Amazon's statement in a news release today (so this is PR, but it's interesting). ' On Christmas Day, for the first time ever, customers purchased more Kindle books [at Amazon.com] than physical books. 'I imagine that was because of all the people who had just opened their Kindles and wanted to try them out with downloads, including free ones as well as ones they've wanted. Amazon also updated the number of books in the store and are responding to the 1-million book ads of Barnes and Noble as well as Sony's online store (thanks to Google's free scanned books). They added that
' The Kindle Store now includes over 390,000 books and the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read, including New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases. '
COMMENT SENT BY:
ReplyDeletePatty Briguglio and Gloria Lesher
[ Inadvertently deleted from blogger.com
but recovered this way. ]
" Omigosh! More Kindle books than physical books? I've been expecting this, but not so
soon. My book-loving friends and I have endless discussions about how the Kindle cannot
replace a real, live, touchy-feely book that you can underline and write on and bookmark. But I confess, I secretly want a Kindle. Perhaps, next Christmas ... or for my
birthday ... "
Patty and Gloria
ReplyDeleteSorry for that accidental deletion that happened when I was deleting spam :-)
As I mentioned, a LOT of people received Kindles on Christmas day and probably the first thing they'd do that day is try to download a Kindle book or two+ ...
Physical book buyers would have less reason to buy a book on Christmas day and wait a few days for delivery. So, it makes sense that more e-books were sold on that one day.
No, the Kindle and any digital e-reader can't replace a physical book. But, in my own mind, there is no reason they can't co-exist and be read one way or the other under differing circumstances.
As for a book you can underline, make notes to and bookmark, you can do all that with a Kindle and, as you can see from a blog entry that came after the news you responded to, the notes can also be kept on a private webpage and seeable all together on one page (they're saved by Amazon when a user approves that). But, no, they can't be written right on the bookpage itself.
I highlight and type little notes all the time though and they're easily findable and are keyed to the Kindle screen pages of the book.
Maybe the best feature for me is that there is an always-ready dictionary summary definition on the bottom line for whatever word your cursor happens to be on or whatever word you put the cursor on, and then you can press the Enter key to get a detailed definition. I miss that whenever I am reading paper books.
Good luck! I hope your birthday comes soon :-)