kindle: actual journalism!

[walkitout]

http://sprintconnection.kansascity.com/?q=node/948
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/03/AR2009020302334.html

Basically, someone read Sprint's financial reports and put wholesale devices and partners together with the kindle and concluded that Amazon really did sell a half million of those devices the gadget press loves to sneer at.

But because I just _cannot_ bring myself to leave this alone, here's yet another from the illiterate gadget freaks:

http://technologizer.com/2009/02/03/analyst-kindle-will-become-billion-dollar-product/

Best quote:

"There may be many avid readers, but few people that I know buy a book every single month. It is much easier for people to consume music and video than it is to sit down and find the time to read."

It's this kind of crap that makes me go, you think I'm weird? Hey, if you're normal, I don't want to be. Jesus H. -- you don't know people reading 12 books a year? I have numerous friends who are in triple digits. I have a few friends who belong to _more than one book group_ -- that is, they belong to social groups, plural, each of which requires them to read a book a month, and that's on top of what they read on their own for fun.

By contrast, I probably only buy a few dozen CDs a year, and lately, I've gone weeks at a time without listening to a single CD or watching a single DVD. It isn't about _easy_. It's about preferences and priorities.

Already. My huff at the idiots moment is over.

Comments

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine buying three dozen CDs a year, even playing catch-up for all these years I haven't bought any.

Not sure how many books I actually *buy* in a year, barring presents for the kids (most of which I do read myself -- latest Diana Wynne Jones, latest Terry Pratchett, you know the drill). It used to be a lot more before postage rates across the pond went way up (and the dollar dropped against the pound). Of course those were secondhand, but they mostly cost as much as new, so the financial decision was similar. Anyway, I definitely read over 300 books a year, though lots of those are rereads of short books. I often start a book in bed at night and finish it the next morning over breakfast.

Seems to me it's *much* harder to make time to watch a whole video than to make time for a book. You can read a book by fits and starts; it doesn't work to watch a video that way at all. And then there are those people who say they save time by getting recorded books. Huh? It takes a zillion times longer to listen to a book than read it. Then I remember how slowly most people read ... and how much most people drive ... and it starts making a tiny bit of sense.