and most of those have free trials. So I fired up the Kindle store. This was the first time I'd tried purchasing from the Kindle store -- I had read somewhere that it was a lot easier to do your purchasing from the website, and I sort of took it on faith that the process of using the Kindle store from the Kindle would be hard. In fact, purchasing is very straightforward -- it's just that you don't have as many searching or filtering options as you do on the website. But I knew what I wanted: the New York Times, and voila, there it was! Subscription information...$19.95 a month...and a 60 day free trial! Woohoo!!! I clicked the button, got a confirmation...and next thing I knew, there it was in my Home: The New York Times and the day's date.
Reading it was just slightly weird at first. If you're a newspaper reader, you're used to a page with multiple articles on it. Getting one article at a time was just a bit strange. It was, however, very readable, and the article forward/back and section index made it very easy to get around. I looked around Cafe Fixe and chortled. Take that, you appropriators of the New York Times! I have my own copy!!!
The next excellent thing, of course, was reading it on the trolley. Anyone who's tried to read a newspaper on the bus or subway knows the only reason why the Boston Herald stays in business: because its tabloid format is easier to read with one hand while your other hand is holding onto a strap than a broadsheet. The Kindle leapfrogs the whole problem of paper layouts by placing the entire paper into a format that you can both hold and page with one hand. Even a paperback book is enormously more difficult to read on the subway than a Kindle. It is the one true format for the commuter.
So where's the ambiguity? Well...my love for newspapers developed around the breakfast table and the shared experience of reading the newspaper while eating breakfast with my family. The Kindle is not a medium for shared reading: you can't say "Pass the sports section." And reading a newspaper together is a lovely, companionable thing. I hope, selfishly, that the paper-on-paper won't ever vanish...but having experienced it in this other medium, honestly, I'm not sure how it can survive. It isn't just that the idjits of the world have turned away from reading anything with real content: it's that even those of us who do want content are turning to other media. I'm not sure how to resolve this, but when my trial subscription is up, I think it's quite possible that I will become a regular Times subscriber -- via Kindle.