The future is here

As for the wonderful birthday present that the DH was hinting at?

Taaaa daaaah!



I can has a Kindle 2!

It's the newest incarnation of the ebook reader from Amazon.com. Makes me feel like Jean Luc Picard sitting there reading novels on one of those flat reading tablet thingies -- of which I could not find a picture, but this is kinda close:


The thing has its own wireless communication direct with Amazon, so I can be anywhere and buy ebooks if I want. The screen is not backlit, rather it's essentially electronic ink, so it uses very little battery power. I kinda wish there was a low backlight option for reading in bed at night without a bedside lamp, but otherwise the screen is very readable.

The selection of Kindle-ready ebooks on Amazon isn't bad, and is getting better. I do find I have to wade through a lot of self-published drek (there are some gems in there, true, but a lot of dross to sift through to find them, and that, my children, is why it's so freaking hard to get published through a traditional publisher, because that's the kind of dross and drek they're buried under on a daily basis), but there are also some interesting things that people are putting out there. Vintage knitting patterns at very low cost, for example.

I'm not sure how well knitting patterns will work on the device. If it's not too complicated, maybe.

My first purchased book to download? Wendy Knits by Wendy Johnson. Essays translate to e-book format very well, indeed.

Ah, now for a color screen...