Ebooks

Prologue

I broke down and bought a Kindle, the electronic book reader designed and sold by Amazon. I was somewhat interested in this device when it launched back in November, but Amazon sold out in five hours. Whether that's because of exceptional demand, or because Amazon only made eight, we'll never know. As a voting member of this year's World Science Fiction Convention, I recently received several books in electronic format for me to read and consider for the Hugo Award. (I tell people that I get to be a "superdelegate" for the big convention in Denver this fall.) As I spend way too many hours in front of a computer screen as it is, I figured this was as good an excuse as any to spring for an ebook reader. (Well, that, and an incurable love of gadgets.) It just so happened that Amazon had finally restocked the Kindle when I checked the web site on April 19th, so I decided to place the order. I selected the free two-day shipping, and my Kindle arrived a few days later.