The Motley Fool: Shame, Oprah, Shame

Book CoverAs a happy proponent of the Kindle-Ade, I mention frequently how much I love it. But then, I’m also someone who saved up to buy it for weeks because I had a healthy lust for it, and knew it would make reading, which is not an optional activity for me, easier and more portable. So I had a good period of anticipation before I jumped in to the tune of more than the device is currently selling for, and I was honestly very worried that my experience wouldn’t measure up to the amount of money I paid for it. It has measured up, and I’m glad that I did, but let it be known: $400 is a LOT of freaking money. $305 is also a lot of freaking money. I kept my receipt for the Kindle and double-checked the return policy because I was worried that it wouldn’t be worth it for me.

But I’m one of those people for whom reading purchases are not optional. I do visit the library, and I do borrow from friends, but I always have a book with me, purchased or borrowed, and I will sooner cut the cable in half and cut other parts of my budget than go without books. Those are, of course, my wonky priorities, and as the economy takes an express train for Shitsville, population OMG, a lot of people around me are taking a look at their expenditures and wondering what better could be done with our money as the value of it shrinks like a virgin’s protests under the punishing kisses of your nearest Greek billionaire tycoon.

So this article from The Motley Fool’s blog in which Tim Beyers takes Oprah Winfrey to task for hawking the Kindle on her recent show, particularly for recommending it in part because,

“…it’s expensive in these times, but it’s not frivolous because it will pay for itself,” she told her audience. “The books are much cheaper, and you’re saving paper.”

Ok, I’m with Beyers: pays for itself? Yeah, not exactly. Kindle books are cheaper than hardcover but they aren’t always “cheap.” Yes, you’re saving paper, and yes, ebooks and the small publishers who are devoted to them (Hi Sam! How’s your Hain?) are fanshittingtastic, but pays for itself? Come on now, and I mean it. It’s an indulgence.

I am personally not crazy about Beyer’s recommendation that with the same $305 folks should buy stock in Phillip Morris International (Yes! And take up smoking, too!) so as to better fund retirement and make a small profit off that $300 investment, but he makes a rather sharp pointy argument (watch where you’re waving that thing) when he writes:

With apologies to comedian Bill Maher, what we need, Oprah, is a new rule: No more dispensing financial advice on your show. At least not until you cut the consumerism—specifically, until you realize that an electronic book reader is optional for the great majority of us who carry credit card debt. Send your viewers to their local libraries instead.

Hear, hear. Libraries – that offer ebooks for lending, perhaps?!

 

Comments are Closed

  1. Tae says:

    I just bought an ebookwise for 100 off the internet.  It will pay for itself because I have to buy all my books since I’m living overseas.  There are so many free ebooks on line, and I can also download them from several sites.  I am not always getting the most recent book, but I am not getting just the classics either.  Though I will be more than happy to carry around the entire Jane Austen collection.  I will still buy a few paper books, which i won’t be able to get in ebook format or something I won’t be able to read on the ebookwise reader, but I expect my book spending habits to substantially reduce itself.

  2. Julie Leto says:

    I just got my Kindle two weeks ago (as I posted at DA.)  I’ve been saving/planning to buy it for over 5 months and it is my birthday present not only to myself, but from my husband and daughter.  I really, really wanted it and I used it this weekend to great success.

    I spend a lot of time reading when I can…and the Kindle is awesome for that.  I was lightweight so I threw it (kindly) into my backpack when we went to Disney and as my daughter dug around in the Boneyard at Animal Kingdom, I read on my Kindle.  When we were at a restaurant and I’d finished my book and my daughter was reading voraciously (and no one stops a 10 year old from reading voraciously) I shopped for a new book on my Kindle and downloaded it on the spot.  Very, very cool and convenient and the books don’t take up space that I no longer have in my overcrowded office.

    I did not buy this on impulse, but man am I loving it. I even downloaded the free Samhain book because I could and look forward to reading it.  My favorite is getting manuscripts and having them converted to the Kindle.  I’ve already read one “to be released” book from an author friend and I have another waiting in the wings…and it lays flat, so I can read while I blowdry my hair.

    This is important because I really don’t have a lot of time to read!!

