I got a useless piece of advertising spam e-mail from Amazon.com this morning pitching Kindle for PC (beta). It said, “Read Kindle books – no Kindle required.” The ad went on to say, “As someone who has shown interest in Kindle, we thought you should know that you can read Kindle books wherever you go with our free Kindle for PC.” For one thing, I don’t think Amazon used the word “Kindle” enough. I might have forgotten what the product name was. But I quickly tossed this observation off when I began to wonder why, why, WHY anyone would want the K-word on their PC.

Kindle is either an amazing or terrifying new product, depending on factors like your age, socioeconomic status and occupation. Because e-books are not a flash-in-the-pan trend, as they initially might have been perceived, I’m interested. Clearly the publishing industry is going this way whether they like it or not, and I’m not going to be that unequivocally anti-tech woman who advocates forest dwelling and sawdust toilets (although they have their merit). I’m open to Kindle. I’m ok with it. And the old fashioned tree-killing paper book will never truly go out of style – it’s too well-loved.

My confusion stems from the idea that someone would want to read a book on their PC screen. The application exists for iPods too, but that makes more sense. Portable and multi-functional, the iPod embodies the convenience of Kindle.  The PC is the antithesis of Kindle. Reading even a few pages of a pdf on my screen makes me dizzy and nauseated, and my eyeballs age about 50 years.

I downloaded the application, and it was fast and easy. If I owned an e-book or had plans to purchase one, I could be reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, which was assigned for a class and for which I paid $26 for instead of $9.95. But I am firmly convinced there is no way I’d pay any amount of money to read anything on my computer screen.

The “regular” Kindle screen, I’ve been told by users, has been carefully tested and modified to make the act of reading as natural as possible. Lacking a “regular” Kindle to compare, I downloaded the application and a sample of Skloot’s book. The digital text does a decent job of looking like book text, and the mouse or arrow keys navigate through the pages. There’s no scrolling, which is a huge bonus for my astigmatic and easily nauseated self. After viciously scoffing at the idea of Kindle for PC at the outset, I was surprised to actually find a good use for it: downloading free samples.

With this application I can do basically what unpaid interns editors do when they read manuscripts: scan the first few pages, and if nonplussed, move on to the next sample. In fact, Kindle for PC could be a breakthrough model for a system in which aspiring writers get their work to publishers, and publishers more easily manage mountains of submissions. Quality control is the main drawback though. There would need to be some kind of vetting process to get your work into the system in the first place. No, I don’t want to read a story about a group of sorority sisters who go to a raging kegger and HILARITY ENSUES!

So, Amazon, you have charmed me with your wiles and your promises of instant, free book samples. Well done. I do not plan to tote my laptop around for the purposes of reading magazines, nor will I buy War and Peace for $9.95 and read it on my desktop screen. But your free text samples will allow me to become a critical and jaded editor unpaid intern, which can only up my ability to drop the name of and a few details about the latest prize-winning books. Result? Download Kindle for PC; it’s not so bad once you realize the potential of free.

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Kindle for PC: What Were They Thinking and Why it Kind of Works – by TickleSpot Magazine.