Kindling for Book Lovers

Stephen at HD BizBlog follows a train of thought from the Kindle’s terms of service through Fahrenheit 451 to Webster’s definition of “kindle” in his post, Why Call it “Kindle”. Now, I kinda like the Kindle (or, rather, I want to like the Kindle), but I do share Stephen’s curiosity about how the product got its name. I can only imagine it went something like this: [swirly fade out]

[Scene: A conference room at Amazon’s secret underground headquarters high above the Arctic Circle]

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Thinking About the Kindle

I very much want to like the Kindle, Amazon’s new e-book reader. I am a fan of e-books — or I would be, if it weren’t such a dreary experience to read them on most devices. I used to hang off a subway strap in NYC reading e-books on my Palm IIIe (believe it or not, I used to write papers that way, too — with my Palm-holding arm wrapped around a pole or through a hangstrap, scribbling furiously with the stylus). [Continue reading]