Kindled--I Love It

I've been Kindled and basically set on fire. I've had it long enough now to say something about it. I've had my Kindle for about three weeks. And I have to tell you. This is one cool piece of technology. I really can see how this thing will become an indispensable thing. I'm already in love with it.

Where to start? How about how cool it looks? It weighs about 10 oz and is 5.2 by 8 inches. And thin, thin. Not as thin as the after-dinner mint the guy in the restaurant ate in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, but: think five quarters high. Easy, easy to tote around. That little button on the lower right is a joy stick. And it's an enter key. You can see how crisp the text is. It's adjustable to 6 different sizes. I find that the second smallest is most comfortable for me. Easy to read. Real easy. Even in sun. Even under real bright light. You use the keyboard when you need to type something. (Novel, eh?) I thought it might be a problem, but two thumbs, no problem.

But the best part of all is how you get books. Through the air. In about half a minute. Poof! It's on-board and listed in your table of contents. Magic. You go to the Kindle store, tell Amazon which book (or magazine or blog or newspaper) you want, push the little button and, whoa, that sucker is in there. And you can sample anything for 2 weeks free. I've looked at everything. It was nice getting the NY Times for a couple of weeks. On books, Amazon will download you the first chapter to sample the wares. Newspapers, not many yet, 32, but all the US heavyweights and then some, and some foreign papers, too. The Times of London, anyone? Almost 1,500 blogs are available, and most of 'em cost 99 cents a month to get downloaded daily to your Kindle. The best Texas Ranger blog is there!

Biggest complaint? Price. $359. That ain't chicken feed. But oh, the games we play with ourselves: I rationalized mine (and paid for it) by taking on extra a student for individual study. See? No harm, no foul.

And selection size. That's to say there are classy choices in everything. Just not enough of them. On a few occasions now I've checked the store for a book I had in mind (and thought there was a good chance of finding it) and not found it. But this is going to get better. In the three weeks I've had my Kindle, Amazon's added over 6,000 books--so they're up to 246,000 titles.

Check back. I'm not through talking about this thing yet.