Guess I was a good girl this year

 I got my Christmas present early from John this year.  He ordered it on Amazon and it arrived on Tuesday.  He was too excited to wait until Christmas, so we had Christmas on Tuesday.  I've been talking about this for months.  Comparing it at 3 different companies.  I decided I was going to wait until after Christmas, then start putting money aside for it.  After all, it's nearly $300 and I don't have $300 laying around.  But John, that wonderful, fabulous man bought it for me!!!  I suppose all those daily trips to Philly after working all day and all the nights I spent in the hospital by his side have paid off!

John bought me a Kindle!!!  YAY!!!  I'm a happy happy girl!  A Kindle is an electronic book.  A computer book, if you will.  It has wifi to go to the Kindle store and buy books, magazines and newspapers and blogs.  Many of the books are free (so far what I've found are the classics... Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer, etc).  

 You know how when you want to buy a book that's just come out and sometimes you can't because they've sold out and you have to get on a list to get it?   With the Kindle, I can download the book and have it in about a minute!   A new book, or a NY Times bestseller sells for $9.99 (in the store, they'd be $25 to $30).  Many books sell for less.  There are thousands that are free!  Someone gave me a website that lists all the books you can get for free. 

I'm not a magazine person or a newspaper gal either, so chances are, I won't be getting any of those.

You can download audio books from audibles.com.  I think you can also download books from your library by downloading to your computer and transferring them to the Kindle.  Right now, I have 5 books on my Blackberry.  One of them is nearly finished, so I'm going to test it on that one.  If it works, I'll transfer the other 4.

The Kindle will also convert some books from text to voice and you can chose male or female voices.  The one I'm reading now (U IS For Undertow by Sue Grafton) does not allow the conversion.  If it works nicely, I can listen to books on my drive back and forth to John's house ( approx an hour each way) 

There are 2 other electronic readers out there.  Barnes and Noble has The Nook and Borders has The Sony Digital Reader.  All are very similar, but the Kindle held more books.  I did just learn that you can get the Sony reader at Staples and Best Buy and Amazon, as well as other places.

So, I have 1 book on my kindle right now and I have Going Rogue on pre-order (shut up everyone about that!  I like her and that's my right.  Don't make me start putting Obama jokes on my blog every day!)  I also ordered a very pretty plum cover for my Kindle and ear phones, so I can listen and not disturb other folks.

I did spoil John a bit too.  This isn't a one way street ya know!   He received an electric blanket (to keep his hands and feet warm... neuropathy from diabetes and chemo make them feel cold all the time), the 2nd season of Star Trek Next Generation, Isotoner Thinsulate leather gloves, the 3rd season of Have Gun, Will Travel (shhh... he doesn' t know about that one!) and 2 Politically Incorrect Guide books.  Yeah, I know, I spoil him... but I think he's worth it!