In the climactic confrontation, Milo saves the day with salt shakers that he’s converted into localized, short-interval time-reversal machines (of the Galaxy Quest Omega 13 variety). The six-year-old undoes the murder of his father, the novelist, who, given a second chance, gets the jump on his assailant, the reviewer’s mother, head of a giant conspiracy to lower American cultural standards. (I’m not kidding, that’s the actual plot.) Which leads me to the biggest drawback of the Kindle: at $299, you can’t really afford to hurl it into the Thames.

Note: This article was originally printed with the title, "Cache and Carry."

This article was originally published with the title Cache and Carry.

11 Comments

1. 1. glitrbug 01:24 AM 8/22/09

   Forget reading "Brothers K" and check out the Baen free library. I think you will be much happier with the Sci-Fi selection there. You can even get the books wirelessly transferred to your Kindle for a few cents. They will be more than happy to sell you plenty of books once they have you addicted. LOL

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2. 2. Jim Gottwald 12:11 PM 8/28/09

   You mention Project Gutenberg in the article. However, all I get when I attempt to go to the site is a message that I am not allowed to go there. If you can not go to the website then who cares?/ Jim Gottwald

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3. 3. Olaf 07:15 AM 9/3/09

   I wonder how the electronic edition of SCIAM reads on the Kindle (or any other device). Any experiences any one?

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4. 4. Olaf in reply to Jim Gottwald 07:22 AM 9/3/09

   Jim: you should be able to access "Project Gutenberg" through http://www.gutenberg.org
   
   If this fails, your provider (or your employer ;-) may be blocking access to this page (or your network is not correctly configured).

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5. 5. multitudeofm 08:25 AM 9/14/09

   Most people will consider me an early adopter of ebooks, but you are absolutely right: there's just not as much satisfaction in digitally deleting a book as there is in throwing a book against/out of something.

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6. 6. I Wonder.... 01:43 PM 9/14/09

   Did you read the User Agreement before you bought?
   
   Information Received. The Device Software will provide Amazon with data about your Device and its interaction with the Service (such as available memory, up-time, log files and signal strength) and information related to the content on your Device and your use of it (such as automatic bookmarking of the last page read and content deletions from the Device). Annotations, bookmarks, notes, highlights, or similar markings you make in your Device are backed up through the Service. Information we receive is subject to the Amazon.com Privacy Notice.

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7. 7. I Wonder.... 01:44 PM 9/14/09

   Did you read the User Agreement before you bought?
   
   Information Received. The Device Software will provide Amazon with data about your Device and its interaction with the Service (such as available memory, up-time, log files and signal strength) and information related to the content on your Device and your use of it (such as automatic bookmarking of the last page read and content deletions from the Device). Annotations, bookmarks, notes, highlights, or similar markings you make in your Device are backed up through the Service. Information we receive is subject to the Amazon.com Privacy Notice.
   

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8. 8. SpoonmanWoS in reply to I Wonder.... 01:57 PM 9/14/09

   Apparently you took off the tinfoil hat before reading the user agreement. :)

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9. 9. MN Reader 10:53 PM 9/14/09

   I read Brothers K on my kindle - had to - it was a book club requirement. My recommendation is that you delete it from your kindle unless you want to suffer as all the old Russians have done.

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10. 10. Jürgen Hubert 05:20 AM 9/16/09

    Olaf: I've subscribed to Scientific American digitally and am reading it on the iRex DR1000S - a large-size ebook reader specializing in displaying PDFs which is manufactured in the Netherlands. So far, it works just fine and I have access to the entire archives back to the year 1993 - all of which I could easily download on the SD card within the device. Sure, it doesn't display color but the greyscale images are brisk.
    
    Furthermore, the device allows for convenient zooming and annotations with a stylus.

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11. 11. jeq 08:28 AM 9/16/09

    "<i>Galaxy Quest</i> Omega-13?
    
    It sounds more like he configured the salt and pepper shakers in to a pair of time cone inverters. Masterful.

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