What would Benjamin Franklin think?

The other night I was reading a book on my Kindle when lightning struck nearby. As the noise died down, I thought of the image of Benjamin Franklin standing with his kite.

What would the guy who came up with the idea of lending books, who played around with electricity, think of technology that allows us to instantly download a book in seconds?

For me, a Kindle falls under the category of assistive technology since it allows me to turn pages and read. I've even learned to convert documents I need to read so that I can avoid hard paper copies.

Those reams of papers young Franklin carried through the streets of Philadelphia to show what a hard working young lad he was would probably be replaced now by a series of links emailed to his boss - or could be easily contained on a device like the Kindle.

A few people have told me that they wouldn't feel the same reading a book if it wasn't three dimensional, held in their hands so they could feel it. They say books have a smell to them and a character that nothing can replace.

They have a point. I'm a book lover myself. I wouldn't argue with any of that. But the technology of being able to access a book almost immediately is phenomenal. I can see Franklin's specs falling off the edge of his nose now as he watched a book appear on the screen, ready to read in seconds.

I'll admit I sometimes go into bookstores in town and check out the used books on the shelves. They have character with their crinkled covers, their earmarked pages, their coffee spills. I used to enjoy buying used paperbacks and finding notes in them. (I once found a grocery list in a sci fi novel that read 'Teleport yourself to 7 11 and get some milk". I never figured out if it was a personal reminder or the bookworm's spouse who wrote it.)

But then I come home and turn on my Kindle which holds 40 ebooks (many that are legally available for free) , the first chapters of the best sellers on the NY Times list, and realize that life is about trade-offs. Nostalgia might be compelling sometimes, but if Benjamin Franklin could have used a Kindle, I bet he would have.

And there's nothing I like better than assistive technology that is designed for use by everyone, along the lines of universal design, that gets rid of "separate and stigmatizing solutions".

[If you are considering using the Kindle as an assistive device and/ or would like to read more about the Kindle and/or obtaining ebooks, please click the label below for more posts and my review, for which I received no compensation- it tells the good and the bad about the device and its features.]