I was able to pick out most of my own gifts this Christmas, so I looked around for a bit, and finally settled on an Amazon Kindle. The Kindle is an ebook reader that also allows you to play games, surf the internet, and listen to music. It does more, too, but I really just wanted it for the books.

I bought the Kindle 2, got it delivered two days later, and then spent most of the evening trying to pry into the box in a way that would make it look like I wasn’t trying to pry into the box. No such luck. Mark wrapped it the next day, and it sat in our laundry room for a couple nights before Christmas.

Shortly after the Kindle shipped, I got an email from Amazon. I could start loading it up with books while it was still being shipped. I headed over to Amazon, and started looking around.

I bought the Kindle for the free books. Amazon always has a couple dozen free books available for Kindle users, and they almost all looked interesting. By the time I opened the box Christmas morning, I had 12 free books on there. It’s been just over a week, and I now have 30, not counting the older classic (public domain) which are free all the time.

With 30 free books, at an average of $10 a piece if I were to actually buy paper copies, the Kindle has already paid for itself. In a week. Which is way more than I expected. The screen is really easy to read, and I like being able to increase the font size for late-night reading sessions, once my eyes have started to get tired from staring at my computer screen all day.

I’m not giving up regular books; far from it. I’ve added a half dozen books to my (already full) shelves in the past week or so, with Christmas. But if I run out of reading material, and just need something quick and cheap, I will definitely purchase a new Kindle title. I read 4-5 books a week, and having such a wide selection of new books is thrilling. I love my Kindle.