i need a new toy…

…and i found it! i just took the plunge and spontaneously purchased the kindle 2.0 from amazon and it has to be the best thing i’ve done for myself in so long. forget clothing, shoes or baubles. i’ve managed to find something to fuel my greatest passion, reading. i can plow through the average novel in less than two days and with that comes the inevitable trip back to the bookstore. because of quantities, variety and so forth, usually that dictates barnes and noble which i loathe. besides being a conglomerate chain, which really, is just par for the course in a capitalistic, consumer fueled society, i really can’t handle being among the swarm of others who are also flocking there to peruse the periodicals, thumb through the bestsellers, cruising for potential pick ups or simply converge to chat over coffee. you literally have to crawl over each other and it’s impossible to relax and seriously consider the next purchase. traveling also quickly adds up as i usually purchase a book to read between say, here and new york and by the time i arrive, i’m finished or almost so and need to purchase another book for the return trip. another issue is the fact that i burn through books so quickly and so dread the trip to the local b+n that i’m often without and gravitate towards the tube instead where i pick up new viewing habits that i didn’t even know i had! hello “millionaire matchmaker”! i could shop online but the shipping rates are not cute, nor is the 5-7 day delivery time or delivery coordination. what’s a girl to do?

i’d heard about the previous kindle and just put it out of my mind as a fluke. i was discussing the purchase of more books when my partner remarked on the shortage of storage space in our loft. already packed with furniture (in my view), the idea of yet another bookcase to contain the mounting stacks was not appealing. despite our purging neglected odd novels and such, we still have more than our share of books. my finger hovered above the purchase button when i finally decided to take a gander at the kindle to see what the fuss was all about. well, of course amazons reviews were nothing short of glowing and, no fool am i, i also reviewed it through cnet and a couple of e-reader sites. so far so good but what nailed it for me, was the, wait for it…instant gratification of being able to purchased said e-books on the cheap and, gasp, download them in 15 seconds for free! sold! emptied basket of paper books and loaded it instead with kindle 2.0 and a chic, fuchsia leather cover. no 5-7 day delivery bullshit for me, oh no! 3 days was grueling enough and when i thought i could finally stand it no longer, it arrived a day early! 😯

now, the goods! of course during the 3 day wait, i had prowled through “the stacks” so to speak and had downloaded roughly 13 samples to read. the beauty of shopping for any book is reading the first few pages or so and waiting for “the grab”. hard to do in a congested bookstore and amazon does it smartly by allowing you to download the free sample and then purchase with an easy one click if you care to read more. hello, hooked! by the time my kindle arrived, i’d plugged it in to charge, turned on the free whispernet wireless and lo and behold, said samples automatically appeared on my home screen. within 10 minutes, i’d read my first sample of “a reliable wife” by robert goolrick, purchased and downloaded the rest. joy! what a delight that was for my first e-book and by the evening of the next day, i was finished and anticipating the next (which i purchased while in route to the nucleus gallery in alhambra. i wasn’t driving!)

the beauty of this little device is my being able to carry multiple books, purchase anytime and anywhere with free download and back up and knowing that i won’t be depleting any more forests in my quest for the next literary fix. (i mean really, have you seen the twilight series fortress dominating the front tables of your local b+n? i’ve heard of siblings having their own copies because neither wants to wait for the other to finish before taking their turn! the series wasn’t that good) the built in dictionary that allows you to toggle to a word and instantly get the meaning, the ability to highlight passages and make notes and remarks, the built in browser, email and experimental “read to me” feature makes my reading experience far more interactive and even deeper to a certain extent. the price was steep but if you’re a bookworm, consider it an investment. suddenly like the mini or the ipod, i begin to notice others who have one and love to talk to other book lovers when they spot me with mine. the only downside is there is nowhere for skeptical consumers to go and take a test drive as with an apple store but i took the plunge anyway and emerged a huge fan! 😀