The Green of Dublin Burning like Kindle

Brian Wiseman - Contributing Writer
Posted on Thursday 4th June 2009
So I’m laid out on the couch reading – at least attempting- Ulysses, James Joyce’s masterpiece, which runs between 644 to 1000 pages depending on your version. Mine ends at 732, a daunting number complicated only by the author’s supernatural use of language and literary technique (how many languages can you speak Joyce?). Now normally when you read a good book you are so entranced by the story, the rest of the world disappears. This maze of letters not only spit me out several times, but allowed my mind to wander into my own story. I thought to myself, like a man on the beach watching the dog fetch waves – Joycean reference, poor at best - this is the longest thing I’ve ever read. This can’t be good for trees. I started digging and found out the average tree can produce 1500 lbs of paper or around 942 100-page books. Based upon my version of the book, one tree can would offer 128 copies. At first glance, that sounds like a fantastic use of resources until I started thinking about the millions of copies of this book were printed. Then I added in the fact Ulysses is not the only ever to be published and this exorbitantly large number is ever-growing with each new author. The growth of this forest of ink seems to have stopped, or at least slowed, since the most recent round of technological innovations. E-books have been available for years online but price made consumers cautious of this format. Amazon’s recent release, the Kindle, and even more recent Kindle 2, allows readers to download books directly to the device. Books range from $0.99 to $10 for bestsellers, quite competitive with hard copy prices, and are stored on this platform. Amazon uses no back light – they accuse it causes eyestrain – which means users need a light in the dark. In any case, those who leave the Kindle on constantly have reported several days worth of reading time and those who turn it off up to two weeks without needing a recharge. Kindle cannot offer the same experience one gets from flipping an actual page, new book smell climbing into nostrils, the sound of a spine cracking like open ideas. Now, it seems anyone can get their hands on Joyce’s work. The only thing left is actually finishing.

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