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Taking chances on Amazon's Kindle

Amazon.com Kindle, courtesy of Amazon.comMake no doubt about it -- Amazon.com's Kindle is one of the hottest gadgets on the market these days, and I want one. Sales have reportedly been decent and the reviews are good, which is great news for a device looking to completely redesign and retool the way we feel about books.

I'm a big fan of hard covers and the smell of freshly printed pages, and I adore having a library of titles on shelves around my home for visitors to peruse, much in the same way a hunter displays various animal parts on his walls -- except in a much more tasteful way, of course.

But, the environmental voice in my head that's always-present cadence reminds me of my carbon footprint is very excited about the prospect of taking all these future books that I will no doubt be reading like a fish to water and using them, as Amazon intended with the name of it's proprietary gadget, as kindling instead of lugging them home from my local Barnes and Noble.

Of course, there is always room for hypocrisy -- the Kindle (winging its way to me as a not-so-surprising Christmas present) can replace the toss-aside chick-lit books that I fancy occasionally but have no desire to fess up to -- you know, like the old Grishams that end up gathering dust under the bed because who can feel good about throwing away a book? But, alas, there are just some books that you need to display like shining trophies of achievement -- the Complete Works of Shakespeare, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Twilight saga and, king of them all, my Harry Potter collection, of course, which currently resides in prominent display in my living room.

But, the idea that the Kindle could one day even replace text books makes me feel good about signing on to the soon-to-be 2nd-gen gadget while many others wait for the technology and marketplace to flesh out completely. I challenge you to make the same commitment to something -- if not a gadget like this, than to something slightly controversial that catches your eye.

One person might not break the branch, but if enough people go out on that same limb, it will break.















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“Taking chances on Amazon's Kindle”