Alert! If you don’t know what Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader is by now, it’s time to get with it!
The device is to books what the iPod is to music – or so the company hopes. You can store up to 1,500 titles on a Kindle, which makes them easy to access and read with its paper-like screen.
That the device is revolutionary is beyond doubt (though it might become the victim of its own “first mover” success, as new ebook readers fly down the chute) – but what does its advent in South Africa mean for the future of books? For the publishing industry?
Kalk Bay Books‘ Ann Donald gives her perspective on these questions in her weekly column. But first, info on the Kindle from the horse’s mouth: Tymon Smith interviews Amazon’s director of Kindle books, Laura Porco, on what South Africans can look forward to:
Here’s Ann Donald’s take:
So, the Kindle (a software and hardware platform for reading e-books) has arrived in South Africa. Does this mean the end of books as we know them?
I’ve been avoiding this question for some months now but to continue doing so is not only cowardly, but foolish.
I’m a bookseller; the subject of the future of books is a priority. My corporate training instilled in me the importance of five-year plans, swot analyses and other tools intended to prepare me for every eventuality that could impact on the business I was in. But somehow I haven’t been able to bring myself to consider a world without the codex.
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