More hating on the Kindle
Criticism of Amazon’s new e-reader continues to fly, and the latest comes from a high-profile source: star American book designer Chip Kidd. In an entry on the design blog A Brief Message, Kidd writes:
I’ve been asked to comment on what effect I think [the Kindle] will have, if any, on book design as we know it. Here goes.
None.
Alas, Kidd’s complaints aren’t really Kindle-specific, and have a distinct same-old-same-old feel:
What no one seems to get through their thick skulls, even after untold millions of dollars have been wasted on the concept: PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO READ BOOKS ON A SCREEN. Why is that so hard for someone as obviously smart as Jeff Bezos to accept?
Far more damning, in Quillblog’s opinion, are criticisms like this one. Mobile-device commentator James Kendrick doesn’t dismiss out of hand the very idea of an e-reader; instead, he focuses directly on the Kindle’s design flaws. Which do sound pretty alarming.
