In case you haven't been to Amazon.com over the past few days, or if you were not among the dozens of viewers to watch Martha Stewart this afternoon, the world's leading online super-mega-retailer has been proudly pimping the fact that Kindle is (are?) back in stock and ready for free two-day shipping. For the first time since the product's untimely and suspiciously public sell-out last December, Amazon Founder & CEO Jeff Bezos (pictured below in the pose known as "Web 1.0 Dork") is back in the public eye to promote the groundbreaking, life-changing, pioneering, innovative* ebook reader. Among the first stops: Martha Stewart's daily syndie, of course!
Acting as though this re-release was the first release (perhaps not wanting to confess she missed Bezos on his 2007 world tour), Martha proclaimed that Kindle had her "totally hooked!" Then, in a logical progression of subjects, Martha addressed tartan plaid and its overwhelming dominance of the pattern world, shortly before wowing a captive audience with her signature collages. Not sure what that says about Kindle's target market, or its overall importance in the world, but I can say that I've seen them in action and I've got a bad case of Kindle envy. 
Hit up Amazon for more details. A Kindle will run you around $400, and wirelessly pumps the New York Times, hundreds of popular blogs, select magazines, and something like 115,000 on-demand books with a few clicks of the button-thingies. Go ahead and say it, you "love the feeling of a book in your hands," but doesn't it sound nice to be able to sample hundreds of thousands of chapters and articles quickly and easily with one hand, all the while sipping your fair-trade grande sestina mocha with the other? Just think of the time when you said blogs were a stupid idea and you'd never read one.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*The degree to which Kindle "pioneers" or changes your life is subject to subjectivity, and is not guaranteed by this author, Chris Steib, who suffers from Kindle envy and has high hopes for the degree to which the device will eventually change his life. If it does not, he can always fall back on his career as a digital media entrepreneur, or on his hobbies of writing novels and taking very close-range photos of himself.
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Comments: 23
Or maybe Gather should let us point some points toward it...Tom, are you there? It's me, Chris...
Now about that tartan plaid comment....
Then again, judging from Bezo's sense of style in your Dork 1.0 picture above, I can't say its surprising.
I'll mention to our points team that you'd like us to consider Amazon gift cards, thanks! Thanks, too, for writing about the Kindle...though I have to admit that I am with Jeff Cusson on the thing's sex appeal. It looked like one of the model starships from the *old* Battlestar Galactica when I first saw the thing...
Tom, I hope not likeing a star isnt against any rules. I loved space shows, so who knows I could change my mind later.
Do you realize how many books I could be carrying around with me without looking like the crazy book/bag lady that I do sometimes???
Okay I want one! I really, really want one! I would give up all of my other battery operated devices (except my BlackBerry) for this thing!
I agree, the Kindle has a real "TI-87" thing going on -- but compared to the Sony Reader, which looks and feels like a first-gen cassette Walkman (pre-AM/FM), it's a huge step forward. I also don't consider books "sexy" -- unless of course they're published by Harlequin.