I am from the Future

You may have heard, but two days ago amazon.com released their Kindle app for the iPhone. I had some time to kill so I downloaded it while waiting for a friend to get out of a meeting.

Immediately I was downloading sample first chapters from the Kindle store. Books that I would never go out and buy, but if they were sitting around, I'd probably pick up and read. I read the first chapter of Malcom Gladwell's Outliers. When I got home, I bought the full book for $9.99. Yesterday, I finished it.

I read an entire book on my iPhone.

amazon.com has made a genius move, if I am any indication. I like the idea of the Kindle, but it's too cost prohibitive. By offering their Kindle app for free, I now have access to their almost 250,000 e-books. And I am actively reading and buying from them. I don't own a Kindle. But now I really want one.

I realized something else from my Kindle/iPhone reading experience. I had no concept of how long the book was. They have some kind of 'position count' thing but it doesn't seem to correspond to page numbers. (But I'm probably just an idiot on that front.) This made me realize that, despite all my years of reading books, I still experience a subconscious intimidation by page count and book thickness. There's still a little voice in the back of my mind, some strange holdover from elementary school when reading an entire book was a daunting prospect, that says "this is a lot to read, you'll never finish it." Weird huh? The point is, this disappeared when reading on the iPhone. I had no concept of how long the book was, and I didn't care. I was just into it and kept on going.

There's also the added convenience of carrying multiple books in your pocket on a device that you always have on you. I'm not one of those people that carries a book with them everywhere to read on the train and such--in fact, unless I know I have a good chunk to devote to reading, I won't bother at all. But, again, this changed with the phone. I got in two chapters on the subway. I read a few more pages while my friend was taking a phone call from her mom. I read more before sleep with all the lights out, made possible by the self-illuminated screen.

I don't know, this is just crazy to me. I read a book. On my phone. And I found it a perfectly enjoyable experience. Still, if there was a book that I really wanted to read, I would still buy a hard copy. You know, an actual bound book. I still want there to be real, bound books printed on paper. But I never would have bought Outliers. And even if I did, once I read it, it would be just another over-priced hardcover taking up space on my shelf.

I downloaded sample chapters from books that I had a slight inkling to read but knew I probably never would. One is Nixonland. Let's see if I get into it.