Why I Admire Stephen King And Notes About The Amazon Kindle 2
9 Feb
What do you think about Stephen King and his embracing new technology?
Stephen King is one of those guys I really admire. He is a prolific writer. He’s an awesome storyteller. He’s been married to the same woman for over 30 some years and has raised three kids. He’s been forthcoming about his struggle with drug addiction. He’s survived a terrible car accident in which he was hit and almost killed by a van. King hasn’t moved to LA or New York and has chosen instead to remain in his home state of Maine.
I’ve only read three books by Stephen King – Bag Of Bones, Danse Macabre, and my favorite On Writing. He is obviously a gifted author and storyteller and has sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 300-400 million copies worldwide.
But what I really like about King is his willingness as a writer to embrace technology. He was one of the first mainstream bestselling authors to publish specifically for the web and make money at it. At the time it seemed like such a novelty to me.
And now he is part of the Amazon Kindle 2 launch happening today. King is already an avid Kindle user which again strikes me as progressive thinking from an author and former English teacher. Usually book worms don’t like to change their ways and embrace shiny new things. They typically prefer to relish in the old smell of dead trees.
But not Stephen King. He is one to embrace changing technology.
Walt Disney did the same during his time as Disney studio chief. He was the first cartoon producer to embrace color. When sound came on to Hollywood he also embraced it faster than any of the other studios. Stephen King seems to be cut from the same cloth. He has fully embraced Amazon’s wireless reading device.
To coincide with the release of the Kindle2 – King has released UR, a book written specifically for the new device. All of his other works are also available for the Kindle2.
What do you think about Stephen King and his embracing new technology? Do you agree that it is a good thing? Some fear the Kindle 2 may be the end of actual books and we will miss some very important aspects of reading from paper. Thoughts?
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