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Kindle – It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
Kindle – It was the best of times, it was the worst of times Several years ago, I succumbed to the siren’s song of the Amazon Kindle. I initially resisted but, as someone who travels frequently for business, often internationally, it was the perfect solution. I could get books on the run, avoiding a last minute run to the bookstore. Plus, I can tell you it’s no fun being stuck in Tokyo, and the flight back, with nothing to read. Yeah, not so many books in English floating around over there. But more importantly, it was a major space saver. The three (or more) paperbacks, necessary for a longish trip to Asia take up a lot of real estate in one’s luggage. So, I bought my first one and never looked back. Owning a Kindle has turned me into a voracious reader. Kindle Unlimited isn’t making a profit on my account. Admittedly, there are more fluff novels on my device than books with depth. Yes, I’m an action / espionage / assassin with a heart of gold junkie. If a book came from the keyboards of Vince Flynn (God rest his soul) or Brad Thor, I’ve read it. In my defense, a large part of this has to do with where I digest much of the content. The stuffy, diminished oxygen air you’re sucking at 35k feet isn’t conducive to Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky. I know this from personal experience, unsuccessfully trying to get through Dante’s Inferno on a few flights. But lately, I’ve noticed a trend that is both encouraging and irritating. I don’t think there can be much debate that the proliferation of e-readers has completely changed the paradigm of publishing. On the positive side, by utilizing the digital format, an author can be ‘published’ and build an audience that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. As a result, I’ve discovered a number of new authors who likely would remain unknown without the e-book format. For example, if you’re a special ops fan, you need to read Jack Murphy’s works. As a former operator himself, his books contain a gritty realism that draws you in. But as much as Jack Murphy exemplifies the positive impact of the e-reader, he also provides an excellent example of the downside. As good as Jack’s books are, the best of them also seems to have not been seen by the eyes of a proofreader. And his aren’t the only books to suffer from this affliction. Other works I’ve read take lack of proofreading to a new level, well beyond the occasional transposed word or an errant spell check suggestion. The one I just finished took the parenthetical phrase to new levels of disaster. I’d reach the end of a long sentence and have to go back to the beginning to reassure myself that, indeed, the whole string of words made zero sense. It becomes a bit frustrating when you have to piece together groups of unrelated words and phrases to figure out what the hell they’re saying. Even more so when the nonsense refers to a critical point in the plot. So, there’s the good, bad, and ugly. What’s your take on the Kindle and have you noticed the same issues or am I more pedantic than I give myself credit for? Oh, and you get off my lawn! |
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