Kindle

I have received my Kindle! After a year of thinking about whether to get one or not, I finally took the plunge. I knew I didn't want Kindle 1, but Kindle 2 (or K2, as people call it), was gorgeous. One of my friends at Dell had one, and I'd been eyeing it, but decided not to, at the time. But it never did leave my mind entirely, and finally, a week before Halloween, I decided to take the plunge.
The story of the Kindle's arrival is a story in itself. After days of not receiving any tracking news, I realized that Amazon was using FedEx SmartPost to send the package -- something that caused me a LOT of nervous moments, for the stories about SmartPost aren't exactly exemplary, on the internet. Most people complained that the packages would move around the country for days before finally getting to their destination. Some people said parts of their package were missing -- like one guy who lost his entire Wii console. I was terrified. And then the package showed up in Dallas.
I was relieved. How long could it take, right, to come from Dallas to Austin? The cities are just a 3-hour drive apart. But I was wrong. Four days went by, and no sign of the package, and just as I was about to call Amazon to ask where the hell my package went, it showed up -- in Houston!
Those who know the geography of Texas know that Dallas, Austin and Houston lie in a triangle, more or less the same distance apart from each other (though I think Austin's closer to Dallas than Houston is). WHY the package went to Houston was something I completely failed to fathom. It stayed there for a while, and then set out again to Austin. Here we go again, I thought. This time the package should surely show up in Austin by the next day!
I was wrong. It took another 3 days before it came to Austin, and another day before it was delivered to my home. I think I went half-crazy during the wait, and I know I certainly drove my coworkers mad! But the Kindle was here, I was happy.
I'm still happy with it. It looks beautiful, reads great, just like paper, like Amazon claims. Gotta hand it to eInk! The online selection of Kindle-formatted books is not as vast as I would've liked, and a lot of my favorite authors and books are missing. So are the first books of long-running series of authors like Michael Connelly, Robert Crais and Vince Flynn. A LOT of children's books are missing (what I would've given to have had Enid Blyton on Kindle!). And the battery never seems to last anything like the 2 weeks Amazon claimed, though maybe I read a lot more than they imagined anyone would.
But, the pros outweigh the cons. The K2 is light -- no one can deny that. It's a traveler's delight. It weights barely 11 oz, and fits in 1500 titles (according to Amazon). I wish I'd had it when I went to New Zealand last year! Instead of the 10 books and 3 magazines I took, I could've just taken the Kindle. But anyway. I love that you can buy a book and have it delivered within 60 seconds. I love that you can sample books -- that's how I got started on Dennis Lehanne's Shutter Island. I love how you can email yourself documents and have them arrive on your Kindle at 15c an MB, and peruse them at your leisure. I love the user-friendliness of the new Kindle. Of course it's not going to replace my paper books completely -- there is an undeniable charm in opening a brand new book, reading the crisp black lettering against white paper; even the smell of a new book is charming -- things you'll never find in an electronic reading device. But the Kindle is perfect for what I wanted -- carrying half my library on a 15-hour plane ride!
And I will now return to Shutter Island. Adios!