Kindle

So I finished my first book on my Kindle... in less than 24hrs. I can see my bank account diminishing as fast as my eyesight if I continue at this pace. I was so curious to see how reading an entire book on this slim plastic tablet compares to the paperback books I've known all my life. Was I ready to give up flipping pages, spine-bending to accommodate my tired hands, and overanalysis of cover art, wondering if I could think of a better suited visual?

I'm ready.

I think of myself as a highly adaptable person. I don't love change with certain things, but I'm always open to trying a newer, better way.  I'm not swearing off paper books at all, but this new toy might break all my past records for books read per month (and no more books piling on a bookshelf I'll never read again taking up space!) Thankfully, I'm a fast reader and a session will never be less than 50 pages at one sitting. Anything less and I can't get my mind into the story. I know I'm focused and into something when I have to stop, look up, and take a second to remember I'm at home, laying in bed, and not part of the story!

This whole concept still amazes me.  Not just the Kindle thing, but the entire internet/social media/never-ending stream of information hitting us from every angle. So much has changed in the past ten years. I remember being in middle school, and thinking the only thing I wanted was to bed able to sit in bed and chat on the Instant Messenger! Life was much more simple back then, but why didn't I think I could someday be sitting in bed, shopping from a cell phone, AND IMing at the same time?? Was I not thinking far enough outside the box? Was I not exploring the most creative depths of my imagination, and just stuck in the "now" of what was not possible?
It's nuts. Really nuts. I can hold a BlackBerry in one hand, an iPod in another, and in 5 minutes I can listen to a song, watch a video, and buy hundreds of dollars worth of whatever I want on whatever website I want, just like that. Not to mention telling everyone about my purchase via Facebook status update or Tweeting the awesome music video- all from the same two devices. I'm in awe of this because I remember a time when it didn't exist. I can understand most kids 10 and under are unphased by what I describe, but what shocks me even more are my own peers, who never stop to think of how fast all this information is flying at us. Is it too much? I think so, and I've had this discussion with others. Not that too much is a bad thing, but where does it stop? When do we throw up our hands and scream "Enough already!!"

I'm not quite there yet, but I want to walk that fine line where I'm in the know, and on top of the latest and greatest, without being a slave to the gadget. Or am I already falling behind the trend by sitting here and questioning how fast change is happening? I've never considered myself a person who needs all the newest things (I'm one of the last few remaining non-iPhone owners, I'm pretty sure), but even someone like me has enough to require a seperate basket to house all the cords/adapters/docking stations needed to power these things.  So two laptops, a BlackBerry, an iPod Touch, a Kindle, a Garmin GPS, a digital camera, and a digital SLR are all the items in this non-techie's toybox...?

What's next??

Courtesy of Google images... No Gameboy in this house!