This week I acquired a shiny new toy!!! I scored an award from my company so FINALLY I could satiate my lust. My joy started with the box, pictured here. I’m such a sucker for gorgeous packaging and this was one of the best presentations I’ve seen thus far. The box was like a book itself, and as you can see below, it opens up to the Kindle on one side and the manuals (which I still haven’t opened since they are actually ON the Kindle) on the other. The manuals are wrapped in a slick onion-skin sheath. Overall the package is so beautiful that I’m loathe to discard it, but it’s not really made in such a way that it makes sense to re-use.

I have to wonder too, how much extra $$ is tacked onto the cost of the Kindle as a result of this over the top packaging. It’s odd for an item that isn’t on the shelves in a brick and mortar store. People aren’t swayed by seeing these beautiful boxes lined up on store shelf. They are sold on the device itself, so going to this kind of lengths to showcase the Kindle after purchase seems so strange to me.

But oh, the Kindle itself is pretty damn wonderful. It worked the second I plugged it in. Charging it took very little time but while I was doing so I was already able to access books I had purchased. Browsing the store was simple and navigating through my selections is quick and easy. You can change font size to super small or very large. And yes, it reads just like the print in a book. There isn’t a back light for it, which may seem strange, but that’s what gives it the flat, book-like print feel. You can read it in direct sunlight, which you can’t really do with a PDA or a laptop.

I bought a red leather cover for it, which is much better than the cover that it comes with, so if you are considering a Kindle, I do suggest that. The device is lighter than a paperback and just slightly larger.

Reading books is a breeze. I actually think I read faster than I normally do (which is pretty damn fast) because I’m not turning pages, just a quick click. That might seem odd, but when you read as quickly as I do, that page turn is a slow down–one that I never realized until I was able to thumb my way to the next words.

First books I snagged for my Kindle include:

• Imperium by Robert Harris  (fictional account of Cicero’s life)
• Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
• The Twisted Citadel by Sara Douglass
• Made to Stick by Chip Heath

The device will hold up to 200 books, magazines and blogs (I recommend you stick to books for the most part, but I do think the Amazon daily newspaper is interesting) and you can add even more if you use an SD card. I think that I’ll primarily use the Kindle for things like the fantasy fiction books I tend to like, marketing/work-related books and essentially, volumes that I don’t care if I have in hardback or not.

Overall, very very happy with my new little friend.