Books, Technology and the Web 2.0

Recently on my flight home from Barcelona, I read Time Magazine's '100 Most Influential People' issue. I came across the bit on Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, written by Bill Gates. I love Amazon - I buy loads of books there, CDs, almost all presents for Christmases and birthdays...so Amazon has certainly influenced my life. But at the end of the article, Bill Gates mentioned the Kindle as Jeff Bezos' 'greatest legacy', and that it 'may well revolutionize not only how we acquire books and periodicals but also how bookworms [...] actually read them. That would put him in the same ranks as Johannes Gutenberg'. For those of you who don't know what the Kindle is, it's a device for reading electronic books.

A remark like this makes my hair stand on end. I know we German's aren't exactly early adopters, but of those 'late adopters', I'm probably an 'earlier adopter'. But this device is something that is very unlikely to ever find a place in my house (or bag, or anywhere around me). I love to read, and I love books. I love their feel, their smell, their covers, anything about them. I love to spend Saturdays in bookstores, leaf through books and leave again with a big bag. I even have a whole room in my apartment with nothing but (filled) bookshelves and a cozy sofa. Ok, so the Kindle would free up a whole room in my place ;-). But I have to have my bookshelves.

Also, a while ago, I came across a book project that's currently pretty hot in this area. As the author writes the book, she posts it in her blog chapter by chapter, and readers can comment and make suggestions. I have read a few of those chapters, and of course I don't know what and how much of the suggestions actually go into this book, but I find it intriguing. I took creative writing classes, when I was in Canada, and it was all about finding one's voice. In this case, it would be more of a choir. Similarly, an even longer while ago, I read a former colleague on Twitter, saying that e-books are apparently all the hype, and should he write one? If so, what about? Well - if you don't have an idea, don't write a book! Crowdsourcing a novel? I don't have much going on for this concept - to put it this way.

I'm very interested in all things 2.0 - some things I like and use, some things I think are useless - but books? This is where I draw the line.