Today’s Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon is set to continue the digital assault on all things paper with a new version of its electronic reading device, Kindle. The new Kindle DX, which features a larger viewing area, is designed to display textbooks in a reader-friendly format.

Gadget loving bloggers have been quick to revel in the potential convenience that the Kindle offers – namely the ability to replace sacks full of textbooks with fingers full of white plastic.

Now, textbooks are heavy. That is a given. But, we have had a solution for that long before the new Kindle came along. It’s called Cliffs Notes.

As a college freshman, I took an Old Testament Survey class. The required reading for the class came in the form of the New Oxford Annotated Bible, whose hardback cover and 1,400 pages checked in at a hefty two-and-a-half pounds. In the interest of economization, I made a trip to the local Books-a-Million and picked up a copy of Cliffs Notes for the Old Testament. Thanks to that little yellow book, I was able to replace a bulky text with a lightweight alternative. No Kindle was required.

Dr. Roberts, I'm Sorry. I Used Cliffs Notes.

(Yes, you can get Cliffs Notes for the Old Testament, and yes, I am still wondering what consequence buying Cliffs Notes over the Bible will have on my mortal soul).

There are other ways the Kindle will fall short when it comes to replicating the college textbook experience.

When I was in college, I didn’t view the textbooks I bought every August and January as purchases. Instead, the textbooks were more like deposits on my bi-annual trips home. I would buy the textbooks at the start of the term, and then sell them back at the end of each semester for gas money to get home. If I did not have something tangible to sell to the college bookstore back in December of 1997, i.e. if all my books were on a Kindle, I would still be stranded in my freshman dorm room.

Even the books I was unable to resell have proven to be valuable. Whenever the bookstore refused to buy a book from me, the book went on my shelf. Between those unwanted books, and the other books I’ve acquired over the years, I have amassed quite a collection. I display these books prominently throughout my home. My hope is that when visitors see my small library, they will assume that I am intelligent. After all, a moron wouldn’t surround himself with such great works as West’s Federal Taxation – 2001 Edition and Seven Theories of Human Nature, would he? It’s the same strategy used by the legal, financial, and medical experts you see every night on the evening news. They’re always surrounded by an office full of books. But, if their books were trapped inside a Kindle, they would be unable to create that aura of intelligence.

Amazon’s Kindle may succeed in recreating the words that are contained in college textbooks (and it wouldn’t even be the first device to accomplish that). But, for me, no gadget will be able to replace the actual textbook experience.

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