What's on Your "Kindle?"

Last year, I held off on buying the Amazon Kindle, because I knew the new and improved Kindle 2 was on its way in '09. So when the Kindle 2 was released a few weeks ago, boy was I ready to jump aboard the e-book bandwagon.

Only, I didn't jump.

Call me cheap, but despite the many great reviews about the Kindle 2, something bothered me about spending $359.00 for a specialized device that's designed for one main function. Then a couple of weeks ago a free Kindle was offered.

This time I jumped.

Well, it wasn't exactly a Kindle. More like a free iPhone app provided by Amazon that allows you to read Kindle formatted books. To be honest, this isn't the first time I've read an e-book. That disctinction goes to my Palm V days of yore. Nor is it the first e-book I've attempted to read on my iPhone. That distinction goes to "The Heart of Darkness" which I read last year. But it is the first time I've become hooked on reading an e-book

The image above is a screen shot of my free "Kindle." As you can see I've downloaded many a free chapter. And I've even bought a few ebooks. I finished my first Kindle book, Neil Gaiman'"s "Coraline" in slightly less than half a week. Granted that's a children's book. But a week and a half later, I'm almost halfway through a book on geopolitics by George Friedman called "The Next 100 Years."

Over the weekend, I saw an interview with the author of "What Would Google Do?" Within minutes I downloaded the sample chapter and read it over lunch. There's something to this Kindle stuff. So I'm back to my fundamental question: 2 Kindle 2 or not 2 Kindle 2?

Given the great experience I was pretty convinced I was going to Kindle 2 it. But then the rumors for an Apple Netbook has been hitting critical mass lately. So, I guess I can wait until the rumored Oct release date of the Apple iBook, iPod Touch HD, iPod Air or whatever they end up calling it.

Yes! I've decided not to decide.