I thought this was a audio book ?

 

I messed with my brother's brand new Kindle 2 to check it out. Kind of neat. The screen is e-ink so it doesn't take additional energy once it updates. Very readable fonts and easy on the eyes. It's easy to change the type face from small to fairly large. Downloading books is easy as well, you can browse amazon's collection. As a test I downloaded Vonnegut's Slaughter House 5. Amazon let's you read the first chapter for free and if you like it you can buy the whole book. Prices are slightly discounted from what I can see.

The interface for reading books is fine. The screen is not back-lit so you need a source of light, but it's very much like a book page vs LED screen. Simple page flip buttons, but the redraw is really weird. You can of have to see it to understand. It has an option to read the book to you via the speakers or audio via the headphone jack and it has a slightly computerized voice, but overall not bad at all. It can do other stuff like, browse the web. I tried to load S2ki from it and post this but it was horribly slow and the site wasn't rendered like a real web browser, but in a pinch you can view stuff.

Form factor is nice, very sexy-thin, like a very large iPod touch but not as substantial feeling. Neat gadget, but unless you're a big book/reading buff I see no reason to buy one.

 

I like that they let you read the first chapter before purchasing a book. I always like to read a few pages before buying a book, to see if I like the way it is written.

I no longer trudge through a book that I don't like. I read for enjoyment, not torture.