Sleeping with Steinbeck...

This post really has nothing to do with John Steinbeck, other than the fact that his image is currently staring at me from my Kindle as it takes a well deserved nap. Am I making any sense at all? If you own Amazon's revolutionary e-book devise also know as "crack for readers" you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Sweet sweet DH gave me the Kindle 2 from Amazon.com for christmas this year, even though I never asked for it and only even mentioned that I was "curious" about it once, several months ago. Nevertheless, I've been dying to get one! And secretly hoped that DH would "just know". You know what I mean ladies. Similar to hoping your significant other will just know you've had a bad day and show up with flowers without you saying a word. Yes, I know its unrealistic and unfair but I'm a woman and I'm both unrealistic and unfair. Deal.

Anyway, in the last year I've become a ravenous reader. For the first time in my life I might add. And it's completely and totally thanks to Stephenie Meyer and the Twilight series. Before I was submerged into her delicious world I read occasionally... maybe a book every few months (at best). They were almost exclusively non-fiction... which may have been my problem. But now I'm going through books like ... umm.... like a baby goes through diapers. Sorry, I'm not that creative and frankly I change A LOT of diapers so it's on my mind.

And while I thought I'd miss the actual touch and feel of a book I've been surprised by how easy it is to read on a kindle. It really isn't like reading on a computer as much as you'd think. Because it isn't backlit you don't have the harsh glare like you do with your computer. Plus it's infinitely lighter and easier to haul around with me, the baby and my nursing pillow. Mmm have I shared too much? perhaps...

As I was discussing with Mamere this morning I will likely still buy the occasional book, when I know I will want to return to it over and over and potentially loan out. For example, the Twilight series, of course I want hard copies, obviously! But for most books it's so very easy. It took me less than a minute to search, purchase and have my book uploaded in full to my kindle. Talk about instant gratification!

And you can have a number of national newspapers delivered to your kindle daily as well as magazines and some really great blogs. Sadly they do not offer any twilight blogs yet... nor do they offer any fanfiction. Gaaahh, that really would be the death of me if they offered that on the kindle. I fear I'd never put the poor thing down. But I've gotten off track.


I would HIGHLY recommend buying a kindle if you like to read but have little space for accumulating books or if you aren't close to a library. Did I mention most books cost less than $10? And they offer a lot of free books and not just the crappy books, good ones! I just ordered one this week.

I'm woefully behind on my "real" reading as I was sucked into a loooong fan fiction story over the last two days. But I'm finishing up two other books that couldn't be anymore different- Dante's Inferno, translated by Michael Palma and Sleep is for the Weak: The Best of Mommy Bloggers.  Since I'm reading them simultaneously I thought I'd review them together as well. We'll see what that looks like. I'll hopefully write about them next week. Along with another review of a gut wrenching book I read over the holiday break, Loving Frank: A Novel by Nancy Horan. It was an emotional roller coaster like I've never known.

So check out the Kindle 2 on Amazon.com and if you have any questions, please post in the comments and I'd be more than happy to answer. It really is an amazing little device that I've fallen for hook, line and sinker!

Cheers, 
Ouiser