FYI: A Portable Library of Ancient History?
What is as small and light as a paperback, reads almost like a book, can contain 200 volumes of ancient history, and makes it possible for you to acquire any of these volumes in less than a minute? The answer is a popular new electronic device called the KINDLE. Touted as a "revolutionary new wireless reading device" by Amazon.com, it's screen image looks like the print on the pages of a traditional book. You can wirelessly purchase and download your selected books, periodicals, etc. inside of a minute. You can permanently store up to 200 volumes of books. It is portable (weighs less than a paperback). You can select from as many as 465 books about ancient history, such as the book "Letters of the Great Kings of the Ancient Near East", or from an inventory of over 6700 books about history, generally. If you read and collect books as much as I do over time, this thing would probably pay for itself within a reasonable period of time in terms of both cost and space (not to mention the instantaneous delivery of your book). Not a bad deal. The downside: It's not cheap -- it costs about $400; it is in such high demand these days that the vendor runs out of stock quickly and you may have to be placed on a wait list until new orders arrive; and it's inventory (although over 90,000 books strong) may not contain everything you may want......at least for now (it continues to expand). If you travel frequently and you love to read, I suppose it is a no-brainer. As for me, I'll have to wait until after Christmas to receive it. Last time I checked, they were temporarily out of stock and awaiting another order.
