At first it was rare to see a Kindle sighting--sort of like a Prius sighting when I first got mine 6 years ago. (That early adopter thing again.) There would be that knowing nod and polite questions about what someone was reading. (With the Prius their nods would be followed by mpg inquiries.) Tips would be passed back and forth. We were cognoscenti. Since I live in a rural area, I really only saw Kindles when I traveled. Another one on an airplane was normal at first, then in the past year I started to see many—with flyers comparing Kindle 1s, 2s, and the jumbo DXs. I haven’t yet seen a Kindle 3 in the wild or even a Nook or Sony e-reader but iPads are sprouting everywhere.
In June were on the maiden voyage of the Norwegian Cruise Lines’s gargantuan cruise ship EPIC from Southampton to New York. Most passengers understood we were the guinea pigs for this jumbo liner and patiently waited in queues to board, get information, for shows, and more. No problem. Everyone whipped out their e-readers which led to more comparisons, and yes, impromptu discussion on books. We showed off and praised various jackets—with Oberon’s stunning tooled leather designs winning my vote (and one was my next purchase.) One woman had a Kindle 2 and just had bought an iPad so her daughter could get through her summer reading list. On a foggy afternoon, I toured some of the indoor lounges and was heartened by the number of readers, with about half using e-readers. Of course, this was an affluent crowd who liked to be the first to sail on a ship so it was likely they also were in the early adopter cohort. It was an international crowd—although I never met anyone besides an American with an e-reader. However the Brits and Canadians were very curious and delighted to learn that they could get one too.
Certainly they were an influential bunch who I would expect would broaden the e-reader base. In any case, it was lovely to see so many avid readers in one sailing off into the sunset—literally.
