Stephen King on the Amazon Kindle e-Reader: It Won't Replace Books But Can "Enrich Any Reader's Life"

When the Kindle was released a few months ago to wildly conflicting reviews, Amazon used some famous men and women of letters, such as Michael Lewis and Toni Morrison, to promote the e-reader on its main page. Classic author Stephen King did not participate in that marketing effort, but he's finally come around with a quick verdict: The Plastic Bezo-box will not replace books, but it's a fine delivery system as long as the stories it contains are good.

In his latest column for Entertainment Weekly, the prolific author of The Stand and The Shining admits that he was more interested in the actual reading experience than exploring the variety of features found on the Kindle, like the browser and the speed of the downloads.

One major feature that he did enjoy was the typeface adjustment feature, where the size can be made readable for those of a more, um, advanced age. He also shared our feelings regarding the tiny keyboard, referring to it as mostly suitable for ‘keebler elves.’

Yet, he concluded that the quality of the story is what really matters:

Will Kindles replace books? No. And not just because books furnish a room, either. There's a permanence to books that underlines the importance of the ideas and the stories we find inside them; books solidify an otherwise fragile medium.

But can a Kindle enrich any reader's life? My own experience — so far limited to 1.5 books, I'll admit — suggests that it can. For a while I was very aware that I was looking at a screen and bopping a button instead of turning pages. Then the story simply swallowed me, as the good ones always do.I wasn't thinking about my Kindle anymore; I was rooting for someone to stop the evil Lady Powerstock. It became about the message instead of the medium, and that's the way it's supposed to be.

Personally, the ‘bopping’ of the page-turning buttons on e-Readers (and the subsequently slow refresh rate) are two of the most annoying features of these devices. Even at the smallest text size, the e-page can't contain as many words per page as regular paperbacks or hardbacks, so you're 'turning' the page way more often. But if Mr. King can easily lose himself in a story he is forced to read at a large text size, then maybe we can give the reader and the consistent bopping
another chance.