15 August 2011

Just made my first Kindle preorder

of Roger Ebert's memoir LIFE ITSELF, out September 13. Important question: Will I be able to start reading it at midnight the day of the book's release? Oh, goody!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Only if you live on the west coast. If you live on the east coast you get the privilege of reading it at 3am. Yay. I learned this the disappointing way with the Infinite Jest kindle book release.

Ellen said...

Seattlecentric... interesting.

I feel your pain, Anonymous. I feel like INFINITE JEST might really take off on Kindle -- how did you find reading it with all the endnotes?

Anonymous said...

The endnotes were super convenient: just click on them and then press the Back button to return to the main text.

...which, if I understand Wallace's intention behind the endnotes, kinda totally defeats the point of them. I think he wanted there to be a clear division between the two sections (main text and endnotes) and might've had problems with the way Kindle "unifies" the text. However, it does make it easier to read, literally physically easier since you're not flipping like 800 pages back and forth every few minutes.

Along with obviating the need for multiple bookmarks, the Kindle has made IJ more accessible than ever to first-time readers, what with the insta-dictionary and the ability to word search the whole thing. So no excuses everyone. :)

Ellen said...

Oh, I'm with you on the no-excuses bit. I realize that for some the giant paperback is an obstacle.

I've read a few books with foot/endnotes on mine and I do get a little impatient waiting for them to load. On the other hand, with INFINITE JEST you are likely to be reading longer than a 1-sentence endnote, so it seems more worth the time.