Kindling a gift of the Magi

The irony of it…. in my last post, I confessed to our excessive e-aquisition, which is mostly an i-aquisition. When I wrote it, I had forgotten about the Kindles.

Yes, Kindles. That would be plural. Here’s how it went down: I bought Ric a Kindle for his 60th birthday. Kindle is Amazon’s new wireless electronic-paper display device you use to wirelessly order books and I’ve heard it’s a wonderful reading experience, way better than any other means of electronic reading (because it’s not backlit, so not the usual eyestrain). Weighs less than a typical paperback. Can download books, magazines, newspapers, blogs, etc wirelessly. Connected to wikipedia. Not designed by Apple (as far as I know), but really easy to use.

People are calling this device a game changer, the future of reading, revolutionary, etc.

Ric’s not a obsessive reader like I am, but he really enjoys reading magazine articles, and I thought he might enjoy reading books this way. And Ric is very much interested in being on the bleeding edge of technology, so I thought this would be a great fit for him.

So he opened it on his birthday and seemed quite pleased. Maybe not quite as shocked as I thought he would be, but hey, it had been a long day and he didn’t open it til 8 p.m. or so. He started using it right away, and was off to the races. (Meaning he started downloading stuff right away)

So when our anniversary rolled around, he gave me a box to open, I noticed it was from Amazon, and seemed about the same size and weight as one I had hidden from him when it arrived in the mail. So I opened it, and guess what…. he had ordered me a Kindle before he opened his. (Because I am an obsessive reader of all things.) Kind of a gift of the magi thing, am I right?

No hair cutting or watch pawning involved, but it did take a while to get it all sorted out because the one I bought had automatically registered in my name and the one he bought was in his, so we had to deregister and so forth. But it’s all cool now, and last night before I drifted off to sleep, I read a few chapters of The Monster of Florence on my Kindle. Pretty awesome experience, I’d say. And the convenience factor is off the hook. Excellent for traveling.

Forgot to take it to the book group meeting on Sunday to let my sistah readers give it a try, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they decide to get them too, given that they are all obsessive readers and inveterate travelers.