{"id":1174,"date":"2008-12-31T19:58:35","date_gmt":"2008-12-31T23:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=1174"},"modified":"2008-12-31T19:58:35","modified_gmt":"2008-12-31T23:58:35","slug":"amazon-kindle-bites-the-dust-187-to-fix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/31\/amazon-kindle-bites-the-dust-187-to-fix\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon Kindle bites the dust&#8230; $187 to fix"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B000FI73MA?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=pgreenspun-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B000FI73MA\">Amazon Kindle<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none !important;margin:0px !important\" src=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=pgreenspun-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B000FI73MA\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/> is just slightly past its one year anniversary and showing signs of very ill health.\u00a0 Half of the pixels on the screen are stuck following a light knock.\u00a0 I called Amazon and they&#8217;re happy to fix it&#8230; for $180 plus $7 in shipping (free if you&#8217;re a Prime member).\u00a0 The Kindle is more fragile than a laptop computer but less likely to be pampered given that you use it in all the situations where you&#8217;d use a book.<\/p>\n<p>I may have to rethink my enthusiasm for the electronic book.\u00a0 Realistically the way that people handle books, the Kindle is not going to last more than one year.\u00a0 That means you&#8217;re spending $360 for the initial purchase and $187 every year for hardware repairs.\u00a0 Some of the Kindle editions of books are edging their way up towards $20 (see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1400044057?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=pgreenspun-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1400044057\">this Naipaul biography<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none !important;margin:0px !important\" src=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=pgreenspun-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=1400044057\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/>, for example).\u00a0 Suppose that you read one book every two weeks, or 25 books per year&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Kindle:\u00a0 $250 per year for hardware (spreading the cost of the initial Kindle purchase a bit) plus $312 for books at $12.50 per book = $562 per year.\u00a0 Good for individual travel and treadmill usage; bad for having to worry about forgetting it somewhere; bad for taking on vacation with family due to difficulty of sharing; terrible for illustrations and photos.<\/p>\n<p>Paper:\u00a0 25 books at $15 per book = $375 per year.\u00a0 Probably 50 percent of those books can be recycled into gifts, so the true cost is closer to $200 per year (assuming you need to buy gifts for friends and family periodically).\u00a0 Heavy for long trips; awkward for treadmill usage; good for carefree life (risk of forgetting in coffee shop limited to $15); great for sharing; great for illustrations and photos.<\/p>\n<p>Library: free!\u00a0 Great for Great Depression 2.0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My Amazon Kindle is just slightly past its one year anniversary and showing signs of very ill health.\u00a0 Half of the pixels on the screen are stuck following [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Amazon Kindle bites the dust... $187 to fix - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/31\/amazon-kindle-bites-the-dust-187-to-fix\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Amazon Kindle bites the dust... $187 to fix - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My Amazon Kindle is just slightly past its one year anniversary and showing signs of very ill health.\u00a0 Half of the pixels on the screen are stuck following [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/31\/amazon-kindle-bites-the-dust-187-to-fix\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-31T23:58:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=pgreenspun-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B000FI73MA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"philg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"philg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2008\\\/12\\\/31\\\/amazon-kindle-bites-the-dust-187-to-fix\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/2008\\\/12\\\/31\\\/amazon-kindle-bites-the-dust-187-to-fix\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"philg\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/philip.greenspun.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"headline\":\"Amazon Kindle bites the dust&#8230; 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