Today Amazon introduced the Kindle Paperwhite.

 

 

I have occasionally tinkered with the idea of getting a Kindle (just a low-end Kindle, not one of the fancy Amazon tablets), but have successfully resisted the pull, unlike with a certain other expensive device.[1. My 13″ Apple Macbook Air, which I don’t hesitate to call the best computer I’ve ever owned.  I’m just not sure I needed it, but I am finding it incredibly useful to have around. I took over a year to finally decide to plunk down my money, so I think I thought things out pretty hard.]  My wife has a previous generation Kindle, and I really like it.  It looks like a very pleasing way to sit around and read a novel. I resisted getting my own because I have a very nice Apple iPad that happily displays all my Kindle content with an extremely beautiful backlit screen, which is important because I do a great deal of my reading in bed. Now the new Kindle screen is even better than the previous Kindle, and backlit.  But $119 is high enough that I will, I believe, successfully resist its siren call and stick with using my iPad, even though it’s quite a bit heavier than one of these Kindles.  Mostly this is just gadget lust, a quality I’ve learned to recognize in myself.  I wouldn’t complain, however, if my wife decided that it would make a great present for me someday…