Stephen King the horror novel author, has just finished reading the book In Pale Battalions, by Robert Goddard, but did so with one of those new Kindle eBook reader thingys from Amazon. His money quote: “The Kindle isn’t as gratifying as a good book narrated by a great reader…but for what it is, it’s just fine.”. In other words, he thought it was ok.
That’s interesting because we felt that the Kindle would fade away, kind of like the Sony Reader, helped along by unhelpful comments about the Kindle, such as the 1 from Steve Jobs: “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore…. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore“, …and pushed by some mixed reviews.
But the not-unkind review by King and the news that the Kindle has sold out leads us to believe that the device might not suck after all. Kindle details here. $399.
Stephen King: Books With Batteries — Why Not? – Entertainment Weekly, Jan 18 2008
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yikes, i’d never heard that quote from steve jobs before. i think that while many people probably don’t read, there are enough people who buy several books a year to make the industry profitable.
I think a lot of people had Stephen King’s reaction to e-readers when they first used them, but e-readers are the kind of product that grow on you until they’re indispensable.
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