That's right, the Amazon Kindle 2 is allegedly shipping on February 24!!!
When I was ten years old, I read a sci-fi short story about a classroom of kids in the future. Each of them used a digital pad that could access all the world's writing. One day, they came across a reference to "carrying books". Upon questioning the teacher, they were shocked to discover that primitive humans actually lugged around volumes of paper, each of which only contained a single book's contents.
Soon I can stop being one of those primitive humans! The first Kindle book I'm going to read is "A Random Walk Down Wall Street".
I want "Infinite Jest" to become available on Kindle. That book is enormous! Also Knuth's books. Alas, neither are, but "Kite Runner" and "Outliers" (two sorry pieces of crap that somehow pass for books) are available as Kindle titles. Grrr.
I will carry my Kindle everywhere. If you're a stranger who reads my blog, and you spot someone at a Mountain View cafe who looks like me, instead of going up to them and asking "Are you Niniane?", you can just check if they're holding a Kindle. If not, then it's just some other woman who looks like me.
Xcuse me ....but did you say The Kite Runner is a sorry piece of crap ? I guess all I can do is sit back in shock at this comment and leave with one of my favs pieces from the book in the hope that you may change your mind
ReplyDeleteQuiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the VOLUME knob on life.
Silence is pushing the OFF button. Shutting it down. All of it.
After you read _A Random Walk Down Wall Street_, you might try _A Non-random Walk Down Wall Street_. I don't know when it will be available for the Kindle though.
ReplyDeleteDo you have the older Kindle? Kindle 1.0?
ReplyDelete"timeless"? I bet your poor Kindle 2 will be forgotten once the Kindle 3 is announced.
ReplyDelete@Spacifix - Niniane has blogged about how much she disliked The Kite Runner. Personally, I've never read the book or seen the movie.
ReplyDeleteAs for Outliers, although I didn't necessarily agree with everything Gladwell wrote, I thought it was a good book and made some good points, and was much better than Blink and maybe on par with The Tipping Point.
Niniane should read Fooled By Randomness and The Black Swan, both by Nassim Nicholas Taleb if she is interested in reading a Random Walk Down Wall Street.
As for an Asian woman who looks like Niniane who has a Kindle in Mountain View, that could be a lot of people :)
I still can't make sense of the Kindle.
ReplyDeleteIf anybody printed a book in the format of the Kindle, they'd be laughed at, loudly...I mean...half or more of the face of that thing is not a readable surface...why??
I rather read on my iphone or even on my old ipaq (which I used for reading for 4+ years)...almost as good contrast/display (and more than good enough), much smaller, higher readable surface percentage.
And I've been reading nothing but ebooks for the last 5 years.
Hello Spacifix,
ReplyDeleteYes, the Kite Runner is a blight on the face of literature. It is emotionally manipulative. The main character, who is a coward and an ass, lives a smooth life due to his noble birth. The only likeable characters in the book all get killed off or raped or killed after being raped. What a shitty piece of "writing".
The excerpt you quoted does not change my mind. I can write garbage like that too. Here:
"A smile is an invitation. Acceptance. A smile is opening a crack in the door guarding our HEART.
Laughter is throwing the door to our heart OPEN. Wide open. All the way open."
--Niniane Wang, Feb 9 2009
Anonymous, I don't have the old Kindle.
ReplyDeleteArC, I am frugal, so I probably will stay loyal to my Kindle 2.
Heh. We can be Kindle buddies, except that I rarely read mine.
ReplyDeleteI've been slowly selling off my paper book accumulation over the last several months, mostly for the space. I've even expunged serious technical books (most of my O'Reilly and my beloved Alexandrescu). Rivest stays for now.
ReplyDeleteThe point is, I'm starting to want a Kindle. Your blog isn't helping me hang onto all that used book cash, either. Did one of your Seattle friends put you up to this?
You mean if there's a gorgeous Chinese girl that is drop-dead hot and makes you sweat with desire?
ReplyDelete@Lin - There are Asian women in Mountain View? I am SO there... :)
ReplyDeletePerl is religion. Divinity. Perl is giving you the BIG knob.
Currying is pushing the LIQUIFY button. Filling the stack. All of it.
Colorless love? I would wait for a future kindle with color. Better for reading art and computer graphics books.
ReplyDeleteI don't see how a true book lover could ever live without the pleasure of brushing every page he turns with his fingertips.
ReplyDelete@balut snoot
ReplyDeleteActually, according to a front page article in The San Jose Mercury News, not too many women (let alone Asian women) are in Mountain View.
Tech jobs led to 'Man Jose,' but women have Silicon Valley enclaves, too
Lately I can't read your blog without the word "GEEK" (yes in caps) flashing in my mind over and over. While I would consider Kite Runner and Outlier to be nothing more than dark and interesting (respectively) I certainly wouldn't tag them as "crap" or "blight on the face of literature". These books are not even attempting to be literature. Such criticism reflects close mindedness. Or is it just an attempt to sound superior to the masses? Maybe someone you don't like heaped praises on these two disparate writings?
ReplyDeleteLately I can't read your blog without the word "GEEK" (yes in caps) flashing in my mind over and over.
ReplyDeleteAnon, you say that as if that's a bad thing.
> Lately I can't read your blog without the word "GEEK" (yes in caps) flashing in my mind over and over.
ReplyDeleteThat might be because I'm a geek.
> I certainly wouldn't tag them as "crap" or "blight on the face of literature". These books are not even attempting to be literature.
"blight on the face of books" doesn't have quite the same ring.
> I don't see how a true book lover could ever live without the pleasure of brushing every page he turns with his fingertips.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I'm not a true book lover then, just a "story lover" or "written-content lover".
This thread is so pedantic about vocabulary!
:)
I couldnt resist that one sugar, Sorry wont say it again. A kite runner should be and sometimes is as much to the afghans as the western get out of the bible spreading some knowledge, as to the story, I dont know, maybe it could be blamed onto the more important deed the authord tried and in many cases achieved. After Two years of living with turkish, afghan and iraqui I can clearly admit, If Your ever ever to understand the middle east as western person, the quickest way goes through kite runner. I always did and always will respect the ways of humble Niniane but this one, below my limits. peace and respect.
ReplyDelete