![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bohyunkim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/kindle.jpg\" "\\"Kindle")
<\/a>Kindle I took out from the library<\/p><\/div>\n
The university library (which is separate from the library where I work which belongs to the same university but to its medical school) has recently started lending Kindle devices loaded with a number of e-books.\u00c2\u00a0 As soon as I heard the news, I ran down to the circulation desk to check it out for curiosity.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, I had seen an e-book reader before. But there is a world of difference between just looking at a device and tinkering with it for a few minutes and actually using it for oneself for days and weeks.\u00c2\u00a0 So, I was eager to test it out myself.<\/p>\n
I decided to read the e-book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks<\/em>, which I have been meaning to read for a while but never found time to. To my surprise, I found myself enjoying the library e-reader way more than I expected.<\/p>\n I loved the much lighter weight and the much less eye-straining screen of a Kindle (compared to my first-generation iPad).\u00c2\u00a0 But what I loved most about this e-reader was actually its limitation. The fact that I can do nothing but reading.<\/span><\/p>\n The greatest problem I had with an iPad ‘as an e-reader’ was that aside from its weight and the eye-straining screen, I could not really concentrate on reading for a long time. I don’t know if this is a non-issue for others with stronger willpower. But for me, this was certainly a big problem. While reading, I would get easily distracted into web surfing, checking e-mails, and reading tweets and Facebook updates.\u00c2\u00a0 On the other hand, on this single-purpose device, it was easy to continue reading for a much longer time. Sometimes, I would have an urge to go online and do something else. But often I would just ignore the urge as I simply didn’t feel like moving.<\/p>\n Of course, I am not sure if this virtue of a single-purpose device would apply beyond reading, and for that matter, beyond leisure reading.\u00c2\u00a0 If I were reading for research, I would prefer more robust annotation options as well as easy importing and exporting of documents, which would be much easier on a multi-purpose device.\u00c2\u00a0 I may well also prefer to be able to easily surf the Internet to search and download whatever document I find useful and start reading it right then and there.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, I found it interesting to think about the merit of a single-purpose device in the times in which multi-purpose devices are more and more prevalent.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe we will always have a multi-purpose device and a single-purpose device no matter how advanced technology becomes just like a Swiss Army Knife and a normal knife.\u00c2\u00a0 Or would more and more devices converge into a few?<\/p>\n *** An additional bonus of a library Kindle is that it comes with more than one book.\u00c2\u00a0 The borrowing period for this Kindle is two weeks, but I am done with the book already.\u00c2\u00a0 So after browsing +90 library books that I did not know about, I decided on reading another book.\u00c2\u00a0 As a librarian, I like the fact that a library e-reader preloaded with multiple library books offer an opportunity for a user to discover more than the one title s\/he selected.\u00c2\u00a0 But also as a librarian, I disliked the fact that the copies of +90 e-books are sitting idly in the device while a user is only using one title.\u00c2\u00a0 Would there be a possible compromise between these two options?\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite the popularity of an e-book reader, I was never really tempted to purchase a Nook or a Kindle.\u00c2\u00a0 I figured since I have an iPad, it would be completely pointless to own and use a e-book reader, which I … Continue reading