Kindle MatchBook

I love reading physical books. As popular as e-books have become and as easy and practical as they are to use, I don’t think I’ll ever become someone who reads primarily on an e-reader. I enjoy reading from a paper page much more than I do a digital screen — e-ink or otherwise. I enjoy being able to see and feel how much I have left to read. And I love owning books and accumulating a library. For these reason, I’ve never owned a Kindle. I’ve purchased a few non-fiction books and read them on the Kindle.app on iOS as an experiment.

One thing that would make me finally be a Kindle owner is if it was easier and more affordable to buy the physical book and the e-book together. Similar to the model used by the music industry and vinyl records. Most new records you buy nowadays come with a coupon code to download the mp3s of the album for free. I wish the publishing industry would do the same thing. I started reading Infinite Jest recently but there’s no way I’m lugging that thing along with me on the subway. My dream reading scenario would be to be able to leave the book at home and use the Kindle for reading on the go as well as highlighting passages.

Amazon experimented with this model back in 2013. It’s called kindle matchbook but it looks like the project has been all but abandoned. The program lets you purchase for $2.99 or less, any book you’ve ever bought new from Amazon. But as of this writing, only three of the dozens of books I’ve bought are available this way.

I’m sure the publishing industry has very good reasons for not allowing this model to be more widespread. But I, for one, would be willing to spend a few more dollars per book to get both formats. And I have to think I’m not alone.