Geez Kindle, Work Harder

Apparently there is a raging debate in the world between people who are "pro-book" and those who are "pro-e-reader". Personally I am "pro-anything that gets people to actually read more", but for myself I'll choose a real book every time. I *love* real books. So the new Kindle ads really annoy me. Apparently they are meant to respond to misgivings that people who like real books have. Such as:



Come on now, do we all look like idiots, Amazon? Some of us genuinely do have an attachment to the sensory experience that reading a real book truly is. The size and weight of a particular book; feel, smell, and texture of the pages; being able to see how much of the book you have left at a glance; everything. I don't like the anonymity of e-books. They don't have any personality. The paper isn't yellowed with age, or the cover worn by many re-reads. They don't have someone's name scrawled on the flyleaf, or a personal message in the hand of the person who gave it to you. They aren't pretty to look at, and they most certainly don't wow you like walking into a Beauty and the Beast-esque library does. But our role model in the ad dog ears a page and then suddenly has the epiphany that she doesn't *really* like solid books after all? I think not. Exhibit 2:



Cracka please. I *love* book stores. Also, who starts reading a book they've been looking forward to standing there, uncomfortably holding someone else's Kindle? So let's keep this straight, people who like real books are stupid *and* rude. Moving on.



Because so many people need to carry around 2 books, 2 newspapers, and 3 magazines. Seriously? I can carry around my one book just as easy as someone with a Kindle can carry around a Kindle. And I don't care how many books it can hold, they're only going to be able to read one of them at a go, just like with my real book. I have very rarely (actually never) wished that I had my entire library on my person at a given time.

So really, Kindle, you've got to try harder than that. Advertise as much as you want to get people who like e-readers, or even people who are on the fence to buy, but we all know you can come up with more creative ads than that.

There are always going to be people who treasure real books, and I would think that Amazon, of all companies, would appreciate that fact.

I'm not angry, Amazon. I'm disappointed.