Is paper truly dead? The Amazon Kindle is promoting this very notion.

What if you could hold thousands of books on a single device, and wirelessly obtain new books as you reside anywhere in the world?

Would this device change your reading habits? Can we adopt to reading books on an electronic device after centuries of paper and binding?

The Amazon Kindle believes so.

The benefits are obvious:

• Carry around hundreds of books, newspapers, periodicals with ease.
• Immediately obtain new books whenever the urge strikes.

The device itself also lends some generous features outside of “book reading”:

• Wireless web access.
• No wireless monthly fees.

My thoughts

I’m gonna stay away from theories about the Kindle being the “iPod of books,” or the fact that it offers free wireless internet access, and instead focus on it’s intention of replacing the paper-bound book.

The device itself, I could not care any less about, but I can’t help but notice it is extremely ugly:

It’s obvious they’re certainly not trying to sell fashion or style, here. The question is, can the Kindle replace paper? (I’m sure it’s main intention is not to wipe the entire planet of paper-bound books, but in theory, it could lead to a revolution of sorts.)

I’d give the Kindle a try. However, there may be a few things I’d miss, at first, which I don’t think the Kindle (or any electronic device) can ever replicate:

• Getting lost in the shelves at my local library.
• Noticing the “wear and tear” of a book as it saunters through my days along with me.
• Holding a brand new book and literally smelling the paper.
• The physical act of turning a page with my own hands.
• Using a rather large book as a doorstop or support structure.

However, I suppose I could get used to the absence of these things rather quickly.