Today's Kool Idea: Kindle 2

We at the DailyKool love to read all kinds of books, from romance to classics, science-fiction thrillers to autobiographies. Books can stimulate our imaginations and intellect, and is (in our opinion), the healthiest addiction to have and to instill in our children. Unfortunately, with technological advancements, there are so many other exciting and thrilling options available for entertainment, resulting in a loss of skill and passion for reading that is worth mourning.

Most of us have heard of Amazon's, commitment to bridge the gap between reading and technology with their innovative e-book reader called the Kindle. Launched in November of 2007, the Kindle sold out in its initial offering in 5 1/2 hours, and remained out of stock until April 2008. As of yesterday, Amazon's latest upgrade, the Kindle 2 is available nationwide to us voracious readers. Kindle 2 features improved battery life, 20% faster page-refreshing, an audio option for those of us who like our books read to us, and enough disk space to hold an estimated 1,500 books. Incredibly thin and lightweight, the Kindle 2 comes with over 240,000 books available for download. Amazon boasts many incredible features with this product, including a high-resolution electronic ink screen, adjustable text size, newspaper and magazine downloads, bookmark and annotation capacity, etc. With all these features and more, the Kindle 2 is arguably the best e-reader on the planet.

That said, the DailyKool must confess that we will probably not be purchasing this product just yet. Sure, we are impressed with the state of the art technology that Amazon has brought its customers...we are just unwilling to pay the hefty $359 (plus $9.99 per book) price tag for it. Though it is not a worthy investment for us, we can absolutely see its value for those with different lifestyles from ours, especially for the frequent business (or recreational) traveler. As Joseph Addison once said, "Reading is to the mind as exercise is to the body." The Kindle 2 is undoubtedly a really "kool" idea, and we applaud Amazon's continued efforts to keep us reading.