Herds

I bought a Kindle 3. After much soul-searching than I normally do on those occasions when I buy something, I might add. Why, you ask?

I love books,always have. I love their weight, their texture and of course,their smell. Its a thing, shared by all lovers of books I suppose. If someone was generous enough to fund a study, I'm fairly sure they'd find a gene or a particular part of the brain which triggers this persuasion. Maybe they already have.

The primary mental block was abandoning a cognitive bias towards physical books. The 3500+ books stored in 2 GB of ephemeral memory cannot hold a candle to the joy of seeing a bunch of books neatly stacked.

So, why did I buy it?

Herd mentality. That's why.

I do not believe for a moment that, having bought this device, I will stop pilgrimages to Blossoms or Bookworm. Of course not. However, I do believe and hope that I will get a lot of reading done sideways. After lunch, in the bus, waiting for someone to turn up. But this hardly seems an overarching reason to splash 7 grand of hard-earned cash.

I, quite simply, was overwhelmed by the deluge of fanboy reviews that I came across. This for instance. Who was I to deny proclamations that every single lover of books that ever lived ought to own one? I tried resisting of course. I made and unmade my mind up more times than I care to account for. Futile, in the long run.

Why is it so comforting to choose what the majority has chosen? Why is it hard to stick out like a sore thumb? I wonder if the choices that humans make can be neatly fit into a Gaussian curve, with only a handful making choices in the outliers. The idea that my convictions can possibly be managed by the collective thought process of a group is hugely disturbing.

This article by David Rieff brilliantly captures what it is that's wrong with being in the herd.

I hope this bloody Kindle lives up to the hype.

Quote:"Individuality, like civilization itself, is such a hard-won, fragile thing." - David Rieff

NP:Colossus(Afro Celt Sound System)