  3. MoJo says:

    it seems to me the electronic books should be far cheaper than what they are at Amazon, since there’s no printing or shipping involved

    Amazon takes 55% of ebook sales unless they mark it down themselves from the retail price you set.  It does seem like ebooks don’t really cost anything to produce, but it does.  If it’s only to be released in ebook, you have the labor costs (editing of all flavors and artwork, etc.) and that’s not cheap.  If it’s already in print and “all” you need to do is digitize it, that labor time adds up pretty fast, too (especially if you do 8 formats like we do).  Yes, it costs real money to do it, even though you can’t see the paper and the ink.

    after all, I paid like 10$ for them, so they are mine.

    Amazon can pull the plug on your purchases any time they want to and/or shut down your Kindle. In effect, you’re leasing those ebooks, not purchasing them.  They’ve killed people’s digital libraries before. 

    I’m really torn about Oprah’s endorsement.  Like Kirsten said, she didn’t talk about alternatives to Kindle.  Did her people research this?

    On the other hand, she’s bringing attention to ebooks in general and there was a comment somewhere else (sorry, can’t remember where/who) about drinking the Kindle-Ade and then figuring out which flavor you want from there.

    So I can see both sides.  It’ll be interesting to see how this shakes out eventually, but I’m really pulling for epub.

  4. Leah says:

    Amazon can pull the plug on your purchases any time they want to and/or shut down your Kindle. In effect, you’re leasing those ebooks, not purchasing them.  They’ve killed people’s digital libraries before.

    That’s bizarre, and a little disturbing.  Why would they do that?

  5. I’ve been dreaming of buying a Kindle since it came out (or, barring that, the Sony e-book reader), but hesitated precisely because of the cost.

    I’ve owned a cheaper alternative for a while now – the Ebookwise e-book reader (http://www.ebookwise.com). It is relatively cheap at $140, and it works pretty well for me, even though it doesn’t have the fancy-pants features of the Kindle or Sony. I don’t go anywhere without it.

  6. MobileBooker says:

    DRM-free Mobipocket files work on the Kindle (and many other devices, including most PDAs and smartphones); and you can download lots of free, public domain ebooks in Mobipocket format at Mobileread.com and manybooks.net. I personally prefer the classics anyway; my ebook reader has more than 300 free, legal, DRM-free public domain ebooks and about 20 books that I have purchased. I think the ebook reader has paid for itself, yeah.

  7. robinb says:

    Most of the good stuff has been said already! 

    As for audio lending for Ipod, there are some things coming out, slowly but surely, on the MP3 format that is compatible with I-crack devices.  Our library just launched our MP3 collection this morning, even though we have had WMA audios for about 2.5 years.  We have very few titles in this format, only 300, but I hope more will become available in the very near future.

  8. I don’t have much to say about the Kindle, as I am slow to grab on to new technology and probably wouldn’t buy it for years even if it were cheap.

    But for those who are trying to be economical about books, you might want to check out the Paperback Swap website.  It is completely awesome.  I can’t find every book on there, but if I am willing to wait, I can usually get most eventually.  And you get points by just mailing your book out to someone who requests it.

  9. Julie_from_SoCal says:

    It’s not that difficult to convert a file from Windows format to iPod, if you have it on CD.  Just rip your CD into your iTunes player and it’ll automatically put it in the Apple format.  And you can go the other way, too.  I have music I bought in iTunes that a burned to CDs—for personal use—and ripped them into Windows.

  10. Jenn says:

    You can pry my Kindle out of my cold dead hands. That’s how much I love it. I’m curious how follks who read ebooks on a PDA can spend a day staring at that tiny little screen? I’ll sometimes sit and read for hours at a time, no way I could do that on a tiny, back lit, PDA screen (iPhone for me).

    As for economizing. How many people will be dishing out $500+ for a Wii system this holiday season?

    I too still borrow and swap books with friends, but the kindle has been a godsend living in space-challenged NYC.

  11. ev says:

    Oooo Jenn- tell me where you are so I can play with your Kindle while I am there over thanksgiving. You are the closest person I know who has one.
    ev

    let19- let me play with it for 19 (or so) minutes!!! pretty please!!

  12. Hello SB Sarah, Really very nice and good information you share here. I read your post and really very nice information on beautiful device “Kindle”. Really very nice device for book lovers and this device is also looking really very nice and pretty too. Thanks for your nice information.

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