My Favorite Thing

My favorite thing

I don't get too caught up
in the material things around me.
While I am fascinated with technology
I don't own an IPOD or a flat screen TV.
I don't have lots of channels
on the TV that I do have.

But I bought a piece of newer technology
this week
that is simply THE BOMB.

I bought an Amazon Kindle.

This light-weight device
downloads books electronically
and holds them lightly for easy reading.

With a computer and internet connection,
there are thousands of FREE BOOKS
at your fingertips.

The secret to free books
is that they are frequently old
and beyond their copywrite dates.

I've been reading "Around the World in 80 Days."
I've also downloaded the journals of Lewis and Clarke
and the journals of John Wesley Powell
from his epic journey through the Grand Canyon.

You can download, for free,
all the writings of Shakespeare,
and hold them lightly
in your ten ounce package.

Or, for a few bucks,
you can push a couple buttons on the Kindle
and zap a current best seller
instantaneously into your hand.

No fuss, no muss, no driving, no shipping.

No dead trees, no petroleum based transportation.

This is the most Harry Potterish
thing I've found...

It will deliver The Wall Street Journal
or the New York Times to you daily...
or you can just buy today's edition
and read in comfort with no ink stained fingers.

This thing rocks.

Did I mention the built in dictionary?
With two clicks I can look up unfamiliar words--
handy when your book was written in the 1800's.

Or the link to Wikipedia?

Or the free news links through the internet connection
that you can use almost anywhere
with no wires,
no computer,
just with the Kindle in your hands?

My friend Sparky is writing a book
and emailing me chapters.

I emailed the chapters to a free link
that then emailed them back to me in Kindle format...
so now her book is right there
with the Classics.

I also have the King James Bible...
the Amazon Kindle version with easy
referencing of book and chapter.

Less than four bucks.

So...perhaps I don't love my Kindle as much
as my chickens,
but I am mightily struck
with the way the world has changed
since Jules Verne's characters
traversed the globe in less than three months.