I will try to keep my cool while I write this post, but every time I discuss this topic I get red in the face and my blood pressure rises. You will probably see lots of all caps words. The passion I have for this topic makes me want to write this WHOLE POST in all caps, but I know how annoying that is to read, so I’ll try to be judicious in using all caps.

I’ve meant to talk for a while about why I don’t buy from Amazon and never will again, but the recent drop in the price of Kindle has prompted me to write this post. I’ll try to organize my thoughts, but it’s likely that they’ll be scattered. I fear that I won’t be able to accurately articulate  my frustration, my fear, and my anger, but I’ll try.

The Basics

While I might choose to shop at my local independent bookstore (and wish more pople did the same), ultimately I have no problem with people going to a big chain bookstore to purchase books. Even chain bookstores are INHERENTLY INTERESTED in the future of publishing. But if publishing went south tomorrow? Amazon wouldn’t even BAT AN EYE. THEY DO NOT CARE WHAT HAPPENS TO BOOKS.

Everyone knows that Amazon sells books at a deep, deep discount, particularly hardcovers, new releases, and bestsellers. Why would they do that? It’s not because they’re philanthropic. It’s because once they’ve got you at their store, there’s a good chance you’ll buy something that they DO make money on, i.e. electronics and other things they actually make money on. In business terms, this is called a loss leader. E-books have also been a loss leader for Amazon so it can “gain loyalty and market share.” So the industry that I’m so invested in, the industry that supplies my hobby, that makes me think outside of the box, that entertains me, that teaches me, that helps me connect with other people, that industry? Amazon would only care if books died because they’d have to find a new loss leader. That is not a company that has the best interests of publishing at its heart.

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Amazon is a big bully.

You can read about the whole kerfluffle from Charles Stross and John Scalzi, but here’s the gist: Macmillan said, ‘We want you to charge x amount for our ebooks.’ Amazon said, ‘Fuck you. We want to charge less.’ Macmillan said, ‘No, these are our books, we think you’re setting an expectation with readers about ebook prices that we can’t sustain, and we want you to charge x amount for ebooks.’ Amazon’s response? Remove ALL THE BUY BUTTONS FROM ALL OF MACMILLANS titles. Effectively saying, Let’s see if we can make you do it OUR WAY by taking away your ability to sell your books through the biggest book retailer on earth.

HOW IS THAT OKAY?!!! Sure, I can let big companies duke it out, but I WILL NOT support a company that plays dirty (which is why I also don’t shop at WalMart).

This is a great article: The Trouble With Amazon. The article is well worth reading, but the part that made me recoil in horror is the story that one publisher has of trying to stand up to Amazon, refusing to give Amazon such a deep discount on books because it’s ILLEGAL. What did Amazon do?

“I was at the Book Expo in New York and two guys from Amazon came to see me. They said that the company was watching what we were doing and that they strongly advised us to get in line. I was shocked at how blatant the pressure was.” Within a couple of days Johnson noticed that the buy buttons for his books had been taken off Amazon’s site, making Melville’s titles unavailable.

WHY would I support a company that for all intents and purposes is a Mafia-like organization?

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Last year at BEA I won a Kindle from GetGlue. Shortly after this MacMillan business went down, I gave the Kindle away because I couldn’t stomach supporting a company that I consider to be evil. Even reading free books off of their device seemed wrong.

I may someday buy a Nook or an iPad, but I will never ever buy a Kindle.

I mentioned that I won’t buy books or anything else at Amazon. The reason I was buying from Amazon before was because it was cheap and convenient. But I’ve decided that if I’m not going to support Amazon, then I AM going to support locally owned businesses or the actual business on the Internet that is supplying the ‘thing’ that I want to buy that I would have previously bought from Amazon. Guess what I’ve found? That buying locally/directly isn’t cost prohibitive for me. I paid $5 more for my messenger bag that I use every day by buying it directly from the supplier as opposed to ordering it from Amazon. $5 to me is nothing. It’s throwaway money. But to a business? That’s profit that I’m putting in A PERSON’S POCKET, as opposed to filling Amazon’s coffers. Supporting a person versus supporting a corporation? Do I really need to answer that?

And if I want an electronic device, I’ll go to Best Buy or Costco, but I don’t need cheap prices enough to turn a blind eye to what Amazon is doing. Nothing is worth that.

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In this article titled In Defense of Amazon, said that Amazon is only providing people with what they want: cheaper products. But have we not learned that cheaper isn’t always better? And when has a company with as much power as Amazon has ever been a good thing?

You will not convince me that cheaper prices evolving the way Amazon has pushed the industry is beneficial to anyone.

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I know that my not buying from Amazon and telling all my friends I won’t buy from Amazon won’t hurt them in the least. But I will not support what Amazon represents by buying books or anything else from them.

(Thanks to @KatherineBoG for helping solidify my opinions about Amazon.)

*Edited to add: Pam pointed me to another e-reader, so I added that e-reader to the list. It’s a beauty, but cost prohibitive for most people.

I know. I was the first person to say I WILL NEVER WANT AN E-READER. But then people I knew started getting them (and raving about them!), and I started to see how an e-reader would come in handy. E-readers will NEVER replace books, but they are doing a damn good job of supplementing physical books for those of us who read a lot.

I was lucky enough to win a Kindle 2, thanks to the folks at Glue.

Does Amazon’s seeming intent to control the publishing world worry me? Absolutely. Do I think the price of e-books are freaking ridiculous? Heck. yes. But I have a secret to tell you…are you ready? I need you to come closer so I can whisper in your ear.

*whispering* I love my Kindle.

But I know that e-readers are far from perfect, and just like MP-3 players, in a few years these original models will look like dinosaurs. But in the meantime, let’s see what options you have for e-readers and the pros and cons of each. I gathered various specs and opinions from others who’ve tested and reviewed the various e-readers. I myself can only speak for the Kindle.

You’ll notice that I haven’t mentioned iPhones as an e-reader, and that’s because the whole POINT of an e-reader is that it’s not backlit and doesn’t cause eye strain. So I know people like reading books on their iPhone, but it’s not a true e-reader so I won’t go over the pros and cons. HOWEVER, I like the idea of not having a gagillion gadgets, but in circumstances like this, I think the e-reader serves a very specific, useful, and necessary purpose.

Kindle 2

• Pro: It’s thin (1/3 inch), even with a leather cover on it (3/4 inch)
• Pro: It’s light (10.2 ounces)
• Pro: It’s not backlit, so it really reads like a real book. The downside to this is you need light to read it.
• Pro: You can download a book instantly (less than 60 seconds), which it does over WiFi, but it doesn’t require you to have an Internet connection that you pay for. Using the WiFi to download a book is FREE.
• Pro: It will read to you! And sing you to sleep!
• Pro: There are 16 shades of gray so the text is clearer
• Con: You must buy the Kindle from Amazon and only Amazon. Ditto on the books.
• Con: You can only read e-books.
• Con: Books aren’t cheap! $9.99 for even a new book is no steal.
• Con: The screen takes a second to refresh when you turn the page.
• Con: Price: $359 $299

Sony Reader Digital Book

• Pro: It’s 6.9 inches high by 4.9 inches wide by 0.3 inches deep, and weighs about 9 ounces
• Pro: It’s not backlit
• Pro: THE SCREEN! Check that puppy out! It’s basically the same size as the Kindle screen, but it *looks* bigger, and I like that.
• Pro/Con: This only has 8 shades of gray, which is up from when it only had 4 shades of gray. They haven’t yet gotten to the Kindle’s 16 shades of gray.
• Pro: It’s not owend by Teh Evil Amazon.
• Pro: You can read more than just e-books. You can read .pdfs, Text, RTF, and Word files.
• Con: The screen takes a second to refresh when you turn the page.
• Con: You have to download books from your computer. Sony doesn’t have the wireless capability that the Kindle does, and while some people might not find this to be a problem, I think in this digital age that being able to download books without using your computer is a must.
• Books aren’t cheap!
• Price: $279 for the PRS 505, $349 for the PRS 700 BC

Plastic Logic Touch-Screen E-Reader

• Pro: VERY thin, it’s the size of a standard sheet of paper and as thin as about six credit cards, and weighs less than a pound. The large size (not the thinness) could actually be a con, though, because the advantage of the other e-readers out there is that they fit in your purse (or your murse, if you’re a dude).
• Pro: You can read documents from Adobe and Microsoft Office.
• Pro: IT HAS A TOUCH SCREEN. No more pressing buttons to turn the page, just flick your finger across the screen.
• Pro: You can annotate documents, and when you transfer those documents to another device, your notations remain intact.
• Pro: It will have Wi-Fi, but it’s not clear yet if you will need to pay a service charge for mobile use.  
• Pro: It’s not backlit.
• Con: As this e-reader won’t be released until 2010, there aren’t many reviews, so I don’t know what’s not so great about it at this point.
• Price has not been announced yet.

COOL-ER

• Pro: It’s slim and lightweight. It’s 7.2 inches high by 4.6 inches wide by .4 inches deep.
• Pro: It comes in great colors.
• Pro: It supports ebooks in many languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Dutch, Russian, Korean, Ukrainian, Chinese and Japanese
• Pro: It’s not backlit
• Pro: COOL-ER can read any JPEG, PDF, or TXT document, or any EPUB formatted ebook
• Pro: You can share books with other COOL-ERs.
• Pro: It has a built-in MP-3 player, so you can listen to audiobooks as well.
• Con: You have to get books via a USB cable off of your computer. No Wi-Fi here.
• Con: Navigation is difficult. 
• Con: The buttons are hard to press.
• Price: $249

iRex iLiad Book Edition

• Pro: It’s 8.5 inches high, 6.1 inches wide, and .63 inches deep. It weighs just under a pound at 15.3 ounces.
• Pro: It’s not backlit.
• Pro: It has 16 levels of grey-scale
• Pro: It comes pre-loaded with 50 classics, such as Pride and Prejudice, Anna Karenina, and Dracula.
• Pro: TOUCH SCREEN. Need I say more?
• Pro: You can use the stylus to write notes.
• Pro: It supports the following formats: PDF / HTML / TXT / JPG / BMP/ PNG / PRC
• Con: You have to download books with a USB cable via your computer.
• Con: It only has 256MB of memory, and while you can upgrade to 8GB, it’s more money for an already expensive product.
• Price: $599

I think if we could wrap all four of these e-readers into one (awesome colors, a touch screen, free wi-fi, and no Evil Amazon), we’d have a perfect e-reader. I think the perfect e-reader is a little ways off, but we’re definitely getting closer.

The iLiad seems like it would be the PERFECT e-reader. Except for that pesky price. People balk at the Kindle’s price, which recently went from $349 to $299. $599 is out of most people’s price range.

Don’t forget, I haven’t had a chance to review all these e-readers. The only one I own is the Kindle. I’d be thrilled to see how they all compare, but…well, I don’t have that kind of money (especially for the iRex, which I’m drooling over!). Jenn, however, has compared her Sony E-Reader with the Kindle, and she may be reviewing the COOL-ER in the near future.

Do you have an e-reader? What would make the e-readers better? Based on the four e-readers we have to choose from, is there an e-reader you’d prefer over another?

Disclaimer: I did my best on this list, but I may have missed something, and for that I apologize. Some things are the same across the board, like the fact that e-books aren’t cheap or that all e-readers aren’t backlit.