Ah, Kindle.

I was reading an issue of Newsweek from November 2007 (I know, I know) and its cover story about the (then) brand new Amazon Kindle. (This is why I love reading old issues of Newsweek. I know who wins the 2008 election!)

The story discussed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos's venture to improve on the book (which should not be confused with making it go away). Bezos's argument is that, while books are great and can hardly be replaced, they can be improved by going digital—with added features and conveniences. With a single Kindle it's possible to read numerous books, connect to the Internet to purchase new ones, read the daily paper, change the font size of any text, and perform other nifty tricks that we can't with a traditional book. These factors make sense, but the question remained in the article: Is that in fact an improvement on the traditional book?

From the perspective of interaction design, Bezos and the Kindle team emphasized the ability of the book to "disappear" during the reading experience—a magical feature they wanted to replicate with the Kindle. Back in 2007 apparently the jury was still out on this question; I'm curious to see what's happened in the four years since. (Since I've never operated a Kindle, I couldn't say.) I think I can name instances in which my MacBook has "disappeared" when I was really into reading something onscreen...so the replication seems not impossible. But still, I like that I can give and receive books (with handwritten messages inside!) and also borrow and lend them—which is another kind of social networking that can't quite be replicated by e-readers.