tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226148605783671495.post5165154089204476042..comments2010-11-10T06:00:40.798-08:00Comments on telephone: The Kindle: Good Before, Better Nowsara wintzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04748603798121620490noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8226148605783671495.post-62449592821313061342009-03-04T22:52:00.000-08:002009-03-04T22:52:00.000-08:00NEWS ARTICLE ONLINE TODAY:"Do you kindle?"by R.U. ...NEWS ARTICLE ONLINE TODAY:<BR/>"Do you kindle?"<BR/><BR/><BR/>by R.U. Kindling<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>Since Westerners are sometimes referred to as "people of the book" --<BR/>meaning, people of the Torah and and the "Old Testament" and the "Also<BR/>Old New Testament" and "The Audacity of Hope" -- it makes sense that<BR/>we Western people like reading books, writing books, buying books and<BR/>even "kindling" books. Kindling books? Did I just write "kindling"<BR/>books?<BR/><BR/>Yes, there's a new word out there in the blogosphere, online and on<BR/>blogs and websites in most of the English-speaking world, and that new<BR/>word is a verb -- to kindle, and the ING form kindling -- that has<BR/>taken on the meaning of "reading on a Kindle e-reader device from<BR/>Amazon.com.<BR/><BR/>Don't believe me? Google it. That's another corporate name that was<BR/>turned into a popular verb. There are others, too: to xerox something,<BR/>and to facebook someone. Language is a never-ending story. And for the<BR/>people of the book, language is a multilingual affair, and while "to<BR/>kindle" has not yet made it into a real dictionary yet, stay tuned.<BR/>Words have wings, and Emily Dickinson might have said: "Language is<BR/>that thing with feathers."<BR/><BR/>The Urban Dictionary in California has been studying "kindle" as a<BR/>verb, as a takeoff of the corporate name for Amazon's reading device,<BR/>and the word -- as a verb -- is catching on, from blog posts on the<BR/>New York Times website to online forums at Treehugger.com and<BR/>Kunstlercast.com. The way the new verb form was submitted the editors<BR/>at Urban Dictionary, which is run by a 20-something man who works at<BR/>Google headquarters in Mountain View, California was like this,<BR/>according to sources deep within the hidden confines of the evolving<BR/>blogoteria:<BR/><BR/>"Kindle: To read a book or a newspaper on a Kindle e-reading device."<BR/><BR/>Usage examples:<BR/><BR/>"I'm kindling now, I will call you back in ten minutes."<BR/><BR/>"I'm kindling the newspaper now, can't chat, will return call in one hour."<BR/><BR/>"Do you enjoy kindling with your Kindle?"<BR/><BR/>"Hey, I've been kindled. My latest book was packaged by Kindle as a<BR/>Kindle book and you can read it on Kindle now. It feels kind of good<BR/>to be kindled."<BR/><BR/>"My book was out of print for a long time, but a new publisher<BR/>reprinted it and put it on the Kindle book list and you could say my<BR/>book has been rekindled. I love it!"<BR/><BR/>Kindle as a verb is catching on. Judy Goldberg in Delray Beach,<BR/>Florida, tells me: "I've owned my Kindle for almost 6 months and love<BR/>it. When I mention I'm reading a particular book, I refer to it as<BR/>'I'm Kindling such and such a book', so it's already a verb to me.<BR/>It's hard to imagine reading a regular book now."<BR/><BR/>Liz Hill told me: "I don't 'kindle', but I know we certainly all<BR/>'google'. And that verb is<BR/>in the dictionary. I often 'skype' or tell people to skype me instead<BR/>of calling me. So<BR/>there's another example. Maybe "kindle" will catch on as a verb, too.<BR/>Who knows? Who knew?"<BR/><BR/>And Whitney Leader-Picone told this reporter: "I thought the point of<BR/>the Kindle was the paper screen technology which made reading a book<BR/>on a digital device not like a digital device at all. Computer screens<BR/>start to hurt my eyes over the course of the day, which is why I have<BR/>been so reluctant to consider ebooks in the past. The Kindle, I have<BR/>heard, is gentle on the eyes. So wouldn't these differences<BR/>differentiate "kindling" from reading online?"<BR/><BR/>And she added: "I don't really mind "to kindle" since the Kindle is so<BR/>unique, but I am still skeptical about whether we need a new word for<BR/>reading online. Also, shouldn't we let these new terms grow<BR/>organically as they have in the past and as "to kindle" and<BR/>"facebooking" have already?"<BR/><BR/><BR/>Not everyone agrees that kindle will make a good verb.<BR/><BR/>"I think this is the first time I've encountered 'kindle' as a verb,"<BR/>one blogger on the Internet said last November in a comment thread,<BR/>almost six months ago. "Clever, but it sort of makes my skin crawl."<BR/><BR/>So do you kindle? Are you kindling now as we speak? Do you own a<BR/>Kindle? Will you use kindle as a verb, or does it sort of make your<BR/>skin crawl, too?<BR/><BR/>Stay tuned. As one top computer industry reporter at the New York<BR/>Times told me in a recent email about this new use of the word kindle<BR/>as a verb to mean "reading a book on a Kindle": "Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm."<BR/><BR/>Words are those things with wings. See Jane kindle. Watch Dick kindleDANIELBLOOMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05130493903696077379noreply@blogger.com