DOWNLOAD OUR CATALOG PDF: Fall 2012 (New) | Spring 2012

January 07, 2009

Too much book for a Kindle?

Yesterday, I asked an early reader for feedback on Rick Collignon's forthcoming novel, Madewell Brown. Here's the reply:

"I think it's just beautiful. So much emotion in so few words. Not sparse...but spare and clean and every word well-cared for. I was carried, throughout, by Rachael's loneliness and her need to know. I loved Obie and his broken dreams and was sorry to see him leave so early. I'd become 'attached' to the old man.
I read it, the first time, in an afternoon on my Kindle. I'm re-reading it now in galley form. I wanted to get the feel of it in my hands as a book. Might sound weird — but it's too much book for a Kindle. Know what I mean?"

I'm pondering that "too much book for a Kindle," which is, I think, particularly intriguing because Madewell is only 224 pages and can be easily read in an afternoon.

Of course, like everyone else, I expect that soon most "books" sold will be delivered digitally. But I've noticed that my own Kindle use has changed from the early days of the device. For awhile, I carried it everywhere as a compact means of reading manuscripts. (I've never read a published book on it.) But recently, I've stopped doing that because I sensed that I was not generously disposed toward the manuscripts I was reading that way. Now I wonder if it's because in my old mind, a narrative can quickly become "too much book for a Kindle."

I don't want to overemphasize this because the Kindle is Oprah's new best friend, is sold out, is soon or eventually to be upgraded, because I don't seem to have this problem with reading a manuscript on my laptop, and because the world is new again. Besides, I don't want to be (predictably?) old school.

2012

2011

January 07, 2009

Too much book for a Kindle?

Comments

Leave a Comment