...and I'm liking it. Some didn't understand, though. My pal, for example:

AA: I don't get it.

Me: It's like a book, except when you fall asleep and it falls to the floor, it costs $350 to replace.

AA: I still don't get it. What's different about it than a book?

Well, the big differences:

• 1. Size - Don't compare its size to a single book, but a stack of books. A really, really big stack of books. Which, typically, is what I am usually working my way through.
  
  
• 2. Value - Most new books cost around $10. Some more, many less. I figure this thing will pay for itself after about 30-40 books. Actually sooner, if you figure in books available for free (ManyBooks.net, FeedBooks.com, Gutenberg.org). Also, Amazon lets you download the first chapter or two of every book as a sample before you buy - and as I often never make it past the first chapter, this will be very cost effective for me...
  
  
• 3. Form - I can read with one hand without constantly fighting to keep a cover from closing on me like I do with hardcovers and trade paperbacks. And I don't have to adjust the light, or my position, every time I move from left- to right-hand pages while reading at night with my bed light. The screen is excellent, it's not like reading a computer screen but very much like reading ink on paper. Maybe even easier on the eyes because the background isn't white like paper but a light grey so the contrast isn't so bad.
  
  
• 4. Instant Gratification - If I want a book, I'll have it. Now.
  
  
• 5. I'll be, like, saving tons of trees and decreasing my carbon footprint to, like, help save the planet from global warming, maaan..... Maybe they sell a carry case made from hemp.

OK, that last one is bullshit (much like the Global Warm-Mongering wealth redistribution scam itself).

But the rest of it is pretty much spot-on. It may be premature to call it 'revolutionary' but it it's fair to say it's a big step forward from previous e-book devices I've tried. First there was the so-called 'interactive' books that were basically HyperCard stacks that I ran on my old Mac SE/30. I get a headache just thinking about it. Then there was the Apple Newton. Aside from the fact that there was little in the way of material available for the Newton,the display was awful - too much glare, and a very narrow viewing angle. The Kindle by comparison is sharp and clear at any angle and the glare is no worse than a typical glossy magazine. Clipping my Mighty Bright light on the cover and adjusting it off to the side to eliminate any reflection makes the Kindle the perfect bedtime reading tool (try reading in bed with an SE/30 on your lap...).

It's not without weakness, though. Images and illustrations are laughable; the market for dead-tree editions of Photoshop books and National Geographic is safe for now. Even the simplest line drawings are awful. Maps are completely unreadable, and since maps are constantly referred to while reading books on, say, the Civil War, their unreadability in digital form renders the Kindle version of the book practically useless to me.

Browsing is also a big zero. The search feature is painfully slow, and the digital equivalent of flipping through pages is even worse. A reference book such as The ARRL Handbook or Forta's ColdFusion books would be useless to me on the Kindle. And forget about magazines - can you imagine a news magazine without photos?

I hope file management will be improved upon in a future firmware update. Currently all documents are displayed in a single directory. I'd like to be able to categorize my books and other files in folders - one for history, another for science fiction, another for astronomy, etc. I've already accumulated eight pages of titles in my Home directory and still have more than half of my onboard storage free. What happens when there's 20 pages? Or 50, after I add an SD card to expand memory? I need subdirectories!!!!

The secondary features of the Kindle - web browser, MP3 player - are extraneous fluff. If I wanted an internet-enabled Swiss Army knife, I'd buy an iPhone. (Oh, wait.... I did.)

I'm not sure whether the awful graphics are inherent in the design of the e-ink display or simply a result of the publishers not taking the time to optimize the images for the device. I'm hoping the latter because I can see one excellent use for the Kindle: as an electronic star atlas. I grabbed one sample astrobook, Astronomy of the Milky Way, just to see whether the charts were usable. They're not. But I imagine they could be if they were scanned and resized specifically for the Kindle's 600x800 display. I'd love to see the S&T Pocket Sky Atlas in a Kindle edition... as long as it is readable!

Graphics aside, I've found the Kindle to be a very natural way to read, nothing like reading PDF or text files on a computer (which I find tiring) and a far cry from my previous adventures in e-book reading.

So my early verdict is: For your typical novel or non-fiction book with few if any illustrations, the Kindle is a killer device. Having humped stacks of books all over this country and others, I can affirm that travel with a single (thin) book-sized doohickey fully loaded with reading material is a welcome addition to my geek lifestyle. I doubt my frequent visit to the local book stores will cease, but I can't imagine buying many more paperbacks. The Whispernet purchase-and-delivery system is slick and the coverage here in Outer Whitelandia is adequate. It's simple enough to use, making it fairly Luddite-friendly. And, I'll be damned... I find myself finishing more books since getting this thing, perhaps because I don't have to think about which book(s) to take with me when I'm on the go - I just take them all. No more stack of partially read hardcovers next to the bed. That alone makes it worth the price.