Why the Kindle Stinks

Nicholson Baker wanted to like the Kindle, honest. But when he unwrapped it and began to see what all the fuss was about, he "tussled with a sense of anti-climax," the prolific author writes in the New Yorker. Things never improved. He slams the e-reader for having a "greenish, sickly gray" screen, cruddy images, and limited selection of books. Amazon "is very good at selling things," he writes. "It isn’t so good, to date anyway, at making things."

Beyond the tangibles, Baker reads favorite passages in old-fashioned books, then on the Kindle, and swears the high-tech experience is somehow lacking. He also takes aim at the larger Kindle DX, expressing a similar complaint: "It doesn't save newspapers; it diminishes and undercuts them—it kills their joy." For those who want to press ahead with e-reading, he recommends the iPod Touch—just download the Kindle app, and it's ready to roll.
(More Kindle stories.)