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19 December 2007
A Nook in the Neighborhood
By Allison Bland
A few minutes before two o’clock on a recent afternoon, I found myself hoofing it down Dorchester Avenue, the main street that stretches through my neighborhood in Boston. The sole waiter at Dot 2 Dot Café was preparing to clo se shop: to speedy and reliable wireless connections, the alternate office with fresh-baked pastries. I enjoy many mornings at this place. But today a deadline was rapidly approaching and I needed to find a place with Internet and hours that extend beyond brunch service -preferably with coffee.
This isn’t always the easiest thing to do in a neighborhood populated by Black and brown folks. There is no Starbucks and no Peet’s Coffee and Tea. No smoothie business or berry berry gelato place, either. I tried the public library but the wireless network was crawling. So I went to McDonald’s.
McDonald’s has tried hard to establish itself as the “third place” for Africans Americans on the go, or looking for love, or whatever. This year they even launched their lifestyle website 365black.com . But on this day they came through for me.
“Miss, I wish I had one of those!” called out a customer as I pulled my aluminum unibody MacBook Pro out of my bag. “You don’t wish you had this deadline,” I said.
On less panicked days though, I get along fine with the local fast food hub. Interestingly enough, that was not the first time a gadget of mine had elicited reactions.
A time before I had given demonstrations of my Kindle 2 to the general public after finishing my cheeseburger lunch. No one in the McDonald’s had seen one before, or could guess its intended purpose. I was meeting a totally unsaturated market and it bugged me.
One woman kept coming back to inspect the hardware and ask me questions. “My daughter can’t stop reading. You say it’s only about $300? I could get her that for Christmas.” She seemed as tuned out to the idea of getting one for herself as a granny to the latest iTouch.
Part of the reason for this disconnect is that Amazon.com’s Kindle 2 is a device primarily bought and sold over the ‘net and it is not available at the local Radio Shack. Also imperative, as a collective, ebook manufacturers have not aggressively communicated the necessity for the average person to own these devices yet. Consumers are also not sure about the cost benefits of buying ebooks and they don’t know how these devices will include access to their favorite magazines and blogs. All of these points will be clarified in the coming months.
But Barnes & Nobles seemingly has a leg-up on competitors with the introduction of the Nook. The Nook is an e-reader that is for one thing – flashy. It has the same e-ink screen as the Kindle and a second, smaller color LCD that is touch sensitive. The device is powered by Android OS and will continue to evolve thanks to programmers being able to develop apps for it.
The real advantage it holds over Amazon is the t angibility to be able to play with the device in-store. Amazon has no physical presence and that is why a purchasing a Kindle 2 requires a bit of a leap of faith. The Nook settles that discomfort.
Using the Nook in-store has other bonuses too. If you want to check out some titles before you buy, head to your neighborhood Barnes & Noble and enjoy full access to the entirety of any book you’d like thanks to the store’s WiFi. You might even receive an electronic coupon for a free cookie or discounted Frappachino via the friendly color touch screen. Pretty soon you are immersed in a multi-sensory Nook experience.
You might wonder how you read before you had an ebook reader.
Or, if you live in a neighborhood without a Barnes & Noble, and without an elite Barnes & Noble affiliate like Starbucks, you might not even notice.
Please do not think I am complaining about the cost of coffee beans. This is not just an issue of geography and taste. It is one of equity. Digital media should not be becoming more prohibitive; it should be becoming more inclusive. Consumers buying these devices need to have the same advantages in every neighborhood. Why should a reader be left out of potential knowledge exchanges and exciting technological advances, just because of where he or she lays their head at night?
I shouldn’t have to hoof it.
So if that means McDonald’s buying into ebooks and bringing some educational access into my community instead of just empty calories – I’m lovin’ it.
Allison Bland is the founder of NewTapes.net, an audiobook marketplace that offers short stories read by narrators of color to introduce “a new story of interpretation” to works of classic literature. She is a recent graduate of Wellesley College where she studied American Studies. She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .