I got my very own Kindle a few months ago. I was anxious to give it a test drive...kick the tires and light the fires, so to speak. So I downloaded my favorite of all-time novel, Stephen King's The Stand. I downloaded the NIV version of the Bible, which isn't my preferred version, but it's the one my church uses, so I'm going with that particular flow. And I downloaded an American Idol blog subscription.

I'm a die-hard audiobook fan, because my old lady eyes get tired so easily. Plus I like to "read" while I drive, and I love to hear really good readers. Well, I decided to try the Kindle's text-to-speech feature. I plugged in the speakers, and opened The Stand, a book I've read repeatedly, and from which I can semi-quote long passages...and it's a good thing, because it was being read by R2D2, and I had no idea what was being said. So the robot voice on the Kindle was not going to cut it for me.

It's a little bit awkward to hold because it's stiff and solid. I wondered if I could get used to that.

Uh oh. This was starting to look like an expensive disappointment, like my first Palm Pilot, or my digital voice recorder. (which was just fabulous until it took the death ride through the wash cycle. Hey, nowhere on the packaging did it say not to launder it. There was no warning about leaving it in my pocket and just tossing it in with the darks)

But I digress...

I was excited when I discovered I could download the new Wally Lamb novel (retailing at Amazon for $36.95) for under ten bucks. So I did. It took about 30 seconds to download. From thin air. No cables, no plugs, no computer, nothing. Wow. First I got a free sample to read before making the purchase -- Barnes and Noble never did that for me! So I started to read. The book is about Columbine survivors, and the ripple effect such a tragedy has on people's lives. Really really good...

And suddenly, I was hooked.

I can read in any position: in the car, in the bed, leaning against the shopping cart at Costco. I can change the size of the font to adjust to my current level of eye strain. I can lay the book aside or toss it into my purse without a bookmark. I am reading again, and loving it.

Here are a few more of the upsides:
-- all the books are $9.99. No matter how many pages. Sometimes they offer sale prices.
-- Amazon offers like a quarter of a million titles for download, with more being added all the time
-- you want the book right now? The download time is less than a minute. Less time than it'll take you to find your car keys.
-- that whole "free sample" thing? Oh, yes, please.
-- you can shop the Amazon store from the Kindle
-- it holds somewhere around 125,000 books, which is more than even Sarah owns.
-- even if you delete a book from your Kindle, you just download it again from Amazon at no additional charge
-- Sony has come out with a competitive product; always a good thing!
-- it has basic web browsing for a few sites. That's experimental, so we'll see.
-- it has an MP3 player (also experimental) for music or podcasts
-- when it goes into sleep mode, it posts random pictures of authors.
-- bit by bit I can get rid of the books on my shelves and replace them with photos of my boyos.
-- you can highlight passages, underline stuff, and make notes on the pages.
-- I look very cool using it

Here are the downsides I've found so far:
-- it's certainly not cheap. And probably not washing machine safe.
-- there's no back light, so you can't read without a light source. Kinda like a regular book.
-- no New Book Smell. (maybe they'll include that in Kindle 3.0)
-- the artwork is black and white; no color capabilities. Is that a downside for you? Because it isn't for me.
-- I'm having a hard time learning to negotiate my way around. Like finding a certain scripture is difficult.
-- you have no idea how many pages there are in the book, or which page you're currently reading or
-- worst of all, no idea how many pages left until the end of the book.

All in all, my new love is quietly serving me well. I'm happy to be reading again. And I'm really happy to be looking so stinkin' cool while I'm doing it!