Digital Essay 2 - Kindle e-book and how it changed my digital world

In May 2015 when I was halfway through my 3-months internship at a law firm in Brussels, a tiny problem sprouted. Passengers in economic seats flying from Europe to Asia were allowed only one free luggage for check-in with maximum weight of 23kg, and my luggage was being filled up with various souvenirs from my weekly adventures around Europe. I was living with tight budget as my parents did not financially help me with this internship and I could not afford to pay for additional check-in bags later on. As I started to explore ways to be weight-efficient, I noticed a stack of books on my desk. Back then I was an avid reader and a self-proclaimed book collector. A quick thought flashed through my head; it is 2015 and why am I still reading paperback books? Kindle E-reader seemed to be the ultimate solution and as soon as I had it in my hands during London trip, it revolutionized my digital world.

Unlike numerous other tablets, Kindle E-reader is specifically designed for reading only with minimum functions and glare-free screen to generate paperback-like reading environment. The fundamental idea of Kindle E-reader is this: say goodbye to bulky books and say hello to an ultra-light, affordable tablet with hundreds of books accessible at your fingertip. Not only I was able to reduce weight in my check-in luggage but also gain access to various books via a single tool: Kindle E-reader. Especially for someone like me who has weird habit to reading several books simultaneously, Kindle undoubtedly revolutionized my reading experience. Nevertheless, such purpose is fulfilled through the 4 affordances specified by Janet H. Murray.

First of all, Kindle E-reader allows one to only read e-book files such as .txt or certain .pdf files. As mentioned earlier, the primary function of Kindle is to read books. Not all types of files such as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint are supported. Most of legally purchased and downloaded e-books come in .txt format, which Kindle supports. Moreover, Kindle screens provide black and white colors only; you can still view pdf files but not in colors. Pdf files are displayed holistically, which means you have to constantly zoom in and zoom out to read details. Such procedural boundary enhances the primary function of Kindle: to read books. If one desires functions beyond just reading, then Kindle is not the right choice. To simply put, this text-only reading feature solidifies and highlights its fundamental purpose. Conventional tablets like the Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy tab supports e-book reading function too, on top of numerous other functions such as web browsing, YouTube and Facebook. Kindle E-reader is essentially a portable library, in electronic form. I was personally attracted to such “procedural” of Kindle E-reader; to not be distracted by Facebook notifications or text messages, especially booty calls, while reading e-book on a tablet.

Using Kindle E-reader is pretty simple; download e-books into your reader and simply start reading. Getting reading materials into the reader is the first step, which can be done via several ways. You can either send files to your personal Kindle email account (you have to create one to use), or download via catalogues in your Kindle E-reader. By right, one has to pay for e-books to have access. Various websites such as Amazon.com has massive e-book resources for purchase or rent, at significantly cheaper price than physical copies. On the other hand, you can send any .txt files to your Kindle email address, which the E-reader will automatically download. This feature, however, calls for certain unethical actions. Downloading pirated movies, games and songs for free has long been a controversial action since the creation of the Internet. Same issue occurs for Kindle E-reader as well; one can illegally torrent-download the entire Harry Potter series, which actually costs $56.64 on Amazon. On the other hand, I have had a friend who compiled various rap lyrics into a .txt files and had it in his Kindle E-reader for reference and inspiration. I personally downloaded several Korean web novels into my E-reader to read through legal means; Korea amateur writers distribute web novels for free online. Regardless of which, such features calls for active “participatory” from users to utilize Kindle E-reader: download reading material and read it.

A simple Google search taught me that 2 GB of storage allows one to hold up to 1,100 books. Considering that a regular 2-hours long movie in 1080p is about 2 GB in size, Kindle E-reader has massive storage capacity for e-books. I bought the cheapest E-reader available back then in 2015, which had around 1GB of storage capable of holding 550 books. This alone suffices the “encyclopedic” affordance. Moreover, almost every book is available in e-book format. Both classic and new books come in physical or e-book forms so one has access to millions of books via Kindle. Kindle E-reader indeed is a portable library.

Kindle E-reader automatically bookmarks the page you were reading the day before which allows a convenient, continuous reading. If connected to Internet, you can instantly look up for online dictionary while reading. You can even highlight on your e-books that can be separately tracked later on. Its simple and unique interface allows users to browse through e-book catalogues for purchase, manage downloaded files, and arrange display settings and so on. While reading, one can easily stop reading, go back to the collection and click on other book to read. Also transitions across functions are not as smooth as an iPad, Kindle E-reader has just the right amount of features to information access and navigation; “spatial”.

The 4 affordances Kindle E-reader carries have certainly established it as a table existing solely for e-book reading. The only downside I realized with Kindle E-reader is that, it is not as visually appealing to ladies as paperback books. I may appear to be scrolling down on my Facebook newsfeed; no I am actually reading a book and I want you to find that attractive.