I shuffle out of my classroom at 4:00 without any of daybreak’s energy and enthusiasm. My mind is heavy with the unfinished paperwork piled on my desk and my heart is holding onto the tiny teaching victories I collected throughout the day. “All Things Considered” is a salve as I drive home on autopilot, forgetting to stop at the post office and drug store. Today I am delighted and actually laugh outloud as Andrei Codrescu rants about the new ebook “improvement” that Amazon has wrought on their customers.
The horrendous idea began as a semi-harmless list of the book passages that were most highlighted by Kindle readers … Amazon tracked what readers were marking and, by comparing all customers data they could see what was most popular. I agree with Rebekah Denn that the practice is a little creepy and it gives me that big brother feeling, like you’re not really alone even though you’re in your flannel pjs in bed. A book is supposed to be a one way data stream: the author writes it, you read it and then you decide what to do with the new information. Maybe you want to talk about, write about it, read about it or ponder it. But the Kindle is a door to and from the Internet. Now Amazon can reach through the Internet and keep track of what you find interesting for its “popular highlights” feature (I suppose one does have the choice of highlighting in the first place).
But then they went too far ...Andrei explains that his brand new, hot off the wires, e-book arrived on his Kindle WITH highlighting - yuk! At first he thought it was a mistake, but then he discovered that the underlining in his book was pointing out the ‘popular highlights’. He was appropriately disgusted, who cares what hundred of “morons” (his words not mine) found interesting in a book, reading is not a public forum, it a private, sacred experience between the text and the reader (at least it used to be). The idea of a pre-hightlighted book is like ABC gum (already been chewed), hand me down socks or a pencil with the eraser chewed off - they have been violated..
I thought back to my entry about marginalia. What if the book came with Mark Twain’s highlights, or the author’s highlights? That might be an interesting addition to the book but it doesn’t change the fact that when you buy a new book it is because you want to experience the thoughts and stories of the author on your own - not with the general public (that’s what Facebook is for). The “value added” highlighting takes away from the personal experience of reading.
There is also a privacy issue. On the “Red Tape Chronicles”, Bob Sullivan notes, “It's possible Kindle users are unaware that they are contributing to the "popular highlights " feature, which launched quietly to some users who downloaded the latest version of Kindle software beginning last month. Popular Highlights is turned on by default.”
Tracking the books we buy is one thing but keeping track of passage that we find inspiring, questionable, or thought provoking crosses the line from helpful to nosy. Asking me to pay full price for a book that some bozo (my words) has already underlined is ludicrous - I’ll do my thinking on my own, thank you very much - and I won’t do it on a Kindle.
By the way, I found today’s most highlighted passage from Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese inspiring and added his book to my “to read” list - so I guess the marketing gurus at Amazon win again (not really because I’ll check the book out of the library).
“The key to your happiness is to own your slippers, own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don’t. If you keep saying your slippers aren’t yours, then you’ll die searching, you’ll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny.”
The horrendous idea began as a semi-harmless list of the book passages that were most highlighted by Kindle readers … Amazon tracked what readers were marking and, by comparing all customers data they could see what was most popular. I agree with Rebekah Denn that the practice is a little creepy and it gives me that big brother feeling, like you’re not really alone even though you’re in your flannel pjs in bed. A book is supposed to be a one way data stream: the author writes it, you read it and then you decide what to do with the new information. Maybe you want to talk about, write about it, read about it or ponder it. But the Kindle is a door to and from the Internet. Now Amazon can reach through the Internet and keep track of what you find interesting for its “popular highlights” feature (I suppose one does have the choice of highlighting in the first place).
But then they went too far ...Andrei explains that his brand new, hot off the wires, e-book arrived on his Kindle WITH highlighting - yuk! At first he thought it was a mistake, but then he discovered that the underlining in his book was pointing out the ‘popular highlights’. He was appropriately disgusted, who cares what hundred of “morons” (his words not mine) found interesting in a book, reading is not a public forum, it a private, sacred experience between the text and the reader (at least it used to be). The idea of a pre-hightlighted book is like ABC gum (already been chewed), hand me down socks or a pencil with the eraser chewed off - they have been violated..
I thought back to my entry about marginalia. What if the book came with Mark Twain’s highlights, or the author’s highlights? That might be an interesting addition to the book but it doesn’t change the fact that when you buy a new book it is because you want to experience the thoughts and stories of the author on your own - not with the general public (that’s what Facebook is for). The “value added” highlighting takes away from the personal experience of reading.
There is also a privacy issue. On the “Red Tape Chronicles”, Bob Sullivan notes, “It's possible Kindle users are unaware that they are contributing to the "popular highlights " feature, which launched quietly to some users who downloaded the latest version of Kindle software beginning last month. Popular Highlights is turned on by default.”
Tracking the books we buy is one thing but keeping track of passage that we find inspiring, questionable, or thought provoking crosses the line from helpful to nosy. Asking me to pay full price for a book that some bozo (my words) has already underlined is ludicrous - I’ll do my thinking on my own, thank you very much - and I won’t do it on a Kindle.
By the way, I found today’s most highlighted passage from Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese inspiring and added his book to my “to read” list - so I guess the marketing gurus at Amazon win again (not really because I’ll check the book out of the library).
“The key to your happiness is to own your slippers, own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don’t. If you keep saying your slippers aren’t yours, then you’ll die searching, you’ll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny.”
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