Review: The Kindle Coloursoft
There’s a word in Japanese, tsundoku, that describes the habit of buying books and letting them pile up unread. It’s a beautiful word for a guilty truth.
My shelves are monuments to this practice: spines uncracked, corners of pages unfolded, all sitting there like paper trophies of my good intentions. And yet, I keep buying them, because books will always have a place in my life. They’re tactile, smell of ink, look glorious on a shelf, and carry the weight of permanence.
But just as vinyl records live happily alongside a digital music collection, the new colour Kindle proves that digital and physical books can coexist without stepping on each other’s toes. One doesn’t kill the other; they simply serve different purposes. The Kindle is your streaming service, limitless, immediate, and ridiculously convenient. The hardback is your vinyl: tactile, beautiful, something to display and cherish. And the best bit? You don’t have to choose.
I was recently asked to test drive the new Kindle for my fledgling tech review column Tech Review. As a 2010 adopter of the little gadget, I happily nodded and unboxed. Once out of the box, the Kindle remains feather-light and slim, so much so it disappears into my bag in seconds. Gone are the days of stuffing three paperbacks for a weekend away and sacrificing much-needed space for various cheeses. The Kindle was made for travel, for commutes, for that sneaky chapter on the move.
The colour screen is the big, bold feature of the new Kindle, and if I’m being honest (which I am), apart from having book covers in colour, it didn’t really excite me too much. But, as a parent of two kids under thirteen, I struggle daily to get the little buggers to read. When I came home and loaded up a couple of graphic novels, both boys were miraculously fighting to flick through the latest chapter of Blue Lock or One Piece. Realistically, sure it’s a graphic novel, but I’m thinking it’ll be the perfect gateway to get them reading. And I’m not complaining. After a week or so with the Kindle, I also downloaded a cookbook or two and realised the meal I cooked didn’t exactly resemble the bright, juicy image on the screen… which helps. Lighting is where this new Kindle shines, pun absolutely intended. Built-in front lighting adjusts to wherever you are: a glaring beach with oil reflections off buff bodies, a dim café with a male model faux-reading a novel upside down, or the dreaded long-haul flight. (I actually found this to be one of the best places to read: crammed into a tight seat, the small, light and well-lit Kindle helped me mow through a few books on those flights to LA and back). Battery life is also worth noting, while the red battery icon of a dying phone lurks in the back of every traveller’s mind, that anxiety doesn’t exist here. We’re talking weeks, not days. It’s the rare gadget that doesn’t demand constant attention.
If you’re like me, when you’re reading something or listening to a podcast, you’re constantly adding books to a list based on recommendations from the people you read about or hear talking. With the Kindle, within seconds you can download a new book from the store. It’s like carrying an entire library in your pocket without the backache (which I have plenty of). And unlike my tsundoku pile at home, where books gather dust waiting for the “right time,” the Kindle makes it far more likely that I’ll actually read what I buy.
But here’s the important part: it doesn’t replace physical books. It never will, and it doesn’t want to. What it does is take over the jobs that books aren’t so good at. It’s the throw-in-your-bag travel saviour, the can’t-sleep companion, the flight pal. Meanwhile, the hardbacks stay at home sure, they may be dusty, but there they are, lining your shelves and reminding you who you are (or who you’d like to be).
The new colour Kindle isn’t about choosing sides. It’s about having it both ways. Just as you can stream music on your phone in the car and then drop the needle on a record when you get home, you can load up your Kindle for the train ride and still treasure the hardback on your nightstand.
Here’s my Five-Books-to-Read book list (Is that a thing)?
Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck.
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker
Life with Picasso by Françoise Gilot
Ask the Dust by John Fante
The A26 by Pascal Garnier
