few years ago, I left the world of technology to study English Literature, read more fiction, and write.  I got rid of the old Sears TV with its rabbit ear antenna, and after moving to Berkeley, no longer saw the need to shop in the electronics stores.  This year, I tried to update myself with an iPod, but found that I actually liked to hear what was going on around me on the street and on BART.  So I don’t really qualify as a technologist, if the prerequisite is to also be a consumer of technology.  There are plenty of guys who will talk to you about the latest and greatest this and that, and to prove their point they’ll grab a device hanging on their belt.
I buy books, and take pleasure in finding them at a used bookstore or among remainder stacks of unsold first editions.  I think I qualify as a scavenger of sorts, letting items cross my path rather than running after them.  I think that’s why I prefer the local, independent bookstores around here to the mega-stores or the online options.  I think most of my online purchases were of first and rare editions.  Still, I considered the book reading device that Amazon offers, because the concept of a portable library appeals to me.  I just look at that particular device, however, and think I’ll wait for a solution that integrates my current needs.  I think if the Kindle can be made to be thin and large enough to be fully portable and readable, computer manufacturers will come out with alternative versions that will incorporate the Kindle’s features with those of a general-purpose computer.
I’m not sure that book readers follow the same patterns as music listeners, but if they do, I’ll probably be a dinosaur with the book reading device as I am with the iPod.  I’m sure there are all these people who have never set foot in a small, independent bookstore, except maybe while on vacation, who are avid readers.  They’re the ones who are too busy with everything they have to do, and for whom ordering books online is as convenient as selecting the videos they’ll want to see on Netflix.  They’re the ones who will end up with a book-reading device, but I just think that device will be a computer that integrates other functions.
Clearly, there are features in the Kindle that are absurdly designed to keep its audience in the captivity of Amazon, and those features (a cell phone connection, for example) will turn out to be too costly.  All those customers already have a computer, an Internet connection, and a cell phone.  Many joined the iPhone bandwagon (talk about being costly and keeping a captive audience), and that device is nothing short of a miniaturized computer.  Most new computers sold, apparently, are notebooks.  I just see these converging somehow into a device that I think was designed back in the 1990’s (on paper), consisting of a letter-size device displaying full pages and on which users gestured to enter their commands.  In the kitchen, they became the cook book.  At the office, those who needed to type just had to set it on a docking station with its keyboard and mouse.  And of course, it integrated the video phone device.
I’ll just wait until Apple comes out with such a device, and they’ll probably have the equivalent of iTunes for books.  If they don’t, maybe another major manufacturer will have it, and others will follow.  The interest in the device will be greater than “just books” too, because all the documents, service manuals, legal briefs, newspapers, etc. will fit in.
Meanwhile, I enjoy the variety of hard covers, paperbacks, magazines and newspapers that are still available and can be lost or damaged with no tears shed